The only honest thing about Pence last Wednesday night was the fly on his head. Continue reading
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4 key takeaways from the Harris-Pence VP debate
The vice presidential debate didn’t have the fireworks of the first presidential debate but Pence’s lies were just as egregious as Trump’s.
Flint-linked Veolia merger brings water privatization closer to ‘global reality’
‘This lack of competition will lead to unaffordable costs for families, slack maintenance and safety procedures, loss of union jobs, and potentially rampant corruption.’—Food and Water Watch
Veolia, one of the world’s largest private water corporations, has just announced the acquisition of 29.9 percent of Suez Water, another of the planet’s largest multinationals, with a plan to gain full control at a later date. Continue reading
The surprising history of marriage in the U.S.
Right-wing judges want to delegitimize same-sex marriage, but these unions date back to the colonial era.
Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito just issued a statement implying they may seek to overturn the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. That’s a dire threat to civil liberties and families, especially after Trump’s nomination of a hardline social conservative to the court. Continue reading
Black lives should always matter: Delinking social justice from seasonal US politics
After viewing the first US presidential debate on September 29, one is left with no doubt about the degenerating political discourse among America’s ruling elites. Continue reading
‘Successful’ people are misery super-spreaders
The term “super-spreader” has been popping up a lot in mainstream news media and Democrat-aligned partisan rhetoric in reference to President Trump and his habit of hosting of events without social distancing precautions which led to a spike in positive Covid-19 tests throughout the White House. Continue reading
AFL-CIO: Deregulation, lack of health enforcement worsened coronavirus pandemic
WASHINGTON—The GOP Trump administration’s massive job safety and health deregulation and its lack of enforcement have worsened the toll of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., the AFL-CIO says. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Liberal sympathy for Trump
Everyone reveals their true self in a time of turmoil. A crisis forces exposure which can no longer be kept hidden. The revelation that Donald Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 certainly proves this point. The phony resistance immediately showed that their opposition to Trump is no indicator of solidarity with the people. Their allegiance to the ruling classes always comes out whenever it is time for people to speak forcefully. Continue reading
Florida Republicans are nakedly suppressing votes
They’ve defied the Constitution and the will of the state’s voters, but it’s not too late to stop them.
How nasty is the Republican Party’s massive campaign to thwart democracy? Ask the good people of Florida. Continue reading
How you can stop America’s slide toward tyranny
Without a shred of evidence, Trump claims that mail-in ballots are rife with fraud. Rubbish. Mail-in ballots, also called absentee ballots, have been used for years across America. They have proven safe and secure. Continue reading
Sometimes Trump gets it right
Donald Trump is living proof that you don’t have to be intelligent to be a billionaire. You just need a rich daddy and to be completely dishonest. Continue reading
The QAnon message being subtly, and sometimes not-so-subtly, amplified by the very same members of the deep state they claim to abhor, spurring some of America’s most powerful forces to join the movement
A simple wave of Trump’s hand from his motorcade at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was enough for QAnon believers to race to their internet-connected devices and begin decoding the latest Q drops. These “encoded” social media posts spread through obscure internet forums like 8-Chan that are considered by adherents to be veiled communications from “patriots” with special access to the hidden truth behind the American deep state and what they perceive as its subversive campaign to destroy the foundational values of the country. Continue reading
‘Appalling’ comments by Justices Thomas and Alito seen as harbinger of new wave of attacks on marriage equality and gay rights
‘It is appalling that five years after the historic decision in Obergefell, two justices still consider same-sex couples less worthy of marriage than other couples.’
Same-sex marriage advocates expressed concern Monday after right-wing Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito issued a fresh attack on a landmark 2015 decision that had been hailed as a “transformative triumph’” for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights. Continue reading
How to turn ten days into a lifetime
The whole Trump nightmare summed up in a week and a half.
To review the events of the last week and a half is to contemplate a nation that is seriously off its rocker. This will not come as news to you, but in a year that already has been extraordinary in the scope of its insanity, from the trivial to the deeply tragic, these past ten days have been breathtaking in the sheer audacity of their lunacy. Continue reading
Why Turkey stirs the pot in troubled zones
As long as Trump stays in White House, Erdogan feels he will get away with misadventures
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is no peacemaker. He looks for regional vulnerabilities in the form of feuding entities and instead of behaving like a statesman offering mediation he escalates the violence by picking a side. Continue reading
How the Bush family is finally defeating Donald Trump
Perhaps more than anyone else, Jeb Bush organized the ‘electoral’ defeat of Donald Trump this year, and the installation of Joe Biden into the White House in 2021. Continue reading
A UK court ruled that the administration of Boris Johnson’s position that Juan Guaidó is the legitimate ruler of Venezuela is far from equivocal, paving the way for over $1 billion of the country’s gold to be released
A United Kingdom court has handed the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro a major win today, overturning a previous ruling from a lower court that legitimized the British government’s decision to freeze Venezuelan government gold reserves held in the Bank of England. The English Court of Appeal ruled that the Conservative administration of Boris Johnson’s position that Juan Guaidó is the country’s legitimate ruler was far from equivocal, potentially paving the way for some $1.95 billion of the Central Bank of Venezuela’s gold to be accessed. Continue reading
‘She has recklessly endangered lives’: Trump press secretary tests positive for COVID day after briefing reporters without mask
McEnany, like other members of the Trump administration who have contracted Covid-19 in recent days, has repeatedly refused to wear a mask when speaking to the press and interacting with others.
Less than 24 hours after briefing reporters on President Donald Trump’s condition without wearing a face mask, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced Monday that she has tested positive for COVID-19, the 12th member of Trump’s inner circle to contract the virus in recent days. Continue reading
Our world is burning
The central problem which the world faces in its attempts to avoid catastrophic climate change is a contrast of time scales. In order to save human civilization and the biosphere from the most catastrophic effects of climate change we need to act immediately. Fossil fuels must be left in the ground. Forests must be saved from destruction by beef or palm oil production. Continue reading
Trump’s COVID: Empathy for the world’s least empathetic person?
For about a minute today I found myself feeling sorry for Donald Trump. The poor man is now “battling” COVID-19 (the pugilistic verb is showing up all over the news). He’s in the hospital. He’s out-of-shape. He’s 74-years old. His chief of staff calls his symptoms “very concerning.” Continue reading
The man who would be president: Mike Pence, corporate theocrat
The case of Mike Pence should be an ongoing urgent reminder that—as toxic and truly evil as Donald Trump is—the current president is a product and poisonous symptom of an inherently unjust and anti-democratic status quo.
If President Trump dies from the coronavirus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans largely due to his deliberate negligence, the man replacing him will be no less dangerous. While Mike Pence has eluded tough media scrutiny—in part because he exhibits such a low-key style in contrast to Trump—the pair has been a good fit for an administration that exemplifies the partnership of religious fundamentalism and corporate power. Continue reading
Spike in boycotts of Turkish goods and services; consumers cite warmongering as cause
Six days into the renewed attacks by the Azerbaijan-Turkey-Israeli axis on Armenia and Artsakh, many countries have come forward to denounce the warmongers. Continue reading
The worst part of Trump paying zero taxes? It’s probably entirely legal
The tax code has one set of rules for the super-rich and another for everyone else. A cottage industry exists to help them avoid taxes.
Donald Trump’s tax returns are a stark illustration of what’s broken with the US tax system: the tax code has one set of rules for the richest 0.1% and another for everyone else. Continue reading
In lieu of a liberation strategy: Palestinian elections are designed to buy time
It is abundantly clear that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has underestimated the seriousness of the challenges facing Palestine and the Palestinians. Continue reading
Another capitalist market brand: Brain death
America and the world are suffering a crisis of capitalism like no other in recent history. With an economy teetering on a mountain of incredible debt without which it could not continue, and a virus threatening the globe but with the highest death toll in America and even a president leading in gross ignorance about it testing positive, stresses and strains are created that, while showing positive awakening among some to systemic rather than personal problems, also creates negative descents into fantasy among others that make immaterial religious mythology seem like critical examinations of material reality. Continue reading
The problem of surplus white men
Dispossessed white men have haunted Western politics for generations. The answer isn’t to jettison 'identity politics'—it’s to create truly meaningful new opportunities.
The problem of America today is the problem of white men.
Continue reading
Lawyers, politicians and diplomats for Assange
Since brutally dragged from Ecuador’s London embassy in April last year, confined to maximum security imprisonment, and subjected to guilt by accusation extradition hearings, establishment media have been largely silent about Julian Assange’s state-sponsored crucifixion for the “crime” of truth-telling journalism. Continue reading
Two years after Khashoggi’s murder, why is America still an accomplice to MBS’s crimes?
Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered on October 2, 2018, by agents of Saudi Arabia’s despotic government, and the CIA concluded they killed him on direct orders from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Eight Saudi men have been convicted of Khashoggi’s murder by a Saudi court in what the Washington Post characterized as sham trials with no transparency. The higher ups who ordered the murder, including MBS, continue to escape responsibility. Continue reading
Fight over the Mediterranean: France’s proxy war and the budding Turkish-Russian alliance
Overwhelmed by uncontrollable circumstances, the Greek government is bracing for another financial crisis that promises to be as terrible as the last one in 2015. Continue reading
The election has already been hijacked and the winner decided: ‘We the people’ lose
Republicans and Democrats alike fear that the other party will attempt to hijack this election. Continue reading
Can you imagine Ivanka Trump consulting for a pizza parlor?
At tax time in a plutocratic America, anything goes for a family like the Trumps.
The warmest and fuzziest phrase in the political folklore of American capitalism? “Family-owned business”! These few words evoke everything people like and admire about the U.S. economy. The always welcoming luncheonette. The barbershop where you can still get a haircut, with generous tip, for less than $20. The corner candy store. Continue reading
Qanon is a particularly dangerous cult
There’s a fairly good chance that most Americans know at least one person, including family and close friends, who have become followers of the wacko Qanon fringe conspiracy cult. Extremist cults have plagued America in the past. What makes Qanon so different from the Manson family, People’s Temple, Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, Raëlians, and NXIVM is that they were relatively smaller groups and were concentrated in certain geographical regions, for example, Southern California, Oakland, Texas, West Virginia, and New York state. Qanon, on the other hand, has a wide following across the United States and, increasingly, around the world. Qanon, which maintains underpinnings of white supremacy and neo-Nazism, is a sect within the larger Donald Trump cult of personality. Continue reading
John Lennon at 80: One man against the Deep State ‘monster’
Posted on October 9, 2020 by John W. Whitehead
John Lennon, born 80 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon. Continue reading →