As 2022 draws to a close, we try to forget the ugly and cruel that we have witnessed throughout the year. We try to think about all the good that has happened, hoping that the next one will be even better. But if we don’t face the wrong, how will we create a better world for our children?
One of the many unpleasant news stories in December was the surfacing of the outrageous lies of US representative-elect George Santos (NY 3rd congressional district). Santos, a young Republican candidate for US Congress lied about his education (he said he attended two colleges, …
Villains often have the best tunes. In some cases, they also have the best evidence. The tendency in the latter is to suppress or distort that evidence if it is contrary to their interests. Exxon, now ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil and gas company, has revealed, much like tobacco companies of the past, that excellent research that might prove costly to profits is best suppressed. Destroying ecological systems and ravaging mother nature are secondary considerations.
In the 1970s, it was already engaged in research of farsighted worth. As a …
I have a newly-discovered health problem, where during the day, my blood pressure readings are quite normal, or we might even say somewhat on the low side, 105-65. During the night, when I am sleeping, however, the very same indicators are just too high, 168-92.
My doctor, a very dedicated physician and caring human being has no idea why. She has asked around, but the responses have been few, and certainly not very encouraging. To be honest, most doctors don’t know the answer, and as far as the patients, how many of them do you know, that measure and record their …
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.
— Edward Bernays
The Edward Bernays quote up top comes from his 1928 book, …
Canada, Nunavut Territory, Repulse Bay, Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) stands on melting sea ice at sunset near Harbour IslandsNASA claims that 2022 was one of the hottest years ever recorded with record-breaking heat waves around the world, as major commercial waterways, like the Danube, Po, Rhine, Yangtze, and Mississippi rivers temporarily dried up leaving humongous river barges choking in mud.
But that was merely global-warming-lite.
The real global warming threat is invisible. It’s the oceans where 90% of planet-generated heat is captured, and it’s starting to impact the climate …
Spiridonov Yuri Vasilyevich (Sakha), Landlord of the Moma Mountains, 2006.
In 1996, the eight countries on the Arctic rim – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States – formed the Arctic Council, a journey that began in 1989 when Finland approached the other countries to hold a discussion about the Arctic environment. The Finnish initiative led to the Rovaniemi Declaration (1991), which established the council’s precursor, the …
Here’s one possible trajectory for ambitious print journalists. After making your name with aggressive reporting at a smaller newspaper, move up the ladder until you are at a top paper with a prestige beat. Go on the television talk shows to pontificate. Maybe snag a regular column. Offer analyses that seem critical but make sure never to challenge the conventional wisdom. Hire an agent who can get you handsome speaking fees on the lecture circuit.
Here’s P. Sainath’s trajectory. After making your name with aggressive reporting at a smaller newspaper, …
China offers a threatening alternative model of development that is non-capitalist, non-Western, and non-colonial. As such, it undermines the West’s neocolonial domination of the Third World and its debt-trap-based forced underdevelopment of subverience and exploitation.
— K.T. Noh ((K.J. Noh, “The U.S. Is Set on a Path to War with China. What is to be Done?”))
If the United States were to posit that it could eliminate the economic challenge from China by launching an atomic war, there is no evidence that the U.S. would not do so.
— John Ross ((John Ross, “What is Propelling the …
It has been reported that many elite athletes and celebrities appear to be succumbing to what is claimed to be the effects of the COVID-19 vaccinations. Are these high-profile injuries and deaths out of the ordinary? Whether ordinary or not, what is undeniable is that people were coerced and put at risk by governments to be jabbed with a so-called vaccine that had not undergone safety testing.
Two examples — Korea and Indonesia — will be documented here in order to display that America’s Cold War against communism was/is a cover-story, or deceptive cloak, for a war actually against the poor (and the political Left) in all nations: in other words, a fascist war, meaning that America’s Government became fascist-imperialist as soon as World War II ended, despite FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt — America’s President throughout WW II) having been passionately anti-fascist and anti-imperialist. All of this will be explained here, and documented in the article’s links. First, however, will be explained the underlying economic mechanism employed …
Another needless, fatuous endeavour; another irresponsible drain on the public purse; another expression that the military-industrial complex Down Under is thriving in all its insidious stupidity. But Australia’s purchase of HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) batteries from the United States can be put down to loneliness – or the feeling of being left out. And history shows that loneliness in the context of weapons and harm involves a need to acquire more means to do further harm.
The timing of the announcement this month …
Once more, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will offer a legal opinion on the consequences of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
A historic United Nations vote on December 31 called on the ICJ to look at the Israeli Occupation in terms of legal consequences, the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the responsibility of all UN Member States in bringing the protracted Israeli Occupation to an end. A special emphasis will be placed on the “demographic composition, character and status” of Occupied Jerusalem.
Of course, King was murdered by the Deep State on Steroids:
Both the Jowers and the Wilson allegations suggest that persons other than or in addition to James Earl Ray participated in the assassination. Ray, within days of entering his guilty plea in 1969, attempted to withdraw it. Until his death in April 1998, he maintained that he did not shoot Dr. King and was framed by a man he knew only as Raoul. For 30 years, others have similarly alleged that Ray was Raoul’s unwitting pawn and that a conspiracy orchestrated Dr. King’s murder. These varied theories have generated …
by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead / January 11th, 2023
How do you trust a government that continuously sidesteps the Constitution and undermines our rights? You can’t.
When you consider all the ways “we the people” are being bullied, beaten, bamboozled, targeted, tracked, repressed, robbed, impoverished, imprisoned and killed by the government, one can only conclude that you shouldn’t trust the government with your privacy, your property, your life, or your freedoms.
Consider for yourself.
Don’t trust the government with your privacy, digital or otherwise. In the two decades since 9/11, the military-security industrial complex has operated under a permanent state of emergency that, …
I think it’s important to understand that the quality of the process you use to get to a place determines the ends, so when you want to build a democratic society, you have to act democratically in every way. If you want love and brotherhood, you’ve got to incorporate them as you go along, because you can’t just expect them to occur in the future without experiencing them before you get there. I agree with Che Guevara: the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. If that love isn’t …
“When COVID swept the planet, a moral injury crisis arose as ethically wrenching dilemmas became the new normal.” “In an atmosphere of rationed care, doctors, nurses and other health care workers must admit a few patients and turn many away,” to die.
Moral injury is a specific and devastating trauma that arises when people face situations that deeply violate their core values. Such violations of morality can result in shame, guilt, and hopelessness, raising the risk of substance abuse, depression, and suicide. When society allows the uncontrolled spread of a deadly virus, millions are afraid they may …
Today the conflict in Ukraine advances every day and intensifies with Russian destruction of the Ukrainian infrastructure, with the western gift to Ukraine of more and more sophisticated and destructive weapons, with provocations like the missile aimed at Poland, and the Ukrainian attacks within Russia. Presently, the conflict in Ukraine has brought …
In the longer term, statistics point to a naturally occurring population decline; i.e., without resort to eugenics or other forms of culling. The shorter term, however, is another matter.
CODEPINK is appalled and outraged at the attempted coup in Brazil that took place on January 8 by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Emulating the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, fascist and extreme-right groups stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices to subvert the constitutional order and call for a military intervention. The damage is much greater than the destruction in Washington on January 6th. Journalists compared the scenes at the government buildings in the capital to a war zone.
President Lula announced a federal security intervention in Brasilia and by evening, security forces had managed to retake the capital buildings. …
This is what happens to anyone who happens to report the types of things that America’s billionaires want to be hidden from the public.
To understand how it happened to me (and has happened to lots of others), an introduction is needed, first, about the American Government:
America’s First Amendment to its Constitution is this sentence: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Today, I took a photo walk around the Welling Court Mural Project in Astoria, Queens, NYC.
“Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colors and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a …
On the Star Trek TNG episode “The Measure of a Man,” humans of the 24th century pondered whether the android Data was sentient, was property, and whether “he” had a soul (which the JAG officer also wondered about herself).
The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
– Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
Really? Or was he joking?
Whenever January rolls around and a new year begins with its implied ending, I think of my father and Albert Camus, both born in 1913. Camus died on January 4, 1960 in a strange car crash, which might have been an assassination according to Italian author Giovanni Catelli, …
In the spirit of Jonathan Swift’s satirical world (“A Modest Proposal”), we might facetiously attribute the recent decline in US life expectancy to a concerted effort to strengthen the social safety net.
Politicians have been maintaining for decades that it would be necessary to reduce social security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits to keep the systems solvent. Leaders of both political parties have urged cutting benefits, changing eligibility requirements, or raising the already-high age thresholds to preserve the reserves for future recipients. Alarmists have persisted for decades, and seniors and the poor have passionately and successfully resisted cuts …
• End of peak cases of COVID-19
• U.S. boycott affects energy transition
• Huawei makes progress in 10nm microchip manufacturing
• World’s largest national park system
