On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana, and the entire Gulf coast. More than 1,800 people died and thousands more were permanently displaced. In the years since, that city regained only two-thirds of its pre-hurricane population. But this tragedy for multitudes was a gift to powerful people who wanted to turn New Orleans into Exhibit A for neo-liberalism. Continue reading
Steven Salaita is a renowned academic in the field of Native American Studies. That is why the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) hired him in 2013 as a tenured associate professor in the American Indian Studies Program. Salaita resigned from his previous position and had every reason to believe that he was on his way to Illinois. However he was terminated on August 1, 2014. Continue reading
The nuclear energy agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations has finally concluded and the moment is bitter sweet. Iran’s sovereignty should have been respected and it should not be forced to make concessions for doing what it always had a right to do. Iran has as much right as Israel or any other country to produce nuclear material or even nuclear weapons. But it was impossible to withstand the onslaught of crippling sanctions and the loss of $100 billion in funds that were frozen under pressure from the United States. Continue reading
The United States used the Al Anad airbase in Yemen as the staging area for drone attacks which killed some 1,000 people since 2009. Those crimes were committed under the guise of fighting terrorism but now that same place is the location of karmic justice for the American government and its ally, Saudi Arabia. United States Special Forces fled from Al Anad before it was overrun by Ansar Allah rebels, also known as the Houthis. Continue reading
Does the entertainment industry have an Uncle Tom clause for black performers? That certainly seems to be the case, with endless jaw dropping comments uttered by famous black people recently. One may call himself “new black,” another doesn’t mind being called “nigger,” and another says the end of racism depends upon black people showing love to white people. Continue reading
Despite the all-encompassing belief in democracy and a free press, Americans have very little democracy left and perhaps the worst media in the world. Even people who make efforts to be informed don’t know what is happening domestically and internationally because of the constant lies and disinformation they are exposed to by the corporate media. They act as spokespersons for the powerful instead of providing analysis and information for readers and viewers. The result is a world turned upside down, with lies being sold as the truth. Libya is just the latest example of press malfeasance. Continue reading
Craig Hicks was a human time bomb in his Chapel Hill, North Carolina, neighborhood. He was constantly spoiling for a fight, about noise or parking or anything else that he found irritating. Hicks was always armed, a resident of an “open carry” state which allowed him to wear a holstered gun anywhere at any time. On February 10, 2015, Hicks turned himself in to the police and confessed to murdering three people that day. Continue reading
The United States and the rest of NATO gambled when they took sides in Ukraine’s 2014 political crisis. American fingerprints were clearly seen on the coup which sent an elected president into exile. The West succeeded in putting Petro Poroshenko in the presidency, then showered his nearly bankrupt country with money and sat back hoping to see a puppet regime firmly in place on Russia’s border. Continue reading
Saudi Arabia is clearly of great importance to the government of the United States. President Obama not only cut short his India trip to visit with newly installed King Salman, but brought along a who’s who of administration officials and congressional leaders for the ride. Secretary of State John Kerry, former secretaries Condoleezza Rice and James Baker, Vice President Joseph Biden, Senator John McCain, Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and CIA director John Brennan were all part on the entourage. All that fire power was devoted to a visit which lasted for just a few hours. The show of force was not coincidental. Continue reading
Mass killer Chris Kyle should have been forgotten when he was killed by another Iraq war veteran in 2013. Kyle became rich and famous after he spoke and wrote publicly about the record 160 kills he committed in America’s war of terror in Iraq. He was the subject of the book, American Sniper: the Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, and enjoyed celebrity status until his death. Continue reading
The Espionage Act was a nearly 100-year-old historic relic until Barack Obama came to office. The legislation was used by his predecessors in only three whistle-blower prosecutions after it was enacted in 1917. Obama has used it in seven prosecutions in six years in office and never for actual instances of espionage. Continue reading
Don’t kill white people. After all is said and done, the Charlie Hebdo outrage, the hashtags, and the million person marches amount to that simple but very powerful dictum. In the eyes of the governments that do most of the killing on the planet and the corporate media who act as their scribes, there is nothing worse than targeting even a handful of white people for death. Continue reading
The false narrative about the need for hyper policing has come crashing down and police themselves destroyed the well-cultivated propaganda. The awful truth which black people were well aware of is now out in the open for all to see. Police departments in the United States exist for the purpose of maintaining white people’s prerogatives as the group in control of everyone else. Enhancing public safety is a secondary consideration. Continue reading
On December 17, 2014, the Obama administration announced changes in relations with Cuba which broke with over fifty years of foreign policy decisions. The United States will open an embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961. All of the Cuban Five political prisoners are now free. While Congress must approve a complete end of the trade embargo, some trade restrictions have already been loosened. Continue reading
For nearly six years black Americans have supported President Barack Obama overwhelmingly, only to be treated with disdain. He has gotten away with this disrespect because of misplaced allegiance to racial solidarity and racist attacks against him. But the day of reckoning may have finally arrived via Ferguson, Missouri. Continue reading
No one is more deserving of public scorn and ignominy than Bill Cosby. The poisonous words he directed at black people make him unfit for sympathy or protection from the group which he has dedicated himself to slandering. Continue reading
If a picture is worth 1,000 words the photo above proves the old adage to be true. This image encapsulates so much that is wrong with the so-called leaders of the black political class. Each of the three men depicted make a mockery of any claim to be allies of black people. Continue reading
Black people in this country are brutalized by police on a daily basis. That has always been true but thanks to modern technology there is a steady stream of proof caught on video. Accessing the Internet means inevitably being confronted with awful imagery such as Marlene Pinnock being beaten by a highway patrolman in California. We see Eric Garner murdered by the NYPD, pleading that he couldn’t breathe. Continue reading
Sierra Leone has waved the white flag in the face of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Its meager infrastructure has buckled under the onslaught of a disease which could have been curtailed. The announcement that infected patients will be treated at home because there is no longer the capacity to treat them in hospitals is a surrender which did not have to happen. Not only did Europe and the United States turn a blind eye to sick and dying Africans but they did so with the help of an unlikely perpetrator. Continue reading
Barack Obama is nearing the end of his second and last term in the White House. With just a little more than two years before he leaves office, his top cabinet members and aides have begun making the inevitable exit for more lucrative pastures. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that he will resign after a successor is nominated and confirmed. Continue reading
It is true today and was true in the past. The most celebrated political figures in this country, including those called blue blooded, elite or patrician, were mostly criminals. The descendants of the Mayflower ought to be ashamed of their heritage instead of bragging about their ancestors who began the genocide of indigenous people. The earliest American presidents Washington, Jefferson and Madison, earned their wealth through slave holding. Their successors in the office of the presidency either acquiesced to the slave holding interests or actively protected them until a bloody civil war put an end to their dirty work. Continue reading
Few people outside of the St. Louis, Missouri, area had heard of the town of Ferguson before August 9, 2014. On that day 18-year old Michael Brown was shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson. Brown was shot six times, and after he was killed the police left his uncovered body to lie in the street for four hours. Continue reading
Can America ever overcome its terrible history of conquest, genocide and enslavement? Those horrors are deeply embedded in the American psyche and legal system, and allow for repeated aggressions at home and abroad. This columnist was reminded of the roots of this never ending terror during a recent trip to Alabama. Continue reading
Time’s up, or so planet earth seems to be telling humanity. Extreme weather conditions around the globe, including rising temperatures, droughts, crop failures, melting sea ice, rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers and the loss of plant and animal species all point in only one direction. The tipping point towards the sixth great extinction is taking place right now. Continue reading
On July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian empire declared war on Serbia and began a four-year-long war which engulfed Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, North America, Asia and Australia. The conflict came to be known as World War I, the Great War, the war to end all wars. World War I brought such horrors as trench warfare, the use of aviation as a weapon, poison gas attacks and the flame thrower. Technological advances were used to evil effect against millions of people. Continue reading
The chaos created by United States interventions is never ending and every act of aggression brings the world closer to mass conflict. As is always the case with its interference, the American effort to destabilize Russia has created unforeseen and dangerous consequences. Just as support for jihadists complicated the imperial project in Syria and Iraq, the United States’ instigated war between Russia and Ukraine has spiraled out of the West’s control. Continue reading
Many Americans love to think that their country is the epitome of progress, democracy, and enlightenment. Millions of people will say that this is “the greatest country in the world.” These words are obviously born of ignorance and a belief in the superiority of the ultimate white settler state. Continue reading
June 30, 2014, will go down in history as a day when two truly horrendous Supreme Court decisions were handed down. Both cases will have lasting and devastating impacts on Americans but the Republican right wing is not solely to blame for the damage done. Continue reading
The ugly face of empire and disaster capitalism is visible all over the world. Detroit, Michigan, was once a thriving city but was sent into a tailspin by the deindustrialization of the United States, white flight, and institutional racism which blamed black people who were in fact the victims of catastrophe. The coup de grace was delivered by big banks like UBS, Bank of America and Barclays, which sold risky derivatives schemes to corrupt Detroit politicians. When the financial deal inevitably headed south, the banks were the creditors first in line for a payout. Continue reading
Beginning in 1991, the United States government brought what has become a never ending hell to Iraq. President George H.W. Bush’s war that year was followed by devastating sanctions which were continued by presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. It was bad enough that 500,000 children died because of shortages of food and medicine but, in 2003, Bush the younger and his henchmen and women rolled the dice on invasion and an occupation that lasted for more than ten years. The Project for a New American Century, the 21st century version of Manifest Destiny, demanded a Pax Americana which set out to make the United States the master of the world. Continue reading
Supposedly progressive politics in New York offer a cautionary tale for leftists across the country. The Empire State has a Democrat-in-name-only governor, Andrew Cuomo, and a mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, who gets more credit for being progressive than he deserves. New York also boasts a party, Working Families, whose name implies integrity it doesn’t possess. Continue reading
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Freedom Rider: Bernie Sanders’ conservative foreign policy
Posted on August 31, 2015 by Margaret Kimberley
It is obvious that Bernie Sanders functions as the political “sheepdog” of the 2016 presidential election. The sheepdog makes certain that otherwise disillusioned Democrats are energized enough to stay in line and support the eventual candidate, in this case Hillary Clinton. That is reason enough to oppose his campaign but it isn’t the only one. A hard look at Sanders on foreign policy issues shows that he is a progressive poseur, a phony, a conservative Democrat, and not a socialist by any means. Continue reading →