A 28-year-old man born of a single, white, 19-year-old woman and an African American father had a rough (to say the least) upbringing. Now that he is doing well financially and at the same time gaining in consciousness, Colin Kaepernick speaks up and speaks out. Continue reading
In most cases satire reveals so many hidden truths. Such is the case with the 1997 Barry Levinson film Wag the Dog. Obviously done as a spoof on the Bill Clinton sexual imbroglio with Ms. Lewinsky and the damage control done to modify it. The inner meaning of the film reveals just how foolish the Amerikan public is and how susceptible many are to well thought out propaganda. Well, isn’t that how we really are folks? Continue reading
Remember the famous 1950′s film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”? It was produced to show the American public just how terrible Communism was. The fear card was played by having the pods suck away knowledge, along with the very essence individualism . . . as they slept. The victims of the pods became apathetic , with no passion or rational thinking mechanisms . . . just automatons (a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being).The main character in the movie became almost mad with a drive to stay awake and escape a city filled with these creatures. At film’s end, he does escape the town, but, as he is telling his story to the authorities, we see trucks driving down the highway filled with more and more pods. Continue reading
My best friend from our hometown of New York City is a staunch Sanders supporter. He and I usually agree on most progressive ideals, except for his (oh how I don’t like to use that P word) Pragmatism. Continue reading
Empires especially have always used propaganda to control and influence the populace. It takes courage for a minority of ‘truth tellers’ to speak up. For too long many of we who ‘know better’ have remained silent on who the real heroes are. Continue reading
A pragmatist is the guy in front of the firing squad who asks for a blindfold: “If you can’t see the firing party, perhaps it isn’t happening!” Channel surfing the other night (without a blindfold) I caught two political events on C-SPAN. Continue reading
Interesting how right after the UK’s Chilcot Inquiry (on the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq) came out, we had news of more police-related killings here in Amerika. Many would offer the rebuttal that one has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Well, allow me to explain my theory. Continue reading
Well, for all you nice and decent progressives and socialists on both sides of the pond, time to wake up! We cannot reform or realign the Democratic Party or Britain’s Labor Party! Bernie and Jeremy made the usual ‘ ghastly error ‘ of thinking it can be done. Continue reading
One should view Wagner DeAssis’s 2011 Portuguese film “Astral City” . . . especially great for those of us who dissent against injustice. Isn’t that a contradiction some would ask? Perhaps, if dissent is meant to be the sole possession of atheists, agnostics and 100% humanists. Yet, for those of us who study the teachings of many religions, especially Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism to name but a few, maybe belief in a spiritual universe and the need to speak out against injustice does in fact go ‘hand in hand’. Continue reading
The world has always been somewhat crazy. Each century has had its share of violence, greed, exploitation, etc. Yet, as most philosophers and spiritual thinkers tell us, the more we proceed into the future, the more we should evolve and progress, not regress. Well, the 20th century sure killed that theory, didn’t it? Two major world wars, with the disgraceful phenomenon of a Nazi regime in one of the most industrialized nations sure upset that apple cart. Then, a Cold War between the two major 20th century powers held the entire planet back from real and fruitful progress. Alas, this new century, only a mere 16 years old, seems to be regressing upon that same terrible path. Continue reading
Interesting that it was in 1931 that the infant cereal Pablum was introduced to U.S. families. A few years earlier, Adolf Hitler made the below comments, (quoted in the fine book by Richard Evans, ‘The Coming of the Third Reich.’ Continue reading
Do this exercise for a minute: Take all the money you have on you and lay it on a table. Then count it. Then give half of it to your spouse or partner and say, “Spend it for a good cause.” Now, let a little time go by and then ask that person how they spent it, your personal money. Do you think you might just care how and what they spent it on? Of course you would. Most of us would care about how our hard earned money was spent. Continue reading
As a left-wing columnist I was warned many times not to speak of things from a spiritual or religious perspective. Yet, why must we who care about the morality of this our beloved nation have to ‘tread lightly’ in that arena? Continue reading
In the world of sports, they call drugs and illegal supplements that ‘enhance’ the body’s strength and endurance PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs). Well, empire’s need these things too. Boy, has our empire got them! Continue reading
For generations schoolchildren have been taught the folk tale of Henny Penny, a.k.a. Chicken Little, running around declaring, “The sky is falling.” The sky never was falling and Chicken Little was made a fool . . . until the sky indeed did begin falling . . . and no one believed Chicken Little . . . until of course it was too late. Such is the case in our current state of affairs here in Amerika 2016. For years many astute writers have warned us about this Military Industrial Empire . . . and only a minority of Americans would listen. Ever wonder why? Continue reading
Barack was tired. Year seven of his presidency was coming to a close. The world and the nation was in such turmoil no matter where he turned, and then he had to deal with Donald Trump’s craziness. Yet, politics is what it is: A never ending series of compromise and accommodation. Clinton (Bill that is . . . well Hillary too for that matter) had taught him that this was the way it is and that was that, so why bother? It was late and he was really tired. He needed to finish drinking his nightcap and go to sleep. After he rang for the White House butler, he gathered up some notes for an upcoming speech and . . . Continue reading
Baby boomers like myself remember urban Main Street America. In our neighborhoods of Brooklyn, N.Y., we had the appearance of little villages. The main shopping avenues were lined with Mom and Pop retail stores. You wanted bread… we had Italian, Jewish and German bakeries. You wanted fruit…. you went to the neighborhood fruit and produce store. Needed women’s wear…. a ladies shop. We had men’s shops, tailors to fit you for a suit or pants, handbag stores, leather shops, jewelry shops, hardware stores, paint stores, neighborhood pharmacies, where they delivered your medicine, coffee shops, pizza parlors, Jewish delis, German delis, Italian pork stores… Anything you wanted, you could get on Main Street . Continue reading
For those who have read my previous work you know how I feel about landlords, especially absentee ones . . . and most especially corporate ones! Continue reading
From the Tuesday, July 9, 2013, USA Today Money Section: “Big investors have poured more than $ 10 billion into the single family home rental market in recent years . . . The biggest, the Blackstone Group, has bought 29,000 homes in 13 markets, 25,000 of them in the past year.” Continue reading
We are living in an empire that takes no prisoners. Sadly, the majority of we working stiffs still follow the hypocrites, thieves and liars like lemmings. These so called leaders play their magic flutes and hypnotize us with hype and false hope, as we fall over the cliff of reason. Continue reading
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote: “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Continue reading
Terrorism: The Political use of terror and intimidation. So goes the definition of something that can consist of much more than just the use of violence to control others. Continue reading
Oh my goodness. All we get thrown at us through this controlled mainstream media is dribble. I mean, here we have the states and cities of our fine nation broke and searching for ways to stay above water. The headlines tell us that now the state governments, due to not enough funding coming from Uncle Sam for infrastructure repairs, want to implement tolls or raise the ones already in place. Continue reading
Just watched Andrew Niccol’s new film Good Kill. In it we have an Air Force unit stationed in Las Vegas that monitors the Taliban through satellites 7,000 miles away . . . then presses the button and shoots drone missiles at them . . . and kills them. Of course, as the film suggests, good kills many times include what war criminal Donald Rumsfeld referred to as collateral damage. This of course being anyone and everyone who happened to be with or near the target that their CIA handlers referred to as ‘The Prosecution.’ Unreal, but real as can be! Continue reading
Peter Longerich’s 2015 biography ‘Goebbels’ instructs well how history can and does repeat itself. Continue reading
Channel surfing, I caught a Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Iowa. Halfway into her Q & A she commented on our nation’s problem concerning violence. Of course, her conclusion was that we need stricter gun controls with better background checks and waiting periods. . . . Yet, what she and all of the phony ’empire embedded’ media failed to acknowledge (or perhaps even understand) is just why we are such a violent nation. Continue reading
Just finished reading Ann Rule’s book on serial killer Ted Bundy, a man she knew as a coworker and friend way back when in Washington State. Of course, Ann did not have the slightest inkling that this fine, intelligent, charming and empathetic soul (they worked together for a suicide hotline) could commit the most gruesome and enraged murders of young women . . . over and over again. Continue reading
You know things must really be getting bad when the mainstream media starts asking questions. Even if the questions dance around the truth a bit, it still is powerful to see it there. The August 10 issue of USA Today on page 5A had this title: More Americans turning to dentures to get, keep jobs. Now, this in itself is a bit of a con job by the writer and editor of that paper. Continue reading
Two novels made into films are a must read: George Orwell’s 1984 and Jack Finney’s Body Snatchers . Both of these stories, in ironically similar and differing ways, hypothesized how life would be under totalitarian regimes. Another irony is that, when written, these novels were focusing on communism in the Soviet Union. Well, things have certainly changed haven’t they? Continue reading
Just watched Alex Gibney’s new documentary on Scientology, “Going Clear.” Continue reading
Americans love to be diverted. Continue reading
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Good cops/bad cops
Posted on September 14, 2016 by Philip A Farruggio
In John Sayles 1987 film “Matewan,” concerning the 1920 coal miners’ strike in West Virginia, not all cops were of the same ilk as the Baldwin-Felts private detectives. Those ‘rent a cops’ were deputized by the authorities, at the behest of the powerful mining companies, as an occupying force to control and torment the miners . . . Bad cops! The local police chief understood the deprivation the strikers faced. When these ‘deputies’ came out to evict a family from a company owned home, the chief forced them away at gunpoint . . . Good cop! Continue reading →