The only benefit from the rise of neo-fascist leaders in heretofore democratic nations is that the various fascist, neo-Nazi, racial and religious supremacists, and far-right terrorists have reared their ugly heads to the degree where it is now easier to identify them and their circle of contacts and organizations. When the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Poland, Turkey, and other similarly afflicted nations return to political normalcy, the forces of the far-right, already self-identified, can be rolled up, stripped of their weaponry and access to the Internet as threats to public safety. These resurgent Nazis can also be subjected to ridicule and shamed by the general public to the point where they recede from politics and return to their subterranean lairs or be prosecuted and imprisoned for their crimes, which include mass murder and other acts of terrorism. Continue reading →
You can map the nearly 20-year journey from the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic by the freedoms we’ve lost along the way. Continue reading →
Yes, another interruption. That’s how my life has been going this year. Continue reading →
WASHINGTON—Saying “movements move Congress and politicians, and not the other way around,” Postal Workers President Mark Dimondstein is warning movement activists to be ready for a long, long haul, one that must continue even after Trump is hopefully dumped in November. Continue reading →
For twenty three some years, W.H.O. chief Dr. Tedros Gebreyesus was Minister of Health for Ethiopia when over a billion dollars went missing. Ethiopia received many billions of dollars in foreign aid supposedly meant to bring the country’s health care out of the 19th Century yet Ethiopia has very little to show for it. As COVID19 begins it surge across the country it is time to take a closer look at Dr. Tedros’ legacy,” an overburdened and collapsing health care system. Continue reading →
Recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued four current or former NRA executives for “illegal financial conduct,” according to NBC. Among the charges were that Wayne LaPierre, CEO and executive vice president of the NRA, received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of complimentary safaris in Africa. Continue reading →
The House passed legislation to defend the Postal Service, but unless the Senate takes action, the postmaster general will be free to continue policies that have slowed the mail and raised concerns about mail-in voting.
Less than two months after Trump ally and GOP megadonor Louis DeJoy took the helm of the U.S. Postal Service, the House of Representatives met in an emergency session to address widespread fears about potential sabotage of this vital public agency at a time when it is needed more than ever to deliver medicine and other essentials and to facilitate mail-in voting. Continue reading →
Water, not bread, is the true staff of life. Continue reading →
On August 16, the Israeli navy declared the Gaza sea a closed military zone. A few days later, a group of Gaza fishermen decided to take their chances by fishing within a mere two or three nautical miles off the Gaza shore. No sooner had they cast their nets, Israeli navy bullets began whizzing all around them. Continue reading →
I share the view that the 2020 election in the United States is above all a referendum on fascism, and for this and many other reasons I wish it produces a Biden landslide followed by a smooth transfer of political power. From the perspective of the present, this kind of benign political scenario seems unlikely to materialize. Instead, we can more realistically expect a close election, which means that if Trump wins, the fascist threat grows, while if he loses, he will refuse to accept the result, charging fraud, clinging to the presidency, provoking a constitutional crisis and possibly the first coup in American history, and again fascism will thrive. Continue reading →
US Cyber Command and the Pentagon are availing themselves of the Russian meddling narratives and added a few others to justify the creation of a cyberwar army with international and domestic capabilities via the National Guard.
China doesn’t want Trump to win in November, according to William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC). Russia, on the other hand, is “using a range of measures” to undermine Joe Biden’s candidacy. The intelligence official also accuses China of “expanding its influence” ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, but only to “deflect and counter criticism” as opposed to a direct attack on the incumbent. Continue reading →
During the first Clinton term, I worked on the public TV series In Performance at the White House Continue reading →
WASHINGTON—Trump’s acceptance of the RNC nomination for a second term as president Thursday night was not the first time a fascist posed as a fighter for workers who was bucking the establishment. Continue reading →
A child care crisis is in the offing both in the United States and around the world as school-age children stay home for the new school year and working parents face the prospect of more state interference
Greater Albany Public Schools (GAPS) Superintendent, Melissa Goff, is calling on county commissioners to allocate funding for oversight of “suitable child care options” for the families of the 9,000 children enrolled in the small city’s K-12 system, who are now proscribed from their regular classrooms and will be forced to “attend” school on a screen come September. Continue reading →
‘The Democrats are not matching Trump’s own or his party's propaganda.’
Donald Trump continually breaks multiple laws. Yet the serial lawbreaking, lying Trump is playing the “law and order” card against street protestors reacting to fatal cases of police brutality. Armed pro-Trump provocateurs are attending civic protests and generating casualties and property damage, as was the case recently in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Trump uses such mayhem to attack Joe Biden and his hyped “radical leftists.” This is grotesque, but then that is how corrupt, dangerous, devious Donald operates when cornered by falling polls, and growing opposition from leading retired military leaders and national intelligence officials. Trump’s attack on the U.S. Postal Service is also producing a nationwide backlash and even red-state conservatives are troubled by delays in deliveries of medicine and Social Security checks. Continue reading →
One of the more bizarre indications that Trump Washington is interested in the Arctic was made a year ago when he said he would like to buy Greenland, a vast territory that is administered by Denmark. It is about the same size as Saudi Arabia, and slightly smaller than India—a big country in which there is a Pentagon base at Thule which, among other things, as Defence News tells us, is “the U.S. military’s northernmost base and the only installation north of the Arctic Circle. It is home to the 12th Space Warning Squadron, a cadre of Air Force officers and enlisted personnel that provide 24/7 missile warning and space surveillance using a massive AN/FPS-132 radar. Besides being a critical site for missile defence and space situational awareness, Thule hosts the Defence Department’s northernmost deep-water seaport and airfield. Those assets would come into play in any sort of military conflict in the arctic, giving the Pentagon forward-basing options if needed.” Continue reading →
Backyard gardeners, beware: tomato plants have become collateral damage in the government’s war on drugs, especially marijuana. Continue reading →
Our fake commander-in-chief steps on a landmine—again
Donald Trump, the Godfather wannabe, treats our troops like toy soldiers to be thrown away.
Posted on September 14, 2020 by Michael Winship
Reading the latest story about Donald Trump’s grievous insults to the military, I thought of a scene that was cut from the original version of The Godfather. Continue reading →