Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote of being leery of a fast-talking huckster who visited his home: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons,” Emerson exclaimed. Continue reading
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Big business won’t save us from itself
Nearly 200 CEOs have signed a pledge to ‘do better’ than serving their own greed. How? They won’t say.
No letup in media war on Iran
Establishment media vilify nonbelligerent nations, threatening no one on the US target list for regime change—supporting imperial wars and other hostile actions instead of denouncing them. Continue reading
‘Unfortunate but not surprising’: Sanders responds to report Biden-linked firm poll testing attacks on Medicare for All
A senior advisor to the Sanders campaign said it was ‘disgusting’ that the former vice president's campaign would be "echoing bogus GOP talking points."
Sen. Bernie Sanders hit back Monday after news broke that the centrist group Third Way is focus-testing attacks on Medicare for All to see what will stick, using a firm with close ties to former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Continue reading
American voters apparently fear Sanders’ ‘socialism’
A Hart/McInturf (NBC/WSJ) poll of 900 registered American voters, issued on September 22, shows apparent negative consequences for Bernie Sanders’s characterizing his views as “democratic socialist” as opposed to his instead calling them “progressive,” though the two characterizations are actually the same in meaning. The “socialism” phrasing apparently still triggers a Cold War response in millions of Americans, even among many who actually favor progressive policy proposals. (Perhaps they equate democratic socialism, such as in Sweden, with dictatorial socialism, such as in the former Soviet Union. If so, Sanders should just drop the “socialism” term altogether, so as not to confuse those people about the ideology that he represents. The “socialism” term is gratuitous and counterproductive for him.) Continue reading
The threat of Bolton has receded—but not the threat of war
Bolton’s bellicose worldview is the basic operating system of the Trump administration.
John Bolton tried his best. Continue reading
U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan
The warriors who conducted this drone strike from a safe distance in the U.S. without any danger to themselves other than their moral conscience if they have one are henceforth “heroes.” “Thank you for your service.” Continue reading
Trump’s new national security advisor is dangerous, but he’s the current norm
Why one must be evil to be a leading scholar of international relations
Robert O’Brien is a respected authority on international relations and now replaces John Bolton as U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor. He is a neoconservative who feels that Barack Obama wasn’t nearly enough of a neocon. However, the differences between the two are a matter of degree, and not of type. O’Brien is a Republican who served in the Obama administration as well as in the G.W. Bush administration, and in the Trump administration, and he represents only mainstream U.S. scholarly views about international relations. Continue reading
Spy vs spy vs spy: The mysterious Mr. Smolenkov
A new spy story has been making the rounds in Washington, but this time it involved a brave Russian official who was allegedly recruited while in the Russian Embassy in Washington in 2007 and then worked secretly for the CIA until he was exfiltrated safely in 2017 lest he be discovered and caught. The tale was clearly leaked by the agency itself to CNN by way of “multiple Trump administration officials.” Continue reading
Pro-nuke holocaust denier Cory Booker must not be president
Senator Cory Booker has become a pro-nuke holocaust denier and must not be president or vice. Continue reading
25 ways the Canadian health care system is better than Obamacare for the 2020 elections
Everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital. It will produce far less anxiety, dread, and fear. Can you hear that, Congress and the White House?
Dear America: Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare, and although it has improved access to healthcare for some, tens of millions of Americans still cannot afford basic medical care for their family. No healthcare system is without problems but Canadian-style single-payer—full Medicare for all—is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal for all basic and emergency medical and hospital services. Continue reading
Why Trump can’t learn: An educated guess by a veteran teacher
Dyslexia may explain a lot about the twisted behavior of the president.
While dyslexia has been mentioned now and then as one of the reasons Donald Trump is so ignorant of what it takes to govern in a free society, I want to explore it as foundational to his inability to learn and grow while in office—and also as a way to link disparate troubling elements in his makeup. Continue reading
Desperate central bankers grab for more power
Conceding that their grip on the economy is slipping, central bankers are proposing a radical economic reset that would shift yet more power from government to themselves. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: The electability canard
Hapless Joe Biden has always failed in his presidential bids, but is hyped as supremely “electable” this time around because Democratic elites fear and loath Bernie Sanders. Continue reading
Martial law masquerading as law and order: The police state’s language of force
Forget everything you’ve ever been taught about free speech in America. Continue reading
Apartheid made official: ‘Deal of the Century’ is a ploy and annexation is the new reality
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving quickly to alter the political reality in Palestine, and facing little or no resistance. Continue reading
The secret GOP plan to keep power
In 2020, we need to pay attention to state elections as well as elections for president and Congress. State elections could decide whether the Republican Party further corrupts American democracy. Continue reading
Will Americans let Trump start World War III for Saudi Arabia and Israel?
On Saturday, September 14, two oil refineries and other oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia were hit and set ablaze by 18 drones and 7 cruise missiles, dramatically slashing Saudi Arabia’s oil production by half, from about ten million to five million barrels per day. On September 18, the Trump administration, blaming Iran, announced it was imposing more sanctions on Iran and voices close to Donald Trump are calling for military action. But this attack should lead to just the opposite response: urgent calls for an immediate end to the war in Yemen and an end to US economic warfare against Iran. Continue reading
The new heresy that threatens the entire European continent
In all the hullabaloo of Brexit and its associated parliamentary infighting, little noticed has been how Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson are attempting to change the very nature of the UK political landscape. Of course, the Brexit angst is making the attempt to leverage a strategic political shift much more visible, and more acute. Yet, actually the changes are not wholly, or even predominantly Brexit related, but reflect underlying tectonic plates clashing. Continue reading
Wealth that concentrates kills
Two new official reports out of Washington trace our growing economic divide and the high price we pay, in dollars and lives, for letting that divide fester.
The weight of the wealth that sits at the top of America’s economic order isn’t just squeezing dollars out of the wallets of average Americans. That concentrated wealth is shearing years off of American lives. Continue reading
CIA back to ‘Three Stooges’ type antics?
The Central Intelligence Agency, founded largely by a bunch of self-entitled graduates of America’s Ivy League universities and alum of secretive fraternities – particularly Yale and the Skulls and Bones — appears to be re-indulging in some of its worst antics of the Cold War years. Many CIA plank owners joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, a convenient way for them to avoid combat and killing Nazis, for whom they had some ideological sympathies. Continue reading
When Donald Trump came by my house for a chat
Satire
I suppose I could have been dreaming it, but my conversation with Donald Trump was as real as anything. He walked into my bedroom like he owned the place, and startled me, still in bed but I felt wide awake. Continue reading
The chaos theory behind fascism
The disclosure by the British Parliament of the “Most Sensitive” Operation YELLOWHAMMER document describes a United Kingdom ripe for the machinations of Britain’s proto fascists, who make up a large part of the Tory government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. YELLOWHAMMER’s prediction of economic and social chaos in the United Kingdom resulting from a hard-British exit (BREXIT) from the European Union will have dire consequences for the rule of law and democracy throughout the United Kingdom. Continue reading
Fears of ‘collateral damage to democracy’ as Trump weighs withdrawing from global postal pact
Election officials fear thousands of votes could go uncounted if the president leaves the Universal Postal Union
Thousands of absentee ballots could be uncounted in upcoming elections thanks to President Donald Trump’s objection to a treaty which governs the international mail exchange for nearly 200 countries. Continue reading
Biden’s brain is swiss cheese and it’s creepy that we’re not talking about it
I didn’t watch the last Democratic presidential primary debates because I figured that without Tulsi Gabbard in there shaking things up it would be a boring, vapid parade of insubstantial verbal foam, and I love myself too much to go through such a horrible ordeal. By all accounts my prediction was correct, but I did miss one thing that’s been making the rounds in video clips for the last couple of days which I find absolutely bizarre. Continue reading
Avalanche-level liar Trump learned art of deception from the pros: US corporations
Before there was Trump there was a corporate stranglehold on false claims and campaigns that had a singular purpose to mislead
For avalanche-level lying, deceiving, and misleading, mega-mimic Donald Trump need look no further than the history of the corporate advertising industry and the firms that pay them. Continue reading
Reasons for optimism
If stagnant wages, near-record inequality, climate change, nuclear buildups, assault weapons, mass killings, trade wars, opioid deaths, Russian intrusions into American elections, kids locked in cages at our border, and Donald Trump in the White House don’t at least occasionally cause you feelings of impending doom, you’re not human. Continue reading
Assange to remain in UK prison beyond release date
On orders from Washington, Julian Assange is being slowly killed—by UK and US dark forces in cahoots with each other. Continue reading
In ‘disgusting’ move, Jeff Bezos abruptly cuts health benefits for nearly 2,000 part-time Whole Foods workers
‘I am in shock. I've worked here 15 years. This is why I keep the job—because of my benefits.’
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday cut benefits for part-time workers at his grocery chain Whole Foods, drawing criticism from the left for a move that could leave thousands of people without health insurance. Continue reading
Why America’s military capabilities are failing
On 17 January 1961, US President Dwight Eisenhower famously introduced the phrase “military-industrial complex”, referring to what he said might become a threat to American democracy—a takeover of the US government by a “complex,” composed of generals and other national-security brass on the one side, and corporations such as Lockheed and their financiers, on the other. That warning turned out to have been prophetic. Continue reading
Why Palestinians are not watching Israeli polls
Whoever wins will work to crush all remnants of Palestinian hopes for independent state
Today, Israelis will cast their ballots for the second time in five months due to the inability of the incumbent, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to form a coalition following elections in April. A high turnout looks unlikely when many voters complain of election-fatigue and the two front-running parties sing from a similar dirge-like song book. Continue reading
Trump the Russian puppet: A story that just will not die
Certainly, there are many things that President Donald Trump can rightly be criticized for, but it is interesting to note how the media and chattering classes continue to be in the grip of the highly emotional but ultimately irrational “Trump derangement syndrome (TDS).” TDS means that even the most ridiculous claims about Trump behavior can be regurgitated by someone like Jake Tapper or Rachel Maddow without anyone in the media even daring to observe that they are both professional dissemblers of truth who lie regularly to enhance their professional resumes. Continue reading
Trump is a clear and present danger to America and the world
Posted on September 25, 2019 by Robert Reich
In retrospect, what’s most disturbing about “Sharpiegate” isn’t Donald Trump’s clumsy effort to doctor a National Weather Service map or even his brazen move to get the same agency to lie on his behalf. It’s how utterly petty his motive was. Continue reading →