Latest articles
giving our kids back to nature, back to narrative, back to being
by Paul Haeder / January 29th, 2022
My dream is to invite a reader into a room and pour a nice cup of tea . . . and then nail the door shut.
— author Charles Bowden, 2010 NPR interview
There is so much daily that expresses so much about the slippery slopes we are in globally because of predatory-penury-parasitic-pugilistic capitalism.
In the USA, on this continent, north, and south of those colonial and Manifest Destiny “borders,” the amount of both absurdity and abomination is magnified in a world of protracted panic.
It’s there, truly, the panic. Young people are offing themselves with Narcan and with opiates. There are more dreams not …
by Eric Zuesse / January 29th, 2022
by James O'Neill / January 29th, 2022
One of the most disturbing features of the contemporary political scene is the almost complete absence of any difference in the foreign policy stance of the Coalition and Labor parties. It was not always so. The Whitlam government of 19 72–75 tried very hard to demonstrate a foreign policy that distinguished them from that of the Coalition.
The most obvious symptom of this independence was that Australia recognised the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate ruler of China, and the one entitled to hold China’s seat on the United Nations Security …
73rd Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
by David Gallup / January 29th, 2022
December 10, 2021 marked the 73rd anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This year also marks the 5th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Right to Peace (DRP). As we celebrate the anniversaries of these two Declarations, let’s consider their interconnectedness and how world government, world law, and world citizenship are key to their implementation.
The UDHR and the DRP share the same ultimate goal: achieving world peace based on universal respect for human rights.
The interconnectedness between the Declarations becomes noticeable in the shared terms …
The Narrative of Deception
by Colin Todhunter and Rosemary Mason / January 29th, 2022
The volume of pesticide use and exposure is occurring on a scale that is without precedent and world-historical in nature. Agrichemicals are now pervasive as they cycle through bodies and environments. The herbicide glyphosate has been a major factor in driving this increase in use.
These statements appear in a 2021 paper ‘Growing Agrichemical Ubiquity: New Questions for Environments and Health’ (Community of Excellence in Global Health Equity).
The authors state that when the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate to be a “probable carcinogen” in 2015, …
by John Rachel / January 29th, 2022
With a bold and completely self-sabotaging diplomatic blunder, one which fails on every level including the least rigorous sanity test, this past Wednesday the U.S. was one of two nations to vote against a UN resolution designed to discourage the glorification and promotion of Nazi ideology. The other nation was Ukraine, which currently is overrun and effectively ruled by Jew-hating, Russia-hating, LGBT-hating neo-Nazis, who openly flaunt their allegiance to Stepan Bandera, a collaborator with the Third Reich during WWII.
The reason the U.S. supports such Jew-hating, Russia-hating thugs is obvious. It’s an …
The Freedom Convoy 2022
by David Skripac / January 29th, 2022
Yesterday I stood with friends and colleagues at one of the many highway overpasses in Toronto as we watched a truly historic moment unfold before our tear-filled eyes. Thousands of liberty-loving Canadians from all walks of life were gathered there—as they were throughout the country—in the freezing cold, holding aloft flags and signs to show support for hundreds of courageous transport truck drivers as they passed by us in the Freedom Convoy on the way to our nation’s capital.
An estimated 50,000 truckers from all across Canada are now heading to Ottawa in what must surely be the largest protest in …
by Robert Hunziker / January 28th, 2022
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists unveiled the resetting of the Doomsday Clock on January 20th, 2022, electing to keep the clock’s setting at 100 seconds to midnight, same as 2021, which is not at all encouraging since that’s as bad as the setting has ever been.
The past few resets of the incomparable clock have essentially been SOS signals to world leadership to get its act together or suffer horrendous consequences, specifically regarding: (1) nuclear and biological weaponry, (2) climate change/global warming, and (3) disruptive technologies exacerbated by an over-the-top, in their words: “Corrupted information ecosphere that undermines rational decision …
by Nauman Sadiq / January 28th, 2022
Unlike Trump who was an outsider in American politics and derisively sneered at as “toddler-in-chief” by the US national security establishment, Biden is a typical establishment Democrat unabashedly playing into the hands of the deep state throughout his maiden year as president and escalating the conflict with Russia in Ukraine and with China in the South China Sea that risks plunging the United States into a catastrophic war with either of the two global powers.
After being elected president in a bitterly contested election alleged to be rigged by the political rival, …
Review of World War in Syria by A.B. Abrams
by Kim Petersen / January 28th, 2022
On 30 August 2021, the United States’ 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan came to an end when the removal of American forces was completed. Although the withdrawal was botched, it was the correct move. The withdrawal is ignominious because it turns out that the much ballyhooed US fighting forces were, in the end, defeated by Afghan peasants. Has the US learned anything from its debacle in Afghanistan? One might gain an insight into that question by observing the debacle still ongoing in Syria.
Author A.B. Abrams provides an in-depth analysis on …
by Allen Forrest / January 28th, 2022
The ruling class gets together to plan policy for COVID.
by Gideon Polya / January 27th, 2022
The US became increasingly Zionist subverted in the 1960s after Apartheid Israel gained nuclear weapons and after the assassinations of JFK and Robert Kennedy. Support for Apartheid Israel (and hence for the repugnant crime of Apartheid) is now a pillar of US politics, with anti-racist critics of Israeli Apartheid ferociously attacked, side-lined, and falsely defamed as anti-Semitic. However Zionist control and hubris are now blatant: 32 percent or about one third of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet are Jewish Zionists and the remainder are moderate Christian Zionists.
(a). Jewish Americans are an astonishing 17-fold over-represented in the Biden …
by Vijay Prashad / January 27th, 2022
Shefa Salem (Libya), Life, 2019.
On 19 January 2022, US President Joe Biden held a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. The discussion ranged from Biden’s failure to pass a $1.75 trillion investment bill (the result of the defection of two Democrats) to the increased tensions between the United States and Russia. According to a recent NBC poll, 54% of adults in the United States disapprove of his presidency and 71% feel that the country is headed in …
by Allen Forrest / January 27th, 2022
Would you like to try the tyranny special at the Gates and Soros Diner?
by Ramzy Baroud / January 26th, 2022
Former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his prosecutors are reportedly finalizing the details of a plea deal that would practically water down, shelve, or drop altogether all three major corruption cases that have led to his high-profile trial in May 2020. If such news actualizes, Israel would officially sink to a new low in terms of political nepotism and corruption.
News of the possible deal has, once more, placed the controversial Israeli politician back at the center stage of media coverage. Many questions are being asked about the details of the agreement, the timing and the long-term impact on Netanyahu’s …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 26th, 2022
On the face of it, there seems to be little in the way of connection between the treatment of Novak Djokovic by Australian authorities and the cooling of the Serbian government towards Rio Tinto. The Anglo-Australian mining giant was confident that it would, at least eventually, win out in gaining the permissions to commence work on its US$2.4 billion lithium-borates mine in the Jadar Valley.
In 2021, Rio Tinto stated that the project would “scale up [the company’s] exposure to battery materials, and demonstrate the company’s commitment to investing capital in a disciplined manner to further strengthen its portfolio for …
by Nan McCurdy / January 26th, 2022
Family in Bismarck Martinez Housing neighborhood watch the inauguration and swear to fight with all their strength to eliminate hunger, poverty and backwardness. [Photo by Jairo Cajina]
On January 10, Daniel Ortega was inaugurated President and Rosario Murillo was inaugurated as Vice President. The central event in the Plaza of the Revolution was accompanied by Sandinistas celebrating in almost every town with big-screen displays of the inauguration.
Once he had been sworn in, with the presidential sash across his chest, Daniel repeated his action from 2007, 2012 and 2017: He …
or What Capitalism’s Brought to Tonga
by Gary Leupp / January 26th, 2022
The eruption of the undersea volcano, off the twin islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai within the Tongan system, drew the world’s attention, if only for a few days, to the island kingdom of Tonga. The death toll so far has been low, and so, for the global viewing audience, more spectacle than tragedy. The satellite images of Nuku’alofa, the capital, covered with grey ash, looked somber and spooky. But such volcanic fall-out is part of Polynesia, isn’t it? Won’t it surely wash away in the tropical rain?
One heard little discussion, at least among the talking heads on cable …
by William T. Hathaway / January 26th, 2022
Commodity? (Wikimedia)
The financial wizards of Wall Street have devised a new way to profit from Mother Nature. They’ve created a class of stocks called Natural Asset Companies that will control the earth’s resources such as water, wildlife, forests, minerals, and farmland. The project was developed by the Intrinsic Exchange Group in partnership with the New York Stock Exchange, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the investment firm Aberdare Ventures.
According to the Intrinsic Exchange Group’ website, the purpose of these companies is the “conversion of natural assets into …
by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead / January 26th, 2022
In the politically charged, polarizing tug-of-war that is the debate over COVID-19, we find ourselves buffeted by fear over a viral pandemic that continues to wreak havoc with lives and the economy, threats of vaccine mandates and financial penalties for noncompliance, and discord over how to legislate the public good without sacrificing individual liberty.
The discord is getting more discordant by the day.
Just recently, for instance, the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board suggested that government officials should mandate mass vaccinations and deploy the National Guard “to ensure that people without proof …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 25th, 2022
With December’s High Court decision to overturn the lower court ruling against the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, lawyers of the WikiLeaks founder immediately got busy. The next avenue of appeal, strewn less with gold than obstacles, would be to the Supreme Court. The central question remained: Should the publisher be extradited to face 18 charges, 17 of which use the bricks and mortar of the US Espionage Act of 1917.
This raised the thorny issue of whether a direct appeal to that body against the High Court finding would be permitted. Ease and smoothness were unlikely …
by Hiroyuki Hamada / January 25th, 2022
So before Covid, a local school where one of my kids used to attend, had prominent race issues. Namely, teachers were being accused of being blind to obvious racist incidences against black students. The normalized notion of racism was so rampant that the school was forced to embrace some sort of deprogramming sessions by a parent-led committee on the issue. However, this committee itself was ultimately deemed rather racist in its own way by the school’s black alumni group. To me, at the end, it became rather obvious that the whole momentum was part of a corporate political campaign for …
by Survival International / January 25th, 2022
Local people look out on to the massive PEKB coal mine that has taken over their lands, Chhattisgarh, India. © Pranav Capila
Photo opportunity:
January 26, 2022, 5pm – 6pm
Science Museum, Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, LONDON SW7 2DD
Protestors will gather outside the Science Museum in London on Wednesday to call for an end to the museum’s sponsorship deal with Adani, a huge conglomerate operating highly contested coal mines on Indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands.
The protest is in solidarity with Indigenous peoples from India, Australia and Indonesia – all countries where Adani operates mines …
by Yves Engler / January 25th, 2022
The saber rattling is becoming scary. But Canadian officials labelling Russia “aggressive” while stoking unnecessary conflict has a long history.
Echoing a 2009 statement from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently denounced “an aggressive Russia.” Throughout their time in office the Liberals have blamed Russia for complicated conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, as well as nuclear proliferation. In a major 2017 foreign policy speech foreign minister Chrystia Freeland called “Russian military adventurism and expansionism … clear strategic threats to the liberal democratic world, including Canada.” But NATO countries spend $1.1 trillion on their militaries …
by William Manson / January 24th, 2022
Real human needs are easily defined, and rational economic policies on a global scale could readily fulfill them. Yet in the last 50 years, the disastrously fraudulent, supply-side economic policy has resulted in the truly astounding accumulation of wealth by less than one-hundredth of 1% of the world’s population. The rationale for this “neo-liberalism”: drastically reduce taxation of the wealthy, drastically reduce regulatory and labor costs for the big investors, and–voila! — these incredibly enterprising entrepreneurs will have the mega-capital and mega-incentives to “create prosperity,” which will then inevitably, in the now-infamous phrase, “trickle down.”
Yet wealth-concentration has now reached such …
by Robert Hunziker / January 24th, 2022
The planet is heating up like never before, as “ground temperatures” hit all-time records in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the Southern Hemisphere, and ocean temperatures threaten the world’s major fisheries of the Far North, which are imperiled beyond any known historical precedent. ((See: “The Oceans Are Overheating“, January 14, 2022.))
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) July 2021 was the hottest month in recorded history for the world. The European Union (EU) satellite system also confirmed that the past seven years have been the hottest on record.
Too much heat brings unanticipated problems of unexpected scale, …
2021 In Memoriam
by Steve Lalla / January 24th, 2022
2021 was marked, from start to finish, as a year dominated by the pandemic and its attendant dramas, including vaccination, variants, and lockdowns. When the prior year had come to a close, journalists and writers had described 2020 as the “plague year” or the “lost year.” Although 2020 was defined by the onset of the pandemic and over two million deaths attributed to COVID-19, this was nothing compared to the all-encompassing, inescapable pall that COVID cast over the year 2021….
by David Swanson / January 24th, 2022
World Beyond War
Toronto, Ontario, Canada — This morning, Toronto supporters of the Wet’suwet’en land defense struggle against the Coastal Gaslink pipeline set up construction sites at the Toronto homes of TC Energy Board Chair Siim Vanaselja and Royal Bank of Canada Executive Doug Guzman. The supporters also flyered the neighborhood with photos of the two men with signs warning, “Your neighbour is pushing the Coastal Gaslink pipeline through Wet’suwet’en Territory at gunpoint.”
Rachel Small, Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War, said, “Today supporters took action to …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 24th, 2022
Give the man credit where it’s due. Few could possibly be congratulated for selling the sovereignty of a country in full view of its citizenry, but Peter Dutton, former Queensland copper turned sadistic Home Affairs minister turned Defence Minister, is very capable of it. Australia promises to become a throbbing bordello for the strategic affairs of other states (to a large extent, it already is), awaiting submarine insertions, naval manoeuvres, and more troop rotations.
With the AUKUS arrangements being firmed up, US and UK sailors, personnel and miscellaneous staff are being readied for more time Down Under, ensuring that Australia becomes …
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies / January 22nd, 2022
Getty Images
President Biden and the Democrats were highly critical of President Trump’s foreign policy, so it was reasonable to expect that Biden would quickly remedy its worst impacts. As a senior member of the Obama administration, Biden surely needed no schooling on Obama’s diplomatic agreements with Cuba and Iran, both of which began to resolve long-standing foreign policy problems and provided models for the renewed emphasis on diplomacy that Biden was promising.
Tragically for America and the world, Biden has failed to restore Obama’s progressive initiatives, and has instead …
