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Belgium is on the right track, but Europe has failed Palestine
The Belgian government’s decision on November 25 to label products made in illegal Israeli Jewish settlements is welcome, although it will ultimately prove ineffectual. Continue reading
Trump Supreme Court justices all but admit that they’ll kill women’s choice
WASHINGTON—Declaring they would never give up the fight for reproductive choice and legal abortion, approximately 1,000 pro-choice advocates literally ringed the Supreme Court building to publicize their cause, hours after the six right-wing justices on the nine-member Court indicated they were ready to end abortion rights in much if not all of the country, starting with upholding the restrictive Mississippi law. Continue reading
Congress ‘asleep at the switch’ as Biden continues Trump-era ploy to privatize Medicare
More than 1,500 physicians warn that the experiment threatens "the future of Medicare as we know it."
A Trump-era pilot program that could result in the complete privatization of traditional Medicare in a matter of years is moving ahead under the Biden administration, a development that—despite its potentially massive implications for patients across the U.S.—has received scant attention from the national press or Congress. Continue reading
Greed is prolonging the pandemic
The longer it takes the world to get vaccinated, the more variants we’ll see.
Stop me if this sounds familiar. Continue reading
Humanity is still trying to be born
Things are fucked. That’s our current situation in a nutshell. Continue reading
China is not colonizing Africa
International media cannot be trusted to give accurate information. Skepticism is especially warranted when China is the topic and allegations of colonizing Africa make headlines.
International media are reporting that the Ugandan government has turned over Entebbe airport to a Chinese bank in order to make payment on a loan. “Museveni to surrender Uganda’s only international airport over Chinese loan,” claimed The Guardian. Similar headlines have appeared widely and all repeat as fact an allegation that Uganda will lose its airport to Exim bank. Continue reading
Rittenhouse and verdict mania
Black people give great attention to certain court cases in hopes of receiving justice when the system is designed to be unjust. That recognition and the commitment to fighting back will be of greater use than divining conclusions about a racist nation when juries reach verdicts.
Every high-profile trial which demonstrates the connections between systemic racism and law enforcement rivets 40 million Black men, women, and children to television, newspapers, and social media. One would think that jury verdicts change the living conditions of Black people in this country. The recent trial and not guilty verdict in the case of Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse is but one example of this phenomenon. Continue reading
We do exist: Why the Palestinian voice should take center stage
At a recent New York event, the president of the Foreign Press Association, Ian Williams, declared, before an approving audience, that it is time “to reclaim the narrative on Palestine”. Continue reading
Trump regime turned Washington into a fetid and lawless version of wartime Tangier and Macao
During his four years in office, Donald Trump, accompanied by his unethical and immoral family, business associates, and advisers, turned Washington, DC, into a replica of wartime neutral cities like Tangier and Macao, where anything and everyone was for sale to the highest bidder. Fans of the 1942 film noir, “Casablanca,” which starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, may be surprised to know that it was not wartime Casablanca in Morocco that inspired director Michael Curtiz to develop a theme around Rick’s Café Américain, where foreigners of every political stripe — German Nazis, Vichy French, Free French, and European refugees — co-mingled in an environment of deceit and corruption. Continue reading
Don’t give up on the blessings of freedom
How do you give thanks for freedoms that are constantly being eroded? Continue reading
Don’t blame government benefits for inflation—blame the modern economy
Headlines are screaming that inflation is here to stay. Consumer prices have risen by an average of 6.2 percent in the past year, the sharpest increase since 1991. Although Americans are supposedly—in the words of the New York Times—“flush with cash and jobs,” they are also deeply unhappy with the state of the economy. Continue reading
Raids, arrests and death threats: Israel’s strategy of silencing human rights defenders
On October 21, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced the issuance of a military order designating six prominent Palestinian human rights groups as ‘terrorist organizations’. Gantz claimed that they are secretly linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a socialist political group that Israel considers, along with most Palestinian political parties, ‘a terrorist organization.’ Continue reading
Biden nominates two industry shills to “regulate” their industries
In 2011, FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg, an Obama nominee, lamented that the government could not find enough experts who were not funded by drug makers to serve on advisory committees and recommended that the FDA’s conflict of interest rules be loosened. Continue reading
Is the new GOP “Southern Strategy” civil war & bloodshed… and a return to “Leave It To Beaver”?
Thursday, all but two Republicans in the House of Representatives went on record saying it’s okay to openly encourage the assassination of one of their own, a person of color and elected member of the House. Continue reading
The corporate demolition of our pillars of freedom
The disposition of the Boeing manslaughtering of 346 trusting passengers and crew in the 737 MAX crashes (Indonesia—2018 and Ethiopia—2019) further weakens the system of tort law and individual pursuits of justice after wrongful deaths. Continue reading
If you think vaccine mandate pushback is bad…
At some point, governments will start using more sticks than carrots to break our deadly dependence on fossil fuels. How will humanity respond?
I’ve only had to show my vaccination card a couple times—to eat in a restaurant in New York City, to see a play in Washington, DC. I was happy to do so. Once inside, I was relieved to be among the vaccinated. Continue reading
Australia refuses to reveal additional proof of its role in Chile’s CIA-backed coup
Almost 50 years have passed since Pinochet took power, so what exactly is Australia afraid of?
The U.S. has declassified thousands of documents relating to its involvement in the ousting of Chile’s socialist President Salvador Allende and the installing of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Australia, on the other hand, continues to guard its classified documents on the pretext of security, drawing a discrepancy between its purported democratic principles and obstructing the public’s right to knowledge. As a country which welcomed Chileans fleeing the horrors of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship, as well as harbouring Chilean agents—the most notable case being that of Adriana Rivas—Australia’s political and moral obligation should not be played down. Continue reading
From Pegasus to Blue Wolf: How Israel’s ‘security’ experiment in Palestine became global
The revelation, a few years ago, that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been conducting mass surveillance on millions of Americans has reignited the conversation on governments’ misconduct and their violation of human rights and privacy laws. Continue reading
The Georgia way: How to win elections
An oral history recounts the organizing that led to 2020’s historic presidential and senatorial victories in Georgia.
Corey Shackleford knew he could rely on Georgia’s Prince Hall Masons—named after the freed slave who created the civic-minded group’s first Black chapter in 1784. “We’re in those corners of the state, those rural areas, where others don’t normally go. But we are there.” Continue reading
Cubans say they are more excited about school reopening than regime change
Most Cubans seem more concerned with getting their economy fired up than toppling their leaders. Even if they blame their government for mismanagement, corruption and a system that stifles private enterprise, few fail to recognize the enormous impact of U.S. sanctions.
HAVANA—“If you build it, they will come,” said Kevin Costner in the Field of Dreams. In Cuba, they didn’t come. Dissidents on the island, with their U.S. backers, had been working feverishly for months to turn the unprecedented July 11 protests into a crescendo of government opposition on November 15. They built a formidable structure, with sophisticated social media (including an abundance of fake news), piles of cash from Cuban Americans and the U.S. government, and declarations of support from a bipartisan Congress and all the way up to the White House. Continue reading
Climate action pretense at COP26
Joe Biden’s presence at COP26 was a photo opportunity meant to give the impression that he is fighting the climate crisis. But the U.S. and other governments continue carbon production while pretending to take action.
The 26th Conference of the Parties, COP26, climate summit ended with its president fighting back tears. Alok Sharma came to Glasgow, Scotland, hoping for an agreement to end the extraction of coal. Instead he said this, “I apologize for the way this process has unfolded. I am deeply sorry.” Continue reading
What’s being compromised?
In any policy fight, it’s never the priorities of the wealthy that are compromised—it’s working and middle-class Americans who are.
Sometimes, when watching Congress in action, I can’t decide whether to laugh, cry, or check myself into an insane asylum. Continue reading
Boris’ solution for Europe freezing from gas shortage—start hot war with Russia
Europe should give up supplies of natural gas from Russia and instead defend Ukraine and Poland. That’s the plucky advice of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson who counts wartime leader Winston Churchill as one of his political heroes. Continue reading
‘Build Back Better will worsen inflation’: Another lie about the Biden agenda
The drama over the Build Back Better Act has revealed the power of narrative in our political landscape. Continue reading
Corporate Dem formula for a fascist future: Lose, blame left, repeat
The corporate Democrats booted the Virginia governorship. Now they’re screaming (of course) at precisely those who could’ve won it for them. Continue reading
U.S. supremacy by any other name
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum two weeks ago, General Milley conceded that ‘America’s century’ is over—a long overdue acknowledgement, most might venture. Yet, belated or not, his saying it nonetheless seemed to signal an important strategic shift: “We’re entering into a tri-polar—world with the U.S., Russia and China being all great powers. [And] just by introducing three versus two you get increased complexity”, Milley said. Continue reading
State-backed violence against indigenous communities in Brazil contradicts plans for protection
It is only the indigenous communities who are clarifying the importance of their inclusion in political decision-making with regards to the environment.
The Indigenous Missionary Council’s (CIMI) annual report on violence against indigenous communities in Brazil in 2020 illustrates an expansion of human rights violations committed during Jair Bolsonaro’s second year of his presidency. Under the guise of the coronavirus pandemic, land exploitation continued while indigenous communities benefited from no state protection. Continue reading
Bill Gates should know better: How the Israeli occupation ravages the environment in Palestine
Those who are not familiar with how Israel, particularly the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, is actively and irreversibly damaging the environment might reach the erroneous conclusion that Tel Aviv is at the forefront of the global fight against climate change. The reality is the exact opposite. Continue reading
Censorship is the last gasp of the liberal class
Truthful, honest, and independent journalism and analysis is anathema to a social order that has little else to offer humanity but endless war and austerity.
On November 8, 2021, Twitter locked my account for a period of one day for responding to corporate media darling and Russiagate fanatic Keith Olbermann’s slanderous reply to journalist Wyatt Reed’s coverage of the Nicaraguan election. The flagged tweet simply restated Olbermann’s question, replacing “whore for a dictator” with “whoring for the American oligarchy.” Twitter demanded that I delete the tweet or send a time-consuming, lengthy appeal with no assurances as to if or when my sentence in “Twitter jail” would end. This prompted me to delete the tweet and wait for the 12-hour suspension to end. Keith Olbermann’s account went unscathed. Continue reading
The Facebook team that tried to swing Nicaragua’s election is full of U.S. spies
A tacit agreement between the government and Facebook appears to have been made: you can keep the profits, but we control the message. As such, a cynic might wonder what functional difference there is between Facebook and the national security state.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua—Less than a week before Nicaragua’s presidential election, social media giant Facebook deleted the accounts of hundreds of the country’s top news outlets, journalists and activists, all of whom supported the ruling left-wing Sandinista government, a top Washington target for regime change. Continue reading
The Metaverse is Big Brother in disguise: Freedom meted out by technological tyrants
Welcome to the Matrix (i.e. the metaverse), where reality is virtual, freedom is only as free as one’s technological overlords allow, and artificial intelligence is slowly rendering humanity unnecessary, inferior and obsolete. Continue reading
The politics of moral outrage
Posted on December 6, 2021 by David Rovics
It seems like a good moment for a little reflection on the past couple of years. A lot has happened, and a lot hasn’t. What has happened, among other things, has been a whole lot of police brutality, racially-motivated killings by police, a whole lot of media coverage of this sort of thing, a whole lot of protests and riots, and a whole lot more media coverage of that. What hasn’t happened—what hasn’t been reflected in all of this—are significant political or economic changes that might begin to address the ever-deepening inequities in this extremely polarized society. Continue reading →