Latest articles
by Allen Forrest / January 3rd, 2023
by Edward Curtin / January 3rd, 2023
On December 15, the night that the Biden administration released some of the remaining JFK files while withholding others with another half-assed excuse, Tucker Carlson, the most-watched cable news television host, delivered a monologue about the JFK assassination. It garnered a great deal of attention.
Although I don’t watch Carlson’s television show, I received messages from many friends and colleagues, people I highly respect, about his monologue’s great significance, so I watched that episode. And then I watched it many …
by Ramzy Baroud / January 2nd, 2023
Another critical year for Palestine has folded. While 2022 has wrought much of the same in terms of Israeli military occupation and increasing violence, it also introduced new variables to the Palestinian struggle – nationally, regionally and internationally.
Palestine, the War and the Arabs
The Russia-Ukraine war starting in February pressured many political entities, including Palestinians, to take sides or, at least, to declare a position. Though the Palestinian Authority (PA) and various Palestinian political parties insisted on their neutrality, Russia’s deviation from the US-led political paradigm in the …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 2nd, 2023
Metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else.
— Aristotle, Poetics (1457b)
It all seemed familiar. Anthropomorphised Mother Nature in vengeful mood; humans wondering if they might meet a frozen demise in trapped vehicles; the planners taking stock as to how best to cope with grim circumstances. The New York State governor Kathy Hochul was happy to stick her head out in declaring the latest lethal winter storm in Buffalo to be nothing less than a “war with Mother Nature, and she has been hitting us with everything she has.”
Having found her less than imaginative …
China eliminated absolute poverty; it now works toward common prosperity for all
by Kim Petersen / January 2nd, 2023
Yellowknife, Boxing Day 2022
Can you imagine walking downtown in Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Toronto, or any other burg in Canada or the United States and not seeing any panhandlers? This homelessness, begging, and dumpster diving is not confined to major urban centers. Last week, I was in Yellowknife, the capital of Denedeh (Home of the People; colonially designated as Northwest Territories), home to about 20,000 souls, where the temperatures ranged from -30° Celsius to -40° Celsius. Despite this, the homeless were out in the …
by William Manson / January 2nd, 2023
If you are dehumanized, I am dehumanized.
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
How to explain, psychologically, such a bizarre group-fantasy as QAnon–which is believed in by countless millions of Americans? We are witnessing a massive regression to a pre-logical, paranoid delusional system about a secret cabal of evil, devil-worshipping, pedophilic, cannibalistic Democrats. (The scathing irony is that leading Democrats, in complicity with President Bush, were implicated in the very real crimes, of immense consequences, of making war against Iraq.) But, as to QAnon, one is shocked to realize how similar such mass delusions are to the 17th century witch-hunts, …
by Allen Forrest / January 2nd, 2023
Open-minded skepticism is using one’s smarts. One keeps one’s mind open to possibilities, but remains skeptical until solid evidence is forthcoming. In the case of COVID-19, the authorities told people to follow the science. “Follow the science” was an oft heard refrain of Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, but when did he ever lay out the science for people? To tell people to follow the science and not back it up with the science is unscientific. This is faith. The question is whether people will put faith …
by Karnig Kerkonian / January 2nd, 2023
For seventeen days, Azerbaijani special forces and military personnel—masquerading as “environmentalists”—have blocked the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia. They have effectively severed the only lifeline the Artsakh Armenians have to the outside world—a lifeline guaranteed by the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020. With 120,000 Artsakh Armenians now completely encircled and isolated, Azerbaijan is poised to rid itself of the entire Armenian population this holiday season, and it will try to do so while Europe sips hot chocolate and watches.
Frankly, it is rare to have the opportunity to witness mass …
by Colin Todhunter / January 2nd, 2023
In a fair world, Aruna Rodrigues would be heralded as an incredible individual for her ongoing struggle to protect the socio-economic and environmental integrity of India. So says respected environmentalist, author and campaigner Leo Saldanha.
He adds:
Since 2005, she has tirelessly pursued a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court of India, in which she has made a case why India should not yield to pressures from mega agri-transnational corporations and certain sections of the Indian agricultural sector who are keen on promoting genetically modified organisms in farming.
India’s apex regulatory body, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, recently sanctioned genetically modified (GM) …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 2nd, 2023
There was the punk scene, Malcolm McLaren, their racy clothes shop at 430 King’s Road that started out as Let it Rock, the creation of a look, and the gathering of the earth rumbling Sex Pistols. In fact, the late Dame Vivienne Westwood was already a proven stirrer, suggesting that she, not Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, a.k.a Johnny Rotten, came up with the title for the barnstorming “Anarchy in the UK”. Boldly, she claimed that prior to McLaren and herself, there was no punk.
The Westwood look became ubiquitous with enthusiastic …
Transformation of language (part 4)
by T.P. Wilkinson / December 31st, 2022
In another 50 years China will be stronger, and by that time the Chinese Communist Party will be a hundred years old. The United States will surely be envious and ill-intentioned, but it doesn’t dare attack China, not even with a single bullet. It will research germ contamination. That is immoral. After it finishes with this unconscionable deed, imperialism will self-destruct.
— Mao Zedong, ???50????? (Chairman Mao’s 50 Years Ago Prophecy), 1 July 1971, p 520
In Britain, 26 December is Boxing Day. However far more importantly it is the birthday of Mao Zedong, who would have been 129 years old. Mao …
by Allen Forrest / December 31st, 2022
What happens if you awaken a sleepwalker?
by Binoy Kampmark / December 31st, 2022
The true résumé is rarely honest. The entire document is based on a stream of twisting embellishments, fanciful achievements, and, in some cases, pure fiction. Read it, as you would, an autobiography, which could only interest audiences by what it omits, what it underlines, and what it pretends to celebrate. The wrinkles vanish, the wounding sores patched; the skin moisturised, the face lifted by delicate textual surgery. Its writing, and its acceptance by any relevant audience, is a mutual conceit, a pact against veracity.
The number of individuals who make use of this mechanism is embarrassing. Academics speak of projects they …
by Mickey Z. / December 31st, 2022
I took the photo above shortly before midnight on December 31, 2011, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan. Please allow me to explain.
Members of Occupy Wall Street and other local “activist” groups held a “noise demo” in front of the jail to let the prisoners know they were not forgotten (or something like that). I attended these demos in both 2011 and 2012.
Here’s how it worked: We made lots of noise — chanting, singing, playing musical instruments, etc. — as a squad of cops, correction officers, and …
Facebook as Fact, Government as Truth, Big Pharma as God
by Colin Todhunter / December 31st, 2022
If events since March 2020 have shown us anything, it is that fear is a powerful weapon for securing hegemony. Any government can manipulate fear about certain things while conveniently ignoring real dangers that a population faces.
Author and researcher Robert J Burrowes says: “… if we were seriously concerned about our world, the gravest and longest-standing health crisis on the planet is the one that starves to death 100,000 people each day. No panic about that, of course.”
No panic because the controlling interests of the global food system have long profited from a ‘…
by Eric Zuesse / December 30th, 2022
When U.S. President George W. Bush, on 7 September 2002, said that the IAEA had just come out with a “new report” concluding that Saddam Hussein was only six months away from having a nuclear weapon, and the IAEA three times denied it, the President’s allegation grew into, and became the basis for, America’s ‘justification’ to invade Iraq on 20 March 2003, while the IAEA’s denial was hidden by the ‘news’-media — censored-out by them all (except for only one tiny and unclear news-story that only one …
The Price of Betraying Palestine
by Ramzy Baroud / December 30th, 2022
Two years ago, Morocco and Israel signed the US-brokered “Joint Declaration”, thus officially recognizing Israel and instating diplomatic ties. Though other Arab countries had already done the same, the Moroccan official recognition of Apartheid Israel was particularly devastating for Palestinians.
Years ago, a close Moroccan friend told me that the ‘first time’ he was arrested was during a solidarity protest for Palestine in Rabat which took place many years ago.
The reference to the ‘first time’ indicated that he was arrested again, though mostly for other political activities, suggesting …
by Allen Forrest / December 30th, 2022
by Ralph Nader / December 30th, 2022
Give the New York Times its due. Its teams of reporters produce more investigations of wrongdoing by entrenched vested interests than does the entire recess-rich, Tuesday-to-Thursday U.S. Congress with all its Committees and Subcommittees. The Times should promptly publish some of its exposes as small books. Their on-the-ground series on the burning Amazon Forest and their series on expanding sports gambling corruption and addiction exemplify great reporting.
However, in the last decade, the Times has freaked out over the decline in print subscriptions, loss of advertisements and the rise of the Internet with its many aliterate users. Though …
by Nizar Visram / December 30th, 2022
In 2010, when Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup tournament the Gulf kingdom became the focus of a disparaging campaign. Qatar was accused of mistreating migrant workers engaged to build World Cup projects.
The campaign against Qatar as host nation involved Britain, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Israel, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Demonstrations took place outside the Qatari Embassy in London, with the slogan “Qatar: stop funding terrorism.” The demonstrations were reportedly run by Sussex Friends of Israel and the Israeli Forum Task Force, joined by UK Lawyers for Israel and Stand With …
by Robert Hunziker / December 30th, 2022
NASA claims that 2022 was one of the hottest years ever recorded. Furthermore, according to CareOurEarth.com, this past year experienced: “Record-Breaking Heatwaves Around the World.”
It was the year of fires (everywhere, big fires), scorching heat (globally) floods (Pakistan! Europe, China) loss of potable water (especially France and Italy) nearly impassable commercial waterways (Danube, Po, Rhine, Mississippi) sunbaked droughts (US Southwest, Chile) sputtering water reservoirs (Lake Mead). In all, a mini-biblical-scale worldwide disaster scenario that conditioned people of the world for what to expect when global warming really cranks up bigtime.
In …
by Vijay Prashad / December 29th, 2022
Pathy Tshindele (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Untitled, 2016.
The United States government held the US-Africa Leaders Summit in mid-December, prompted in large part by its fears about Chinese and Russian influence on the African continent. Rather than routine diplomacy, Washington’s approach in the summit was guided by its broader New Cold War agenda, in which a growing focus of the US has been to disrupt relations that African nations hold with China and Russia. This hawkish stance is driven …
by Allen Forrest / December 29th, 2022
A discussion featuring Sasha Latypova, an ex-pharma/biotech professional with 25 years of experience in clinical trials, clinical technologies and regulatory approvals, about the role of the Department of Defense and National Security Council in deploying biowarfare agents marketed as “vaccines” on the US and global population.
From Totalitarian Paranoia to Authoritarian Madness
by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead / December 28th, 2022
The danger signs were everywhere in 2022.
With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except for that which the Deep State grants on an as-needed basis.
Totalitarian paranoia spiked. What we have been saddled with is a government so power-hungry, paranoid and afraid of losing its stranglehold on …
Process Philosophy, Conflicted Multiplicity and Mythological Rebellion
by Bruce Lerro / December 28th, 2022
Orientation
Foundational polarities between paganism and monotheism
What is the difference between a universe and a cosmos? Is the world eternal where something cannot come out of nothing or does the world have a beginning? What is primary, stasis or change? What might the difference between verbs and nouns have to do high paganism and monotheism? How might the difference between a proverb, a riddle and a paradox be connected to high paganism and monotheism. Is conflict a constitutional part of the world or is it a sign of deficiency? Does the complexity …
Plus: music journalist wokism
by Mickey Z. / December 28th, 2022
Remember that time, in 1980, when paramedics were summoned to the home of a major female rock star? Once there, the medical professionals found two young girls with the rock star. A 15-year-old was arrested on a drug-related charge and a 16-year-old was charged with prostitution.
The rock star in question was not a woman, of course. It was Don Henley of The Eagles (net worth: $200 million) and he was fined a mere $2,500 and only given probation for these transgressions.
How about the hard-rockin’ chick who pulled strings to …
by Paul Haeder / December 27th, 2022
Headline news, no: “AOC Casts House Democrats’ Sole Vote Against Omnibus Spending Bill: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez cited ‘the dramatic increase in DHS and ICE spending’ as the reason behind her vote.”
Oh, wouldn’t it be a fine thing in the neighborhood if this AOC went rogue, Independent Party, on her hands and knees, and apologizing:
I should have never supported any 350 (dot) org or Al Gore or Hollywood’s “new green deal” …
by Allen Forrest / December 27th, 2022
by ADC / December 27th, 2022
When Elon Musk met Donald Trump (Image credit: Mashable) This fall when Elon Musk took over Twitter he promised that he will adhere to free speech principles – allowing for the free flow of ideas and expression. However, only a few months into his control of the company he has kept one policy consistent – the silencing of Palestinian voices, including journalists. The attack on Palestinian journalists and voices has escalated over the past few weeks, culminating with the suspension of renowned journalist Said Arikat.
Arikat, a fixture at …
Vandalism on the Nullarbor Plain
by Binoy Kampmark / December 26th, 2022
Koonalda Cave
This is quite shocking,” declared South Australia’s Attorney-General and Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Kyam Maher. “These caves are some of the earliest evidence of Aboriginal occupation of that part of the country.” That evidence was subtracted this month by acts of vandalism inflicted on artwork in Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain, claimed to be the world’s largest limestone karst landscape and covering over 200,000 square kilometres.
Edward John Eyre, the first European to cross the Plain in 1840-1841, wrote hauntingly of it as “a …
