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Authoritarians drunk on power: It is time to recalibrate the government
It is time to recalibrate the government. Continue reading
Escalating war on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
Founded in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the company was sold to Unilever in 2000. Continue reading
Readers didn’t give up on local news. Corporations did.
Corporations gutted local newspapers and then wondered why people stopped buying them.
Mega-investor Warren Buffett once held a big portfolio of daily and weekly newspapers. Continue reading
Projection and deflection: Russia’s infrastructure
When you see a Western piece saying that Russia is deficient in this or that, it’s wise to see it as just a projection of the West’s shortcomings.
One of my most reliable guides to finding subjects to write about in these essays is to see what crimes the West is committing. It’s a very good bet that Russia will be accused of them. If the U.S. “accidentally” destroys an MSF hospital in Kunduz, then Russia must be routinely and intentionally bombing hospitals in Syria; if American officials pick the future prime minister of a foreign country, then Russia must be doing it more often and bigger; if Washington condemns reporters on dodgy evidence than Russians must do worse things. Likewise, Western deficiencies are minor at home but huge in Russia. (Admittedly it’s getting harder to say that—especially with the West’s dismal situation with COVID-19 but that doesn’t stop the trying; vide “U.S. takes the top spot on Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking as vaccine rollout speeds up return to normal.”) And so on: it’s all projection to deflect your attention. Continue reading
With Trump or Biden in the White House, Putin wins
When Donald Trump was in the White House, things could not have been better for Russia’s would-be czar, Vladimir Putin. With Joe Biden now in the White House, things cannot be better for Vladimir Putin. This seems counterintuitive, but why? Biden is such a fossilized politician of the past when it comes to 21st century diplomacy, he does not understand, nor do his staff of academician and think tank foreign policy and national security wonks, that the way to marginalize Putin is not by supporting dodgy characters like Alexei Navalny. Navalny has, in the past, made common cause with Russian far-right nationalists, including neo-Nazis. Nor is backing sexual deviants like the Pussy Riot group a way to hit back at Putin. What people like Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA director William Burns, and others fail to realize is that the strongest pro-democracy and pro-ethnic rights party in Russia is the Russian Federation Communist Party, the only force that Putin continues to fear. Continue reading
Coronavirus surge again exposes U.S. for-profit health care ‘system’
WASHINGTON—The new surge in positive coronavirus cases, caused by the viral plague’s Delta variant and a slow-down in the vaccination rate, is again exposing the fatal—literally—flaws in the U.S.’s profit-oriented health care “system,” critics say. Continue reading
Avoiding the robot apocalypse
We'd better control machines before they control us.
My wife and I were recently driving in Virginia, amazed yet again that the GPS technology on our phones could guide us through a thicket of highways, around road accidents, and toward our precise destination. The artificial intelligence (AI) behind the soothing voice telling us where to turn has replaced passenger-seat navigators, maps, even traffic updates on the radio. How on earth did we survive before this technology arrived in our lives? We survived, of course, but were quite literally lost some of the time. Continue reading
Who will hold the U.S. accountable over Cuba?
An intentionally misinformative outreach is what the U.S. government is relying on to justify its punitive measures on Cuba
Anyone who believed the departure of former U.S. President Donald Trump would constitute a return to more effective diplomacy has been grievously mistaken. The Biden Administration is not even close to replicating the slightest approach towards Cuba which former U.S. President Barack Obama moved towards, following the release of the Cuban Five. On the contrary, not only has U.S. President Joe Biden not reversed Trump’s policies, but extended them to include further punitive measures. It is becoming clear that the U.S. was only biding its time to declare openly aggressive policies against Cuba. Continue reading
Is Sen. Ed Markey a war hawk in progressive clothing?
His latest China gambit points to yes
On June 8, 2021, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey voted for The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (S. 1260), which calls for increased “combat ready troops” and missile shipments to the Asia-Pacific region and undermines Climate Envoy John Kerry’s climate deal with China. The bill also urges U.S. universities and governments to conduct McCarthyist investigations into Chinese and Chinese American people while appropriating at least $500 Million to fund racist and xenophobic anti-China propaganda. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Standing with the Cuban people
The current Black-centered Cuban protest operation is very well orchestrated and if Black people in this country are not careful, they will end up amplifying the dictates of U.S. imperialism. Continue reading
As Roe heads toward extinction, how many “pro-life” cultists will celebrate the death penalty while refusing masks and vaccinations?
Right-wing hypocrites are lining up for an expected Supreme Court nullification of Roe v. Wade. Continue reading
Inside Bezos—a five-year old boy—outside, a cunning extraterrestrial profiteer
Jeff Bezos touched down after his 10 minutes, 10 second vertical 66 mile zoom above Earth. He felt so on top of the Earth that he agreed to one-on-one interviews with a gaggle of salivating reporters. Looking over a list of their names, he spotted journalist Greg Galaxy and picked him first. Continue reading
Progress or war: On Islamophobia and Europe’s demographic shifts
Europe’s identity crisis is not confined to the ceaseless squabbles by Europeans over the EU, Brexit or football. It goes much deeper, reaching sensitive and dangerous territory, including that of culture and religion. Once more, Muslims stand at the heart of the continent’s identity debate. Continue reading
If you grew up with the U.S. blockade as a Cuban, you might understand the recent protests differently
During the early morning of July 17, Johana Tablada joined tens of thousands of Cubans as they gathered along the Malecón boulevard in Havana to stand with the Cuban Revolution. “We are human beings who live, work, suffer, and struggle for a better Cuba,” she told us. “We are not bots or troll farms or anything like that.” She referred to what has been called the Bay of Tweets, a social media campaign developed in Miami, Florida, that attempted to inflame Cuba’s social problems into a political crisis. Continue reading
The state of our nation: Still divided, enslaved & locked down
History has a funny way of circling back on itself. Continue reading
The US is the absolute worst: Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix
America has the single worst government in the world. Shut the fuck up about Cuba. Continue reading
Biden’s policy on Cuba reveals itself
The assumption that military intervention would fix Cuba only illustrates how the interests of the Miami dissidents are aligned with those of the U.S.
As protests erupted in Cuba over shortages of basic necessities, the decades-long illegal U.S. blockade on Cuba was no longer a part of mainstream media narratives. In 2020, media focus was on the Cuban contribution to the fight against Covid19 and how, despite the blockade, Cuba had still managed its internationalist approach, while manufacturing its own vaccines. For a brief period, talk about lifting the illegal blockade on Cuba was also part of the international narrative, even as the medical brigades were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Continue reading
Cuba reflects Fidel’s redoubtable spirit
Hostile to what just societies hold dear, establishment media march in lockstep with flagrantly illegal US/Western policies. Continue reading
Pegasus and NSO at center of sweeping and dangerous Mossad surveillance operation
A joint report by several media organizations around the world and Amnesty International has revealed that the Israeli intelligence-linked NSO Group has provided an invasive smart phone tracking software known as Pegasus to some of the world’s most brutal regimes to spy on journalists, politicians, and human rights advocates. The conclusions about NSO Group and Pegasus provide addition proof that Israel’s intentions are predominantly malign in the area of intelligence and security operations. Continue reading
From Judaism to fascism: How Zionists turned their backs on their own culture
For the Zionists, the drive to climb the blood-soaked ladder of imperialism, to no longer be on the bottom rungs, shrouded not only their humanity but their own cultural teachings.
WASHINGTON—In late June of this year, New Scientist blandly reported that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had “used a swarm of small drones to locate, identify and attack Hamas militants,” the first documented case of a drone swarm being used in so-called combat. Continue reading
“We’ve got to fight disinformation,” says empire made entirely of disinformation
The weirdest thing about the Biden administration tasking itself with the censorship of “disinformation” on social media is that the United States is the hub of a globe-spanning empire that is built upon a foundation of disinformation, maintained by disinformation, and facilitated by disinformation. Continue reading
The power structure for deadly lag and the prophetic work of unsung heroes
Kicking life-saving solutions endlessly down the road is the mark of the brutish power of the corporations over the innocents. Continue reading
Scenario for US & NATO invasion of Crimea and origins of American hatred of Russia
The United States has a very predictable prelude to any war that it seeks to conduct. The first to fight is the US Treasury, Wall Street, and the economic and financial instruments of US national power. Russia is currently under US sanctions for annexing Crimea and, perhaps, for just existing. A long roster of countries—China, Venezuela, and Iran, for example—and individuals are on the US Treasury sanctions roster, so many that the US might just as well sanction the entire world except for NATO members (maybe that is coming). Continue reading
Needed urgently! New US national myth
Review Andrei Martyanov, “Disintegration: Indicators of the Coming American Collapse,” 2021.
Empires rise and fall. And usually burn themselves out rather quickly. What else is new? ‘American decline’ is a Wikipedia page. You can feel it in the air. One greets it with dread or hope, or better dread-hope. America’s sins are adding up, yet the US is a behemoth for well over two centuries and will not go in peace. Continue reading
Our rulers have all the power and none of the responsibility
As the world burns, as ecosystems die off, as the insects vanish, as the forests disappear, as soil becomes rapidly less fertile, as extinction takes over, as the oceans gasp for air and become lifeless deserts while continents of plastic form in their waters, it is interesting how often you hear the sentiment that this is the result of some flaw in humanity for which we all share equal guilt. Continue reading
Critical race theory bugbear really targets the teaching of critical thinking
The right-wing is using the mantra of critical race theory as part of an overall assault on public education’s teaching of critical thinking. The ability of students to question subjective subjects like history, religion, politics, and race relations lies at the heart of the right’s attempt to wipe school curricula clean of topics over which they will accept only their biased, bigoted, and incorrect versions. Continue reading
Don’t let the EAGLE Act fly through Congress: Prevent a new cold war with China
On May 25, 2021, Representative Greogry Meeks, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced an expensive anti-China bill into the House. The Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement Act (H.R. 3524), also known as the EAGLE Act, would commit our tax dollars to dangerous anti-China rhetoric, as well as wasteful and environmentally damaging military training, and an extra $7 billion of our tax dollars to the Department of Defense. Continue reading
US/UK dark forces want Julian Assange dead from medical neglect and slow torture
Along with complicit establishment media, US/UK regimes want Julian Assange silenced by death behind bars. Continue reading
“Once, there were forests . . .”
The state of the forests, deforestation, and what we can do about it
Up until about the Industrial Revolution, deforestation—if it could be called that—used to be a not unnatural consequence of man’s need for timber, the expansion of human settlements, and slash-and-burn agriculture which has been practised since the Neolithic Age and is still used by indigeous or nomadic peoples and settlers. Forests have been cleared “to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.” Further and other drivers of deforestation vary from one geographical region to another. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: U.S. out of Haiti!
The United States playing any role in Haiti’s future is akin to the fox being left in charge of the henhouse.
The recent assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moise, has created a great deal of confusion, not only about the crime itself but about the role that the United States might play in that nation. Scant and contradictory information make it difficult to discern who benefits from his killing. Moise was the United States puppet president who refused to step down in February as Haiti’s constitution required, and despite massive protests across the country opposing the continuation of his administration. Continue reading
The politics of American protest, with a North Korean twist
The right wing has attacked Gwen Berry for her Olympic trial protest. A North Korean defector has joined that chorus.
Gwen Berry recently protested the playing of the U.S. national anthem by turning away from the flag and holding up a shirt that read “activist athlete.” The protest took place at the Olympic trials in Oregon where Berry had placed third in the hammer throw competition. Her action immediately drew angry responses from the right-wing side of the political spectrum. Continue reading
Hawley’s “Love America Act” is all about hate
Posted on July 30, 2021 by Thom Hartmann
Former-slave-state Missouri Senator Josh Hawley doesn’t want America’s white children to be exposed to the simple reality that slavery was not only legal at the founding of our country but was, in several places, written into our Constitution. Continue reading →