Last May a remarkable column by Stephen Kinzer appeared in the Boston Globe. It was headlined: “Republicans Return To Their Roots As The Antiwar Party.”
More significantly, the subheading ran: “Since the Vietnam era, Americans have come to expect antiwar rhetoric from liberal Democrats. Cancel that.” It began:
Be careful who you praise and the degree of zeal you do it with. The slain Shinzo Abe, shot dead in Nara on July 8, towered over Japanese politics. In doing so, he cast a lengthy shadow. In death, this shadow continues to grow ever more darkly.
The reaction from certain figures outside Japan left an impression of distorted admiration. There was Hillary Clinton’s cloying tribute about Abe being “a champion of democracy and a firm believer that no economy, society, or country can achieve its full potential if women are left behind.”
• Outcomes from the SCO meeting
• Challenges for China’s “sandwich generation”
• China releases a report on food and nutrition
• Archaeological work on ancient Chinese civilization
Even Seven Billion Simple Acts of Kindness will not Alter the Outcome
by John Stanton / September 26th, 2022
Mutilation & Burning at the Stake: United States 1899 in the US State of Georgia:
Sam Hose was brought to a patch of land known as the old Troutman field. Newspapers reported that members of the mob used knives to sever Hose’s ears, fingers and genitals while others plunged knives repeatedly into his body, to cheers from the mob. Men and boys gathered kindling from the nearby woods to create a pyre. The skin from Hose’s face was removed, and he was doused with kerosene. He was then chained to a pine tree. Several matches were thrown onto the pyre by …
A Brief History of Hollywood’s Justification of Israeli War Crimes
by Ramzy Baroud / September 26th, 2022
The introduction of an Israeli Mossad agent as the latest Marvel movie character crosses the line, even by Hollywood’s poor moral standards. However, the Israeli superhero, Sabra, must be understood within the rational progression of the Israelification of Hollywood, a phenomenon that is surprisingly new.
Sabra is a relatively old character, dating back to a Marvel comic, the Incredible Hulk, in 1980. On September 10, however, it was announced that the Israeli character will be included in an upcoming Marvel film, ‘Captain America: New World Order’.
Expectedly, many pro-Palestine activists in the United States and around the world fumed. It …
It’s impossible to know whether the new British Prime Minister is genuinely serious about constructive policy or not. She is certainly interested in greasing palms and calming the storms, if only to delay the inevitable. Having proven herself the shallowest of candidates to succeed her disgraced, not wholly banished predecessor, Liz Truss has leapt into economic policy as her starting point.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the newly minted Chancellor of the Exchequer, has given us a sense of what Trussonomics looks like in his “mini budget” announced on September 23. In line with this new policy, undertaken at a time of stroppily rising …
Australia has a mixed relationship with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Irritation, dismissal and even the occasional openly hostile comment, have registered. But in 1994, the Toonen decision filtered through the Australian legal process, leading the federal government to remove archaically noxious provisions in the Tasmanian criminal code criminalising sodomy.
The UNHRC has since found Australia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to be patchy. In November 2017, the body released its observations in a five-year review of the Commonwealth’s record noting glaring problems of protection in such areas as refugees and asylum seekers, Aboriginal …
South Korea's President Yoon gives a piece of his mind after a "drive-by summit" with Joe Biden
by K.J. Noh / September 24th, 2022
Zola not Hemingway at the White House
According to the US State Department, President Joe Biden met with South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting on September 21st. The White House readout is worth quoting in its entirety:
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea (ROK) on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the U.S.-ROK alliance and ensure close cooperation to address the threat posed by …
In his anticipated speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to, once more, make a passionate plea for the recognition of Palestine as a full member.
Abbas’ ‘landmark speech’ would not be the first time that the President of the Palestinian Authority has lobbied for such a status. In September 2011, the PA’s quest for full recognition was stymied by the Barack Obama Administration, forcing Palestinians to opt for the next best option, a ‘symbolic’ victory at the General Assembly the following year. In November 2012, UNGA Resolution 67/19 granted …
In the US, we proudly point to the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights that was adopted in 1791:
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.
We believe that our freedom of speech and of the press are two of the ways the US differs from more dictatorial nations such as Germany under the Nazis and the former Soviet Union.
Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg has been in the environmental news again, this time throwing a large judicial spanner in the works of Santos and its drilling efforts in the Timor Sea.
On this occasion, the Federal Court found that the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority should never have approved the Barossa Gas Project off the Tiwi Islands, which would entail drilling at a site 140 kilometres from the Tiwi Islands. NOPSEMA’s primary role is to regulate offshore petroleum activities in Australian waters and is tasked with examining environmental plans under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas …
The right to protest, fragile and meekly protected by the judiciary in Britain’s common law tradition, did not really hold much force till European law confirmed it. In the UK, condemning other countries for suppressing rights to protest is standard fare. So it was with some discomforting surprise – at least to a number of talking heads – that people were arrested for protesting against the monarchy after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Such surprise is misplaced. In the UK, protestors can be marched away before the operation of vast, and vague discretionary powers wielded by the police. An old, …
Well healed individuals have the right to cheer on war criminals as they raise funds to promote apartheid and if anyone asks uncomfortable questions they are denounced as antisemitic. That about sums up the Canadian Jewish News’ position regarding a recent United Jewish Appeal of Toronto event with George W. Bush and Stephen Harper.
Last week 3,000 attended a fireside chat between the former US president and Canadian prime minister. Tickets for the launch of UJA’s annual fundraising campaign were $250. Billed as “one of the most important conversations UJA has ever hosted”, the event marketing noted, “Witness these legendary …
If you support freedom of speech, then it goes both ways. With the exception of disinformation, freedom of speech must be protected just as much for views you oppose as for those you support.
40 years on, after the 1982 massacre of Sabra and Shatila, Palestinian Refugee Camp, Lebanon
by Heather Stroud / September 21st, 2022
As Lebanon plunges into political chaos — banking corruption, power cuts and exploding prices — the Palestinian refugees, already marginalised without rights and unable to climb out of poverty, have fallen deeper into despair.
Walking through the camps one sees tangles of bare electric cable, dripped on by corroded air conditioning units, hanging dangerously low in the narrow, dark passages that run between people’s homes. This combination of raw electricity and water frequently results in puddles of electrified water. Adults and children alike have fallen victim to electrocution as they have passed along these narrow corridors. Ironically the only positive aspects …
Colonialism, neo-colonialism, wars, mass mortality & genocide
by Gideon Polya / September 21st, 2022
Queen Elizabeth II has died, and there is immense public affection for the Queen for her dignified but warm conduct in 70 years of dedicated service as a constitutional monarch. That affection is most marked among her pro-Apartheid Israel and hence pro-Apartheid British, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand Subjects, as well as among some other British Commonwealth loyalists. However resolutely ignored is the Royal heading of British imperialism, slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, war and genocide for centuries up to the present.
The English have invaded 193 of the world’s present-day countries over the …
On November 24, 2007, September 11th widow Lorie Van Auken whose husband Kenneth W. Van Auken had died in the North Tower spoke before an audience at the Episcopal Church-in-the-Bowery. In support of a campaign for the City of New York to investigate the ‘attacks,’ she remarked:
It turns out almost everything about 9/11 was out of the ordinary, including the fact that it was never properly investigated…. The reason that we need an investigation into 9/11 is because we never actually had one. The 9/11 Commission was not a real investigation. It …
For the most part, contraception and abortion voices come from two prominent camps. Pro-Life advocacy is primarily championed from a religious base, while Pro-Choice argument is voiced from a secular position. That said, Pro-Life does have a small secular faction and the Pro-Choice voice receives some amplification from a religious base. It should also be noted that while the secular Pro-Choice camp does not position God in its argument, it does not necessarily follow that its constituency is largely atheistic or agnostic.
For both Pro-Life groups, the moment of conception is definitive. For the Pro-Choice voices, the moment of conception is …
“Emotions” are one of those words that everyone thinks they understand until you press them with questions. Broadly speaking, Western philosophers have not thought well of emotions. It was not until the time of the Romantics at the end of the 18th century that the tide turned in favor of the emotions. Here is a history of how the leading lights of the West thought of emotions. For most of Western history:
Emotions were thought of as coming from supernatural forces outside the psyche. It was only in …
After 12 bleak years of various Conservative governments, led by inadequate Prime Ministers, the UK is on its knees. Democracy is under attack like never before; the disaster of Brexit, which has resulted in a catalogue of negatives including social polarization, isolationism and rabid tribalism.
Years of grinding austerity, underinvestment in public services, frozen wages and staggering levels of incompetence have culminated in the unmitigated mess we see before us: A country in terminal decline, poverty growing, inequality entrenched, and to cap it all The Wicked Witch of the raving Right, Liz Truss, has now been elected leader of the Conservatives, …
** Originally written by Paul Haeder and published in The Defender, September 19, 2022 Supporters of Shell’s Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex allege it will revive the region’s economy, but critics say it will pollute the environment and harm human health — especially children’s health.
Along the banks of the Ohio River, some residents of Pennsylvania towns like Beaver, Vanport, Brighton and Monaca are hoping a $6 billion ethane cracker plant in Potter Township will deliver positive economic benefits, including new jobs.
But others who live in the region are skeptical the …
The recent meeting in Samarkand of the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, both actual and prospective, received little coverage in the Western media. This was a great pity because this organisation is one of the most important groupings of nations in the world. The meeting was notable on a number of points. It clearly spelt out for example, that notwithstanding the present conflict in Ukraine, Russia remains an important force in the world and if anything, its position has strengthened in the seven months since it took action in Ukraine.
Despite desperate attempts by the Western media that bothered to …
When it was revealed that former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had not only shown contempt for his own government in secretly appointing himself, via the Governor-General’s approval, to five portfolios, the depths of deception seemed to be boundless. His tenure had already been marked by a spectacular, habitual tendency to conceal matters. What else would come out?
The latest revelation in the Morrison Mendacity Roadshow came in a leaked document authored by a former Department of Defence deputy secretary, Kim Gillis, a key figure in submarine contract negotiations with the French Naval Group. The contract to build twelve French-made …
Cloudless contentment is not open to man, and if he trades his freedom or integrity for it, the time will come when he feels cheated.
— Walter Kaufmann ((Without Guilt and Justice: From Decidophobia to Autonomy. Peter Wyden, Inc., 1973.))
In his early Paris manuscripts (1844), the young Karl Marx defined “alienation” as an estrangement from the product of one’s labor. The modern factory, with its specialized division-of-labor (which even Adam Smith deplored as necessary but dehumanizing), exponentially increased productive output–but at the price of deskilling and condemning the worker to a single, repetitive …
In recent years, governments have been demonstrating their subservience to their billionaire masters in Big Finance, the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, BlackRock and the entire gamut of forces in the military-financial-industrial complex behind the ‘Great Reset’, ‘New Normal’ or whichever other benign-sounding term is used to disguise the crisis and current restructuring of capitalism and the brutal impacts on ordinary people.
In late 2019 and early 2020 (due to collapsing financial markets immediately prior to COVID) and during COVID (via COVID-relief packages), trillions of dollars were handed over to elite interests while lockdowns and restrictions were imposed on ordinary people and small …
Under capitalism, political violence is not constantly required for the extraction of surplus-value and the maintenance of capitalist social relations. The separation of direct producers from the means of production in capitalist social formations means that surplus-value can be appropriated by economic mechanisms without the repeated deployment or threat of deployment of politico-military force in the battle between classes. In Mute Compulsion: A Theory of the Economic Power of Capital, Søren Mau writes: “The characteristic thing about the power of capital is precisely that it has an ability to reproduce itself …
