Unexpectedly, this has turned into a year of interruptions for me, which means that once again I have to take time off to deal with personal matters Continue reading
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Project Venezuela: Right-wing activists push Wikipedia to blacklist MintPress, other alternative media
A group of right-wing Venezuelans has managed to ban the use of a range of alternative media outlets covering Venezuela, including MintPress News.
Still unable to convince a sufficient number of their countryfolk to support them, the Venezuelan opposition has turned their efforts towards convincing an international audience—primarily Americans—to support their cause. Part of that is spending inordinate amounts of time online, arguing in English on social media, creating bot networks, and editing Wikipedia articles. Many Wikipedia articles on Venezuela are particularly biased towards the opposition, containing numerous inaccuracies, falsehoods and non-sequiturs. Continue reading
False flags fail to derail national uprising
The use of false flag operations designed to crush democracy and create tyranny has a long and sordid history. Arguably the most notorious and effective one took place in Berlin with the burning of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933, less than a month after Hitler was named Chancellor by an anxious capitalist elite threatened with a workers revolution. The very next day President von Hindenburg stripped the German people of core freedoms protected under the Weimar Constitution and thereby opened the legal door for the Nazi reign of terror. The empowered Nazis, who were the actual arsonists, successfully laid blame on anti-fascists, particularly Communists, and began a bloody campaign of persecution and extermination of all opponents of Hitler’s Third Reich. Within weeks some 10,000 German anti-fascists were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Yet anti-fascist resistance continued both inside the Third Reich and in exile. Among the most effective of the early anti-fascist organizations was the Paris-based “International Struggle Against War and Fascism” and its widely distributed publication “ANTIFAschisticheFRONT”, which demanded the downfall of the brown-shirt arsonists in its September 1933 edition. That did not happen, and internal Nazi terror systematically degenerated into total war by 1939 when a series of false flag operations along the German-Polish border were used to justify the invasion of Poland. Continue reading
This is the most important presidential election since the last presidential election
Every four years without fail (and usually a little earlier in each quadrennial cycle), both “major” American political parties wind up and toss the same slow, fat pitch across the public’s plate: This is the most important presidential election of our lifetimes. Continue reading
Why COVID-19 racial disparities make the case for Medicare for All
Though it won't solve all our problems, expanding Medicare to all people is an essential demand if we want to advance health equity in the United States.
The racial disparities of COVID-19 have received much attention. Blacks are dying at a higher rate that is typically more than double the rate of whites. But we need to move beyond naming the problem to fighting for solutions. Medicare for All would go a long way to beginning to address racial disparities in health care in general and for COVID-19 in particular. Continue reading
The deadly Fox News-Trump syndicate
As the coronavirus crisis rages on, Fox News is contributing almost as much to the deaths and disease as is Trump’s White House. Continue reading
A new Amityville horror only billionaires can stop
One of the nation’s largest middle-class counties faces a huge hit on public school budgets as the super rich get set to frolic in the summertime surf.
Remember The Amityville Horror, the 1979 hair-on-edge thriller that would become one of America’s most popular scary movies ever? The horror may soon be returning, this time in real life. Continue reading
The Democratic Party exists to co-opt and kill authentic change movements
ESTRAGON: Well, shall we go?
VLADIMIR: Yes, let’s go.
[They do not move.]
Curtain.
Continue reading
Dear J.K. Rowling, I love Harry Potter. Please stop talking.
In your books, you were so concerned about the rights of house elves. This is about humans, so stick with me.
I can practically recite your Harry Potter books. I grew up in a family that felt like the Dursleys, and I began having chronic migraines at 14 so Harry’s scar hurting was very relatable. Continue reading
Defund the police, defund the military
On June 1, President Trump threatened to deploy active-duty U.S. military forces against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in cities across America. Trump and state governors eventually deployed at least 17,000 National Guard troops across the country. In the nation’s capital, Trump deployed nine Blackhawk assault helicopters, thousands of National Guard troops from six states and at least 1,600 Military Police and active-duty combat troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, with written orders to pack bayonets. Continue reading
What George Floyd’s dying breaths tell our fractured nation
It’s past time for a radical restructuring of criminal justice.
For writers like me, one of the soundest pieces of advice over the last week came from columnist and film historian Mark Harris, who tweeted on Saturday, “I am calling on all my white colleagues to join me in a 24-hour moratorium on personal essays about our feelings.” Continue reading
Playing at revolution: A look back at a road trip in an insane society
I often travel between the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts and Albany, New York. The part of I-90 that I drive on is called the Berkshire connector. Forty-nine years ago three friends and I traveled on the same road on the way to visit a US expatriate in Ontario, Canada, who had left the US during the Vietnam War era, looking for a different life as tens of thousands of others did amid the upheavals of that historic epoch. Sam left the US soon after his enlistment in the US Navy ended. Like tens of thousands of others who had left the US, Sam had traveled to different countries trying to find a semblance of peace amid all the insanity of that era. Continue reading
Trump’s path to historical ignominy
History has always treated harshly those tyrants and strongmen who have been gratuitously violent toward their subjects and citizens and believed in purposely creating misery for their charge. Donald John Trump, the third impeached president of the United States, decided to clear peaceful protesters gathered a full block from the White House, so he could have his photograph taken standing in front of a church. It was not any church, but St. John’s Episcopal Church, dubbed the “Church of the Presidents,” owing to the several chief executives who have worshiped there over the decades. Continue reading
Engineering a race war: Will this be the American police state’s Reichstag fire?
Watch and see: this debate over police brutality and accountability is about to get politicized into an election-year referendum on who should occupy the White House. Continue reading
When profits and politics drive science: Rushing a vaccine to market for a vanishing virus
More than 100 companies are competing to be first in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine to market. It’s a race against time, not because the death rate is climbing but because it is falling—to the point where there will soon be too few subjects to prove the effectiveness of the drug. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Rebellion, confusion, scoundrels and kente cloth
Black rebellion brings insecurity to those in power, as editors, mayors and even long dead criminals are being called to account. Continue reading
Libya plagued by malevolent outside parties
Cairo Declaration may not go down well with Turkish designs on Tripoli
Since Western powers leapt into the fray to remove the long-standing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the oil-rich country, once the wealthiest in Africa, has been embroiled in conflicts. Continue reading
Working class heroes get death as their reward
We are a nation that loves its heroes, even if most fade unknown to their deaths, protecting capital in a laissez faire system. When we flip a light switch, we take it for granted that the room will be illuminated, without understanding that people die for that to take place. Continue reading
The shallow Deep State goes deeper as it moves toward martial law
I am not trying to be cute and play with words. That title is meant to convey what it says, so let me explain. Continue reading
Who are the secret puppet masters behind Trump’s war on Iran?
On May 6, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world desperately need to set aside our conflicts to face down the common danger of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading
Meditations on whiteness
You’ve probably already seen the footage of a white police officer named Derek Chauvin cheerfully suffocating a black man named George Floyd to death with his knee while Floyd pleaded for his life. This went viral around the same time as another viral video where a white woman in Central Park called New York police on a black man who posed no threat to her while making sure to inform the police that he was black, and just weeks after video footage surfaced of a black man named Ahmaud Arbery being shot to death by a white former cop and his son while out for a jog. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Black misleaders seek to end protest
The nationwide protests have forced the black quisling class to reveal themselves as agents of the racial and economic status quo. Continue reading
We hold this truth to be self-evident: It’s happening before our very eyes
At 98, historian Bernard Weisberger has seen it all. Born in 1922, he grew up watching newsreels of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as they rose to power in Europe. He vividly remembers Mussolini posturing to crowds from his balcony in Rome, chin outthrust, right arm extended. Nor has he forgotten Der Fuehrer’s raspy voice on radio, interrupted by cheers of “Heil Hitler,” full of menace even without pictures. Continue reading
Trump’s presidency is over
You’d be forgiven if you hadn’t noticed. His verbal bombshells are louder than ever, but Donald J. Trump is no longer president of the United States. Continue reading
Intrepid Report will resume publishing Wednesday, June 10
I am taking a break to spend time with visiting COVID-19-free family. Continue reading
Amy Klobuchar, Minneapolis police and her VP quest
When Amy Klobuchar was running for president, corporate media served as her biggest political base.
Eighteen years before Minneapolis police killed an unarmed black man named George Floyd on Monday, Minneapolis police killed an unarmed black man named Christopher Burns. Today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar decries the killing of Floyd. Back then, Minneapolis chief prosecutor Amy Klobuchar refused to prosecute city police for killing Burns. Continue reading
From 9/11 to COVID-19, it’s been a perpetual state of emergency
Don’t pity this year’s crop of graduates because this COVID-19 pandemic caused them to miss out on the antics of their senior year and the pomp and circumstance of graduation. Continue reading
Betsy DeVos wants to rob poor school districts
Times of great adversity not only bring out the best and worst in society, but they also flush out some of the stinkiest and slimiest creatures. Think of war profiteers, hucksters who prey on poor hurricane victims, or Betsy DeVos. Continue reading
Political ambiguity or a doomsday weapon: Why Abbas abandoned Oslo
This time, we are told, it is different and that president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is absolutely serious about his decision to absolve his leadership from all previous agreements signed with Israel and the United States. Continue reading
Passing behind our backs
I never met the great basketball player, Bob Cousy, the man known as “the Houdini of the Hardwood,” yet he somehow influenced my life in ways I never knew, or to be more accurate, in ways I didn’t reflect upon except in superficial ways. He was the guy who brought professional basketball into the modern era with his bag of fancy tricks that included no-look and behind-the-back passes, uncanny dribbling, and a magical court sense that made the fast break into an exquisite art form. The captain and point-guard of the Boston Celtics from 1950-1963, Cousy led the Celtics to six NBA titles, made thirteen all-star teams, and changed professional basketball from a stodgy, boring, and slow game into a fast-paced spectacle, entertainment as much as sport. He was a wizard with a basketball and set the stage for Guy Rodgers, “Pistol Pete” Maravich, Bob Dylan, Magic Johnson, and Steve Nash, among other tricksters, modern Hermes. Continue reading
Beware of the new Trump-Rove alliance
George W. Bush political dirty tricks and battleground state election rigging mastermind Karl Rove has been enlisted by the White House and the Trump re-election campaign to assist in a strategy to overcome presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s consistent lead in the polls. Rove, who, in 2016, called Trump a “complete idiot” and “graceless and divisive,” only to later meet with Trump at casino tycoon Steve Wynn’s home in Manhattan, has been in regular contact with Trump presidential adviser Jared Kushner and Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. Rove attended a White House meeting last week with Trump and key Trump advisers. On the agenda was cutting Biden’s lead in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona. Continue reading
Breaking news! Civilization collapsed
Posted on June 29, 2020 by David Cogswell
For those who have been fearing that things have gotten so crazy that civilization might collapse, take heart! It has already happened. You have survived. We are now in the ruins of civilization. Each action we take, large or small, is shaping the new world that will grow up out of the ruins of this one. Continue reading →