Latest articles
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 …
(another history lesson)
by Mickey Z. / December 26th, 2022
Preface: Paul, a subscriber/regular commenter, recently mentioned Gen. Smedley Butler the other day and it inspired me to share an edited excerpt from my first book.
During the early 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated that he was “deeply impressed” with Benito Mussolini and referred to the Italian dictator as an “admirable Italian gentleman.”
Despite Roosevelt’s positive assessment of the strongman of Italian fascism, there is evidence that some home-grown U.S. fascists may …
by Allen Forrest / December 26th, 2022
A take on how governments and entrenched media report events surrounding COVID-19.
by Robert Hunziker / December 24th, 2022
Imagine being confined to a space the size of a car’s interior in the pitch blackness of outer space for three days. Your spacecraft is the Apollo 14 Command Module “Kitty Hawk,” returning from the moon. In order to maintain thermal balance, the module will rotate 360° every two minutes, as the sun, the moon and stars, 10xs brighter and 10xs more prevalent, come into view repeatedly every 120 seconds. For Edgar Mitchell, NASA Lunar Module Pilot of the Apollo 14 moon mission in 1971 it was mesmerizing, inspiring universal connectiveness, a transcendental shift.
Other astronauts have experienced the Overview Effect, …
by Greg Palast / December 24th, 2022
Finally. The Department of Justice has finally taken on ‘True the Vote’, the right-wing group behind the wrongful challenge of hundreds of thousands of legal Georgia voters. True the Vote challenges were the central subject of the film Vigilante, Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman created by the Palast Investigative Fund team.
I know what you’re thinking: Why did Justice sue two weeks AFTER the election?
Luckily, the film and our related reports got out in Georgia before the election. We held special voter impact showings from Coffee County to Gwinnett to Valdosta. Crucially, we confronted and exposed True the …
by Allen Forrest / December 24th, 2022
Am I just outright stupid, or is something seriously wrong with the majority of people? Bill Gates had his summit on overpopulation and how this is a serious crisis. Yet then he claims he can reduce disease and save the population with vaccines. Gates especially seems to want to save humanity which he on the other hand says is the problem. Something is just not right.
— “The Hypocrisy behind the Vaccines.”
by Binoy Kampmark / December 24th, 2022
A ridiculous spectacle: Christmas in North Queensland, an event held in a land so prehistoric it makes a mockery of its human inhabitants. Cartoons and cardboard cut-outs of snow flecked reindeer stranded upon water-hungry lawns, irrelevant and incapable of surviving in these climes; the occasional defiance by the inhabitants who replace the reindeer with kangaroos as Santa’s recruits dragging his sleigh.
Another matter that is equally ridiculous: a desert religion’s celebration in the conifer-covered land masses of northern Europe, where pagan spirits fight with dedicated …
by Kim Petersen / December 23rd, 2022
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder & political prisoner, epitomizes what the rules-based order means in the lexicon of US empire.
In fits of, what might well be termed, masochism, some of us now-and-then tune in to the legacy media. When doing so, one is likely to hear western-aligned politicians rhetorize ad nauseam about the linguistically vogue rules-based order. Now and then, the word “international” is also inserted: the rules-based international order.
But what exactly is this rules-based order?
The way that the wording rules-based order is bandied about makes it sound like it …
by Bill Berkowitz / December 23rd, 2022
While many folks are singing along to their favorite Christmas music, decorating Christmas trees, adorning their homes with fantastical light displays, and settling in to stream a myriad of Christmas-related movies, ((Check out Vulture’s “The 16 Best Christmas Movies Streaming Right Now.” )) the conspiracy crowd continues promoting War on Christmas treacheries. ((Here you’ll find Ruben Bolling’s brilliant comic strip “Q-Nuts: It’s the War on Christmas, Charlie Brown!” )) However, the real myth, according to Dr. David Kyle Johnson, is Christmas itself!
According to …
by Vijay Prashad / December 23rd, 2022
Reference photograph: Sandinistas at the Walls of the National Guard Headquarters: ‘Molotov Man’, Estelí, Nicaragua, July 16th, 1979, by Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos
The International Labour Organisation’s Global Wage Report 2022–23 tracks the horrendous collapse of real wages for billions of people around the planet. The gaping distance between the incomes and wealth of 99% of the world’s population from the incomes …
by Ramzy Baroud / December 22nd, 2022
Just when Israel, and even some Palestinians, began talking about the Lions’ Den phenomenon in the past tense, a large number of fighters belonging to the newly-formed Palestinian group marched in the city of Nablus.
Unlike the group’s first appearance on September 2, the number of fighters who took part in the rally in the Old City of Nablus on December 9 was significantly larger, better equipped, with unified military fatigues and greater security precautions.
“The Den belongs to all of Palestine and believes in …
by Eric Zuesse / December 22nd, 2022
During this year, the U.S. Government has allocated $112 billion to Ukraine, in order to defeat Russia in the battlefields of Ukraine. Russia allocates normally $60 billion per year for its entire military, but this year has increased that 40% to $84 billion, because of its invasion of Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine because, on 17 December 2021, Russia had demanded that the U.S. Government and its NATO anti-Russian military alliance stop trying to place its missiles on and near Russia’s borders (especially in Ukraine, which is the nearest …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 22nd, 2022
Africa has been a continent exploited since the European scramble carved it out in lines of a draughtsman’s crude design. Its resources have been pilfered; its peoples enslaved for reasons of trade and profit; its political conditions manipulated to favour predatory companies.
A similar pattern is detectable in the digital world. The slavers have replaced their human product with data and information. The ubiquitous sharing of information on social media platforms has brought with it a fair share of dangerous ills. A $2 billion …
