The Simpson-Goldman Saga
Reexamining a double murder in which ex-football star OJ Simpson was tried and found to be not guilty.
Latest articles
The Helsingin Sanomat Case: Prosecuting Journalists in Finland
On December 16, 2017, the Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published an investigative report on the activities of the Finnish Intelligence Research Centre. Titled “Finland’s Most Secret Place,” the report focused on the military intelligence agency’s tasks and noted its rough location.
The article was particularly pertinent, given debates at the time on whether the powers of the seemingly innocuous body in question should be expanded to monitor private data in digital networks while discussing an overall expansion of surveillance powers.
As the paper noted in scathing tone, the MPs debating the matter in Parliament seemed ignorant about what was …
How About a Civic Group to Oppose a Cashless Society?
The most perceptive ancient historians and philosophers could not have foreseen a time when a certain type of mass convenience and abundance becomes a threat to democracy, justice and dispersed power. Welcome to the incarcerations of the credit card payment systems Gulag and the corporate state’s drive to stop consumers from paying with cash.
So long as you have a credit card and a credit score, you’re in a world of easy credit (no down payments, etc.), and high interest rates, especially on unpaid monthly balances. All it takes is swiping your card and pushing buttons at retail establishments or online …
Mobilizing to Fight Chongqing Wildfires
News on China No. 114
This week’s News on China in 2 minutes.
• CPC’s 20th Congress date announced
• 234 arrested in Henan fraud case
• Mobilizing to fight Chongqing wildfires
• China’s rural “toilet revolution”
How to Green Our Parched Farmlands and Finance Critical Infrastructure
There are work-arounds the U.S. can use to fund affordable housing, drought responses, and other urgently-needed infrastructure that was left out of the two recent spending bills.
Congress has passed two major infrastructure bills in the last year, but imminent needs remain. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law chiefly focused on conventional highway programs, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) mainly centered on energy security and combating climate change. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), over $2 trillion in much-needed infrastructure is still unfunded, including projects to address drought, affordable housing, high-speed rail, and power transmission lines. By 2039, …
How Bad Can It Get?
How bad can it (climate change) get?
The sky’s the limit! No pun intended.
Still, the general public is tired of negative articles about climate change. It turns them off. Climate change is impossible to deal with. It’s too much; it’s too negative!
As a result, baffling emails come with loud and clear messages, some subtle but some not so subtle. Yet, these same people want access to scientific facts and data that describes just how challenging things really are. They even admit to that while complaining about too much doom and gloom. Nobody is satisfied.
All of which serves as an ideal segue …
Innocence of Mahmoud Abbas
Duplicity of Olaf Schulz
Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, demonstrated political naiveté when replying to an intimidating question, “As a Palestinian leader, did he plan to apologize to Israel and Germany for the 1972 Munich Olympics 1972 attack by Black September ahead of its 50th anniversary next month?” Something chilling in memorializing a terrorist attack, making it unique among the thousands of terrorist attacks committed on helpless people, many of them done by the Zionists and the Israeli government.
Not knowing the question was being used to provoke and use him to publicize apartheid Israel as a constant victim, President Abbas responded, “From 1947 to the present …
Capitalism Created the Climate Catastrophe; Socialism Can Avert Disaster
George Bahgoury (Egypt), Untitled, 2015.
In November 2022, most member states of the United Nations (UN) will gather in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh for the annual UN Climate Change Conference. This is the 27th conference of the parties to assess the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, commonly referred to as COP 27. The international environmental treaty was established in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, with the first conference held in Berlin in 1995; the agreements were extended in the Kyoto Protocol of 2005 …
Interview: Paul Craig Roberts
An objective look at U.S. foreign policy
Events continue to unfold at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we asked Paul Craig Roberts for his current thoughts.
Paul Craig Roberts is a widely renowned political analyst. He was Ass. Secretary for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan, associate editor and columnist with the Wall Street Journal, and columnist for Business Week and the Scripps Howard News Ser vice. His awe-inspiring insights, astute analysis, and developing views can be accessed at his Institute For Political Economy website.
We focus here on the realities …
Tens of Millions of Vials of Bioweapons on the Wall . . . Or Zelenksy’s Labs!
Forget about the fact these Pharma Felons have a long rap sheet going way back on the injuries and deaths created by their so-called approved products. They can’t even get vials of their bioweapon off the assembly line without metal bits in millions of batches.
Contaminant in Moderna COVID-19 vaccine vials found in Japan was metallic particles: report
That’s Pfizer and the billionaire CEO, the Greek Jewish, boosted up twice after mRNA double jab, who is now hot with SARS-CoV2, …
The Politics of Anti-Trumpism
The Inadequacy of the Left-Liberal Critique of the Threat of Fascism
Chris Butters warns: “A specter is haunting America, the specter of middle-class leftists turning to the right.” Writing on the official website of the Communist Party USA, he attacks certain social media personalities for not being sufficiently fearful of the “Trumpist Republican power grab” and by implication for their failure to embrace the succor of the Democratic Party.
My intention is not to defend the people that Butters regards as “disembodied spirits” or to criticize the CPUSA. Rather, Butters is used to illustrate a broader phenomenon in the left-of-center blogosphere. Specifically, his narrow focus on the binary choice (“lesser evilism”) …
Supporters of Palestinian Rights Should praise NDP’s Dramatic Policy Shift
Has a leading Canadian politician ever shifted so dramatically on a major policy issue?
Eighteen months ago, Jagmeet Singh refused to utter the word “Palestine” but on August 26 he sent out an email announcing the New Democrats’ position on Israel. It says: “We believe Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories is at the centre of the challenges facing the Palestinian and Israeli people.” It makes 13 demands of the minority Liberal government that the NDP supports in Parliament. These are:
Respond to reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli human rights NGOs and the United Nations …
“Race Reductionism” Threatens to Doom the Left
The reparations debate is getting old. But it shows little sign of abating. Academic papers continue to parse the idea of reparations for slavery; books continue to be written on the subject, adding to the mountain of material that already exists; celebrated journalists give speeches to the UN advocating reparations. Democratic candidates in 2020 prominently and sympathetically discussed the issue on the campaign trail. The debate is not going away anytime soon. It is the more unfortunate, then, that much of it is conducted in an unserious way.
The recent “national conversation” about reparations is usually traced to Ta-Nehisi …
Investigating the Victim: On Abbas’ “Holocaust” and the Depravity of Israeli Hasbara
“There was no Massacre in Jenin” was the title of a Haaretz editorial on April 19, 2002, one week after Israel ended its deadly onslaught on the besieged Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The unwarranted conclusion by Haaretz, other Israeli media and, ultimately, numerous western outlets was not the outcome of a thorough investigation carried out by an independent commission of inquiry. In fact, on April 9, a UN convoy was prevented by Israel from reaching the Jenin camp and, on April 30, Israel officially blocked a United Nations inquiry into the killings. Haaretz’s seemingly …
Qantas, Rain Man and the Virtual Airline
The list of sins is lengthy and growing with diseased relish. Australia’s first and for decades only international airline, Qantas, is looking rather tattered of late. Its reliability is becoming something of the past, its standing diminished in an age of diminished international carriers.
There was a time when taking a Qantas flight involved experiencing clean, solid goodness, with the softening effects of regular and, for the most part, reliable service. Nothing ever too flash, but reliable before finding your feet on chaotic ground.
Its minted reputation was enough to earn it …
Beggars in Surplus: Australia’s University Gangsters
With the election of a new government in Australia in May, the begging bowls were being readied by administrators in the university sector. Bloated, ungainly, ruthless and uneven in quality, the country’s universities, for the most part, had inadvertently made their case for more public funding harder. Initially ravaged by poor investment decisions, notably in the Chinese market, COVID-19 had threatened to wipe the balance sheets of a good number of Australia’s academic institutions. Despite initial shocks, the storm has been, apart from a few institutions, weathered.
The University of Sydney registered a A$1.04 billion operating surplus between 2020 and …
What is Sociohistorical Neopaganism or Neopagan Marxism?
Gods, Goddesses and Radicals
To understand what Neopagan Marxism is, we need to compare it to other sacred and secular systems in order to understand their similarities and differences. Most Marxists know next to nothing about Neopaganism, and they like it that way. However, the inverse is not necessarily true. The Neopagan movement in Yankeedom largely came out of the feminist sacred movement, which was also political. As we will see, some Neopagans are liberal, but many are radicals. Generally, thanks to Starhawk and Z Budapest, many witches integrate their magical rituals with …
What is Reality?
How does one discern which sources are distorting reality?
Shaq Dunks the Voice
The scale was jaw dropping and amusing. There he was, the still fresh Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, rendered pygmy-like by the enormity of one Shaquille O’Neal, popularly known as Shaq. No degree of expert photography at this press conference could conceal the disparity in size between the two.
Albanese has made it his crowning ambition to campaign for the Voice. By that, he means to put to Australian voters a question on constitutionally recognising Australia’s First Nations peoples (admirable and irrefutable) and enshrining a vague, as yet undetermined political forum that will represent them (problematic). He hopes to get popular …
Climate Change: Endless Words, Where’s the Action?
There is virtually no time left. Many believe we are already too late to do much to arrest climate change and the destruction of the natural world. Even climate scientists are stunned by the pace at which the climatic conditions of planet Earth are being altered, disrupted by the ignorance and deep-rooted selfishness of humanity; well, a relatively small percentage of humanity actually.
Every day, complacency – politically, individually and commercially – greed and political short-termism continue, the environmental crisis intensifies, moving systems closer to tipping points, when nothing can arrest the destruction, nothing can stop the demise. Some of the …
Deliberate Misrepresentation: Western Media Bias Makes Israeli War on Palestinians Possible
While US and western mainstream and corporate media remain biased in favor of Israel, they often behave as if they are a third, neutral party. This is simply not the case.
Take the New York Times coverage of the latest Israeli war on Gaza as an example. Its article on August 6, “Israel-Gaza Fighting Flares for a Second Day” is the typical mainstream western reporting on Israel and Palestine, but with a distinct NYT flavor.
For the uninformed reader, the article succeeds in finding a balanced language between two equal sides. This misleading moral equivalence is one of the biggest intellectual blind …
Woodstock ’99: Feeling the Heat
A poster of the miniseries Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99.
The documentary Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 was most decidedly a depiction of a catastrophe. Watching the concert progress (or regress) from excitement to disaster was a spine-chilling experience. Over time the problems depicted in the film got unbelievably worse. The concert’s collapse into complete chaos as the hyped-up concert-goers set much of the event equipment on fire looked more like a depiction of hell on the walls of a medieval church.
The concert, designed to emulate the 30th anniversary of …
New Normal Germany’s Geisterfahrer Geist
So, it’s official. On Wednesday, August 24, New Normal Germany’s Bundestag rubber stamped the government’s latest revision to the so-called “Infection Protection Act” (i.e., New Normal Germany’s new Enabling Act), authorizing the continued persecution of “the Unvaccinated” (i.e., New Normal Germany’s new official Untermenschen), the mandatory wearing of medical-looking masks (i.e., the ideological-compliance symbol of the New Normal Reich throughout the world), the banning of protests against the New Normal (i.e., the new official ideology of Germany), and assorted other “emergency measures.”
These “emergency measures” are purportedly designed …
Impressions of Donald Trump
Neurosis to a greater or lesser degree is the norm in western industrialized societies. Drawing on this fact is the key to effective propaganda. It is well known that neurotics always return to the place they are running away from. It’s a circle game of frustration in which being frustrated is actually the “solution,” because the real problems cannot be faced. The Donald Trump phenomenon is an example of this on a social level.
Everybody knows that Trump is loved or hated in equal measure. And everyone knows he dominates the minds of those who love or hate him, just as …
Haitians have No Reason to Trust Canadian “Assistance”
If the Canadian government was really trying to “help” Haiti solve its political and insecurity crisis it would criticize police who kill protesters.
In recent days Ottawa has aggressively taken up the Haitian cause. On Wednesday Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae met the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, to talk about Haiti. The somewhat unusual move — heads of state generally meet each other — was explained by the fact Canada leads the UN Economic and Social Council’s Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti.
Prior to traveling to Santo Domingo Rae was in Port-au-Prince. He met …
The Great Reset
Should “we” fear the Great Reset?
It’s All Political: Julian Assange Appeals his Extradition
Julian Assange’s legal team has taken its next step along their Via Dolorosa, filing an appeal against the decision to extradite their client to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 based on the odious US Espionage Act of 1917.
Since his violent eviction from the Ecuadorian embassy in April 2019, much to the delight of the national security establishment and its media cheerleaders, Assange has been held captive at Her Majesty’s Belmarsh Prison awaiting his fate. In a facility reserved for the country’s most hardened criminals, Assange has had to face the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation, limitations on visits, restrictions …
More from My Chat with Vandana Shiva
(an excerpt from our recent podcast together)
Earlier this week, I shared episode 49 of my podcast, Post-Woke. It was mostly a conversation between me and Vandana Shiva. In case you missed it, here’s a brief and slightly edited excerpt. I trust it will inspire you to listen to the full podcast right here.
Mickey Z: I first saw you speak in person in New York City in 1996 at the Riverside Church. I know it was definitely you and definitely Ralph Nader with several others. You exuded power and …
Ukraine Independence Day: Is Ukraine Killing her Own People?
“False Flags”: Russia is the Culprit
On 24 August Ukraine celebrated her Independence Day. It also marked the dubious anniversary of 6 months of war; a war that could have been drastically shortened, tens of thousands of lives saved and peace installed hadn’t it been for the relentless western / NATO provocations, and billions worth of western weapons deliveries to Ukraine. The west pretends these killer weapons are destined to create Peace, and would you believe the media are able to make most of the western world population believe in this nonsense.
It is literally George Orwell’s 1984: “Peace is War and War is Peace;” Orwell’s classical …
“Pill Hill” and Other High School Hauntings
The ghosts of lessons past
(You can read this post below or listen above — or both!)
My family moved to a slightly “better” area of our neighborhood shortly before I turned 15. There were many reasons for this relocation but here’s one factor my mother clearly articulated: “If we stay here, I’m afraid you’ll end up dead or in jail.”
Wise decision.
My memories are haunted by the ghosts of too many former cohorts who did not have parents able to guide them to a different fate. In my waking life, I also cross paths with those who …