by The Real News Network (TRNN) / February 9th, 2023
When Stefania Maurizi first received a call from WikiLeaks in 2009, she had little clue how drastically her life was about to change. 14 years later, the revelations from WikiLeaks about the extent of US surveillance, espionage, extrajudicial killing, and corruption have rippled across the world. Within the US, however, they are often downplayed or outright ignored. Stefania Maurizi joins The Chris HedgesReport to share her insider perspective on one of the centuries biggest stories, as well as her encyclopedic knowledge of the horrific truths revealed in WikiLeaks’ hundreds of thousands of leaked files. Stefania Maurizi is an …
It was a Sunday in early December a few years ago and I was out helping homeless women, as per my project. I noticed a homeless woman on the downtown platform of a cavernous NYC subway station. She was standing directly in front of an empty wooden bench, apparently facing the bench with a massive plastic bag over her hair (I assumed she had dreadlocks beneath).
For the record, I decided early on to not approach any homeless woman who wasn’t actively panhandling. There’s no reason to …
Psychologist Solomon Asch carried out conformity experiments for a group on a test comparing the length of three lines. The study participants were found to be more likely to conform to obviously wrong answers first given by other participants, who were actually working for the experimenter.
Recently, Maryland swore in its first Black governor, Wes Moore, in a “historic” ceremony cemented with a tearful introduction by Oprah Winfrey and a hand on Frederick Douglass’ Bible. The Black elite flocked to fill the rooms of the inauguration to witness the third elected Black governor in U.S. history. Yet, this “first Black” gubernatorial win is history repeating itself.
African/Black communities have witnessed “first Blacks” consistently continuing over-policing, surveillance, criminalization and austerity policies.
As Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) member organization Ujima People’s Progress Party understands,
There is nothing Gautam Adani will not do for money. In this sense, he is admirably dedicated to greed, so much so he has become its foremost caricature worthy of permanent enthronement. Mark this man’s name in the scriptures of eternity: There was nothing he did not do for the filthy lucre.
For the unfamiliar reader, the $218 billion Adani imperium, one specialising in transport, infrastructure, and mining, is vast, with far reaching feelers, prongs and tentacles that have made their mark in a number of countries. Along the way, Adani’s companies have made quite a name for themselves. Employment …
Though Israel’s past wars on Gaza have often been justified by Tel Aviv as a response to Palestinian rockets or, generally, as acts of self-defense, the truth is different. Historically, Israel’s relationship with Gaza has been defined by Tel Aviv’s need to create distractions from its own fractious politics, to flex its muscles against its regional enemies and to test its new weapons technology.
Though the Occupied West Bank – in fact, other Arab countries, too – has been used as a testing ground for Israel’s war machine, no other place has …
Since 1998 charter schools in New York state have deprived under-funded public schools of billions of dollars and greatly enriched the private interests that operate these segregated schools.
Not surprisingly, poor academic performance, regular school closings, corruption, scandal, and controversy have been the norm in the crisis-prone charter school sector in New York State for the past 25 years. It has been the norm nationwide for 32 years.
As expected, promoters of these outsourced schools governed by unelected private persons remain relentless in their efforts to expand and multiply charter schools. There is …
by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead / February 8th, 2023
Step away from the blinders that partisan politics uses to distract, divide and conquer, and you will find that we are drowning in a cesspool of problems that individually and collectively threaten our lives, liberties, prosperity and happiness.
These are not problems the politicians want to talk about, let alone address, yet we cannot afford to ignore them much longer.
From time to time, academics, and journalists from the Global South, express their disappointment with what they call Western progressive intellectuals. These “progressive intellectuals” are accused of criticizing the imperialist policies of their governments and the propagandist nature of the mainstream media in general terms while relying on the same misinformation and disinformation that the media disseminate and endorse the same imperialist policies that their governments pursue in the Global South, especially against the states and nations which resist Western hegemony.
The response, of these so-called progressive intellectuals to recent socio-political unrest in Iran, expressed in two …
The insanity of America just never slips, as the men and women who have done an amazing bunch of PSYOPS on the American public since, oh, hell, before Randoph Hearst’ and Pulitzer’s Yellow Journalism, are coming at us like gangbusters. The military wars being plotted now, the economic wars of old and present, the war against nature, the war against people through agriculture and chemical bombs, these are all colluding and connected issues. We are in a War Regime. Let’s try and blast away and look as some of the wars waged from different silos and see if we (I) …
Hysteria over balloons is a strange thing. Hot air balloons made their appearance during the Napoleonic era, where they served as delivery weapons for bombs and undertook surveillance tasks. High altitude balloons were also used by, of all powers, the United States during the 1950s, for reasons of gathering intelligence, though these were shot down by the irritated Soviets. Somehow, the US imperium and its noisy choristers have managed to get worked up over a solitary Chinese balloon that traversed the United States for over a week before it was shot down by the US Air Force.
1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime
by Paul Haeder / February 7th, 2023
Note: This piece has been sent to the local newspaper, Newport News Times, which is not a shadow of a shadow at once a week hard copy. Imagine that, no? Death of newspapers because? Social Media? Internet? No more readers? Bad management? Gutting of newspapers for stock holders? What the heck?
Valentines Day, for me, is that Vagina Monologues. Sure, we are on the brink of nuclear disaster with this great Grand Old Flag land pushing and pulling for Russia responses for all that shaking going on in Ukraine and Russia….
As a general principle “education” about racism and the horrors a vile ideology has inflicted upon the world is a good thing and should be encouraged. But as is the case with many things the devil is in details. This is especially true of history.
For example, over many decades children were taught that Scottish Highlanders fleeing clearance by evil landlords and poor Irish fleeing famine found refuge and a new home in Canada. While this history is accurate as far as it goes, teaching it in a way that presents the …
In 2022 Melbourne University (MU), formerly Australia’s top university, succumbed to racist Zionist subversion by falsely defaming anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish staff and students as anti-Semitic for criticism of Israeli Apartheid. MU has now adopted the false, racist and defamatory International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of anti-Semitism that is anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, and near-comprehensively genocide-ignoring and holocaust-ignoring.
Not content with merely falsely defaming anti-racist students and staff as “anti-Semites” for criticizing Israeli Apartheid, the Melbourne University Management (MUM) administers a Code of Conduct that now implicitly includes the false, racist, …
Events continue to unfold at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we asked Margaret Kimberley for her current thoughts. We focus on the realities of the international power struggle unfolding in real time, specifically addressing the role of the U.S. in the tensions and its capacity to reduce them.
We are grateful to Margaret Kimberley for sharing her valuable and courageous views. The interview was arranged by John Rachel, Director of the Peace Dividend Project. The Peace Dividend strategy is not a meme or a bumper sticker. It is an …
In order to understand why, the nature of imperialism, and thus of all empires, needs first to be explained (especially because almost no one knows about this):
Whereas a merely domestic dictatorship is no danger to other nations, an international dictatorship — or “empire” — is a danger to other nations, because every empire (i.e., each of the individuals who actually control it) craves to increase or expand its (their) control, and because this imperialistic craving is or ought to be part of the very definition of “empire” because every empire is …
• Bolivia and China agreement for CBC consortium to mine lithium
• 892 million trips for the Chinese new year
• Extension of rights for migrant workers
• The challenges of football in China
The word “inequality” is everywhere in the media. It usually refers either to race, gender, rich vs. poor, or other differences between human beings. Absent from the public debate is the biggest perpetrator of “inequality” against human beings – the corporate entity itself.
Ever since 1886 when a U.S. Supreme Court reporter, in a headnote for the Court’s opinion, wrote that corporations possessed equal rights under the Constitution, judges and corporatist legislators have equipped corporations with an arsenal of inequitable rights. (The Constitution makes no mention whatsoever of “corporation” or “company”).
How is that possible with the 14th Amendment mandating equal protection …
But for now, let me repeat: the world’s richest 85 individuals do not have the same amount of accumulated wealth as the world’s poorest 50 percent. They have vastly more. The multitude on the lower rungs—even taken as a totality—have next to nothing.
— Michael Parenti
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), a self-governing enclave in the South Caucasus, remains under total blockade by Azerbaijan. Over 120,000 Armenians—including 30,000 children—are on the brink of an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe as food runs scarce, medicine cabinets fall bare, and children now suffer malnutrition.
A single mountain road connects Artsakh to Armenia; it is the sole lifeline for the indigenous Armenians who live there. Pursuant to the November 9, 2020 Trilateral Statement, Azerbaijan is under strict legal obligation to keep its hands off the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor through which that …
Like many of you, I watched parts of Vera Sharav’s new documentary series, Never Again is Now Global, this week. With its sharp focus on the Holocaust and Nazi tactics in general, I felt the need to reach back into some of my older research and remind readers who was supporting and enabling the rise of Hitler.
Spoiler alert: It is the same class of folks responsible for tyranny today.
Forever Chemicals are found everywhere from the depths of the Mariana Trench to the mountaintop of Mt. Everest. Following 80 years of manufacturing various PFAS chemicals, the world is swimming in chemical permanence. And yes, it is a toxic price society pays for modern-day conveniences — made easy!
But maybe it would be better if “products made easy by PFASs” were made the old-fashioned way, pre-1940 sans dangerous chemicals. After all, several civilizations of the world got along just fine over thousands of years …
Israel calls its latest military campaign Operation Break the Wave, a lyrical description of a brutal reality. This year, 2023, will be the seventy-fifth year after the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948 when Israeli troops illegally removed Palestinians from their homes and tried to erase Palestine from the map. Since then, Palestinians have resisted against all odds, despite Israel’s formidable backing by the most powerful countries in the world, led by the United States.
