Before listening to Trump’s speech to the Knesset, I had no intention to write a summary of another soliloquy that praised Donald Trump. Two Knesset members made the only sensible statement during the oration, by showing their distaste for the utterances and being escorted out of the chamber of horrors. Haim V. Levy, The Times Of Israel, had it right, “In celebrating the release of hostages, Israel’s leaders turned gratitude into spectacle and democracy into theater.” After hearing the twisted, grinded, and mendacious words, I ran to the computer and started pounding the keyboard. The success of Donald Trump in …
Decent, concerned people have been waiting impatiently for the UN General Assembly to use a ‘Uniting For Peace’ resolution to circumvent the US veto and intervene in Gaza with a protection force. Under this mechanism, when the Security Council is deadlocked, the authority to act passes to the General Assembly where the US has no veto.
But UNGA have dragged their feet and allowed Trump and his Zionist business friends to seize the initiative with a fake peace plan that conceals their main motive, which is to perpetuate Israel’s dominance and profit hugely from designating Gaza and the West Bank as …
Since the start of September, the Trump administration has busied itself with striking boats in international waters stemming from Venezuelan and possibly Colombian waters. Their mortal offence: allegedly carrying narcotics cargo destined for consumers in the United States. A few days following the first strike on September 2, President Donald Trump stated in a War Powers Resolution notification to Congress that the action was one of “self-defense” motivated by “the inability or unwillingness of some states in the region to address the continuing threat to United States persons and interests emanating from their territories.”
Ukraine banner at a January 20 Trump Inauguration protest (Photo credit Sean Reynolds)
In light of 18 October’s “No Kings” protests, which will undoubtedly fail to sanction President Trump’s moves toward war in Iran and Venezuela, I wrote up these notes for a peace group I work with on a recent interview I conducted for Iran’s PressTV. I was interviewed by journalist Ramin Mazaheri, all three of whose brilliant and vexing books I’d actually read before my first hint of personally encountering him. I didn’t have much space to bring in …
While millions waited in hopes that the Global Sumud Flotilla would win this year’s Nobel peace prize for its epic solidarity with Palestine, the Norwegian committee charged with granting the award gave it to Maria Corina Machado instead, veteran CIA coup plotter in Venezuela. As the late Gore Vidal aptly advised, “Never underestimate the Scandinavian sense of humor.”
A day later in Gaza, the Israeli army destroyed the children’s hospital Al Rantisi with dynamite charges exponentially more powerful than those conceived by their inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), creator of the prize that carries his name. With the victims’ bodies barely cold …
Zelensky arrived in Washington on Friday, attired in his newly tailored suit, but he found no red carpet or even a high-level Trump official to greet him. Anticipating a cache of Tomahawks, he was apparently unaware of the telephone call between Trump and Putin and the meeting in Budapest in two weeks, to which he’s been excluded. Zelensky did meet with officials from Raytheon, maker of the Tomahawk missiles.
At a later press conference, Trump sidestepped questions about giving Tomahawks to Ukraine, except to say they were a “big deal, vicious and bad things can happen if they are used.” According …
Sometimes a great notion is the undeniable beauty of nature and social justice struggle meeting language of evocation and narrative art to present a bird's eye view on what it means "to be with" earth
by Paul Haeder / October 18th, 2025
Caroline Tracey’s debut book, a blend of environmental reportage and memoir titled Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History, is forthcoming in March 2026 from W.W. Norton.
Originally from Colorado, Caroline holds a doctorate in geography from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a recipient of the Waterston Prize for Desert Writing, the Ira A. Lipman Fellowship in Journalism and Human and Civil Rights, a Silvers Foundation Work-in-Progress grant, and an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, among other honors. In 2025, she received the inaugural On the Brinck | Places Prize for writing about the Southwest. She …
Prefatory Note: The post below is based on modified responses to questions addressed to me by Rodrigo Craveiro, a Brazilian journalist. The focus is on what to expect in the weeks ahead to follow from the Trump diplomatic offensive to bring an Israeli-crafted peace to fruition in Gaza, and broader stability to the entire Middle East.
There is a sense of joy but also of fury due to the fact that not all the bodies returned to Israel. How do you see this?
Given the overall experience of the past two years, the attention accorded to the hostages by the Western …
When Trump uses military violence in Yemen or Syria, he is lauded by presumed liberals like Van Jones and Fareed Zakaria as presidential.… This leads to a political culture based on loving …
These last two years have shown us that Western civilization doesn’t need protection, it needs redemption. It needs to save its soul.
by Caitlin Johnstone / October 17th, 2025
In October 2024, a Lebanese writer named Lina Mounzer wrote, “ask any Arab what the most painful realization of the last year has been and it is this: that we have discovered the extent of our dehumanization to such a degree that it’s impossible to function in the …
Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is doomed. No people in history has ever resigned itself to permanent servitude and oppression. The Palestinians will prove no different
Ceasefires stick because the two sides in a war have reached military stalemate – or because the incentives for each side in laying down their arms outweigh those of continuing the bloodshed.
None of this applies in Gaza.
The past two years in the enclave have been many things. But the one thing they have not been is a war, whatever Western politicians and media wish us to believe.
Being a baby boomer who protested against the Vietnam debacle, what the Trump regime is now doing is disgusting. All this week we see Republican Congressional minions and members of the Trump gang standing in front of cameras calling those who peacefully protest as Terrorists. Webster’s dictionary defines a terrorist as ” A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” The sad irony is that it was the mob on January 6th, 2021 at the Capitol building who acted like terrorists, especially when they invaded the legislative chambers using their violence …
If you believe what is written on those hats worn in the Israeli Knesset – “Trump the Peace President” – you are deluded beyond hope. Halloween may be coming, but you don’t need a frightening mask to realize the horrors that confront us. Trump is the culmination of a long developing horror story. Unlike his predecessors who prepared the way for him and who generally wore traditionally allaying masks to hide their evil actions, he is the greatest blatant fraud to ever occupy the White House. He is a war monger, a genocidal killer, and an enemy of people …
The barbarism of the North American conquest was exemplified by scalping and mutilation of Indigenes.
by Paul Haeder / October 16th, 2025
I had Alexis Lisandro Guizar-Diaz, M.S. on my studio recorder today, but it airs Nov. 20 on KYAQ. He’s the Electoral Field Director PCUN. LISTEN HERE!
April 1985 PCUN is founded as Oregon’s union for farmworkers and treeplanters. WVIP continues its service and immigration work through PCUN’s Service Center for Farmworkers….
by Bill Scheuerman and Sid Plotkin / October 16th, 2025
Capitalism is fast becoming so unpopular that the money-grubbing old autocrat in the White House wants to protect it by promising to investigate and prosecute anyone who speaks against it. Free speech be damned. But Milton Friedman said Capitalism and Freedom go together. So, we will use some of that fast-disappearing freedom to comment on the fading popularity of “free enterprise”. Capitalism’s legitimacy is sinking so quickly that even the right-wing Cato Institute recently complained that “Young Americans Like Socialism too Much.” This, of course, raises two questions: Just how unpopular is capitalism and, most importantly, why are people …
In a world where chandeliers glitter above champagne flutes and wealth is paraded as virtue, I ask for a pause. Not to pray—but to reckon.
There are over eight billion people on this planet. Each one born into a body, a breath, a need. Not all are born into shelter. Not all are born into safety. But all are born into the same human condition: vulnerability.
While some exchange gifts wrapped in gold and toast to comfort, others search for clean water. Others sleep on concrete. Others raise children in tents. These are not distant statistics. They are neighbors. They are kin.
Reporting on national security matters, irrespective of which country you are in, can be a hazardous affair. In police states, the consequences are self-evident to the brave who report on their misdeeds. The paid off toadies do not count. In liberal democracies, there are also consequences for giving the game away on the national security state. The toadies, in that case, pose themselves as insiders rather than sycophants of moulded consensus. They are the blessed recipients of approved wisdom, officially or otherwise. In this cosmos of regulation, even those who disagree with official policies can be given a gentle airing. …
Monday was Indigenous People’s Day, when much of the United States celebrates a murdering, enslaving, profiteering, imperialist Italian sailor mercenary and missionary who couldn’t tell one continent from another, wisdom from ignorance, or value from waste.
I was born and raised and have mostly lived in the eastern United States, and yet when I hear someone here refer to “how people lived several hundred years ago,” they almost always mean how people lived in Europe several hundred years ago. I see great value in studying European history and that of the whole globe. But I have no particular connection to or …
by Francisco Dominguez, Roger D. Harris, and John Perry / October 15th, 2025
Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution has been in the vanguard of the Global South. In contrast, President Javiar Milei’s government in Argentina represents the logical, though absurd, consequence of extreme neoliberalism, which he calls “anarcho-capitalism.”
Western Hemispheric geopolitics reflect the weakening of US hegemony and an emerging multipolarity, especially with China’s entry as a major regional trading partner. US imperialism’s response, started well before Trump, has been to weaponize the dollar, impose illegal and crippling economic sanctions, and levy arbitrary tariffs. When these fail, the recourse is to military aggression.
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced preparations for war with China. …
“Now is not the accepted time to make new enemies,” said the philosopher on his death bed, responding to the priest’s exhortation to renounce Satan.
“Why the intransigence?” marveled the young clergyman. “Frankly, sir, I cannot imagine there could be a downside to rejecting the devil.”
“Just you ponder that question, padre,” said the wise man. “You seem an intelligent person, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
A month later when the plague hit most of Europe and the priest started developing chills and fever, he conceded that on purely practical grounds the old knucklehead might have had a point.
AI has been the buzzword for quite some time in the 21st century. With the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, day-to-day tasks have become significantly easier. Gone are the tough times of hustle and bustle, brainstorming over one thing again and again. With a single click of a strong prompt command, the AI tool flashes a variety of suggestions and solutions. Apart from its imperative benefits, the core nature of artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword that cannot be ignored. Overdependence on AI often dilutes the fundamental …
Many millions on the streets this Saturday all over the country loudly proclaiming: No Kings! Yes to Democracy!–followed on November 4th by victories for Mamdani in NYC, Sherrill in NJ, Spanberger in Virginia, redistricting in California, and more–could this be truly “world changing?”
On one level, no. This is not a Presidential election year or a Congressional election year. It’s an off-year electorally.
But it’s not an off-year politically. The battle is fully joined between the forces of democracy and the forces of authoritarianism, between the resistance and blind Trumpism. And because of this, what happens over the next three weeks could …
It reads like a lament of wounded nostalgia, cresting on a resigned sigh. “Knowing how to be a gentleman used to be straightforward: There were codes that were passed down, instilled, and strictly enforced. With both social mores and the nature of masculinity itself wildly in flux, that’s not exactly the case anymore.” That’s the claim laid with trowels of suggestion by the editors of GQ.
They certainly stretch it. No fewer than 125 rules are suggested, some with greater sense than others. And they lack a contextual focus, misleading the reader about the origins of a title with …
I have noticed supposed left organizations considering the Epstein files their secret weapon and naively pouring energy into advocating release. It is a doomed strategy.
Is it insightful that Trump has not already released the Epstein Files? Of course it is, partially because it indicates the state is probably hiding something, but more so because it means the state can get away with hiding things regardless of the obvious public interest. Does this mean the answer is to demand release of the files and focus on that as a way to discredit Trump? No, that …
Review of Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial
by Eric Walberg / October 14th, 2025
Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial (2022). What a gloomy title! I am overwhelmed by the horrors of Gaza, all the boringly excruciating details of genocide, our helplessness. For some reason, I ordered this book from the library and finally forced myself to open it. When I got to the detailed comparisons of apartheid South Africa and Israel, I was hooked. I get goosebumps realizing how close we are now to a rivetting, deja vu replay of that glorious struggle leading to victory. Saree Makdisi shows …
Art is magic liberated from the lie of being truth.
– Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia
It is hard to keep your head when all about you, nuts are knocking on it to remind you of things that are not true in a world where reality is hard to find because of endless propaganda, artificial intelligence, personal betrayals, and nuts who know nothing but can’t stop telling you the nothing that they know. They are always falling but seem to be reborn endlessly, popping up in new clothes as advocates for the latest fashionable truths that they rejected only yesterday. They always jump …
by Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition / October 14th, 2025
The Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition demands an end to US aggression against Venezuela, which is on the brink of outright war. Any escalation in the violence against Venezuela will cause more suffering and deaths in the South American country, destabilize the region, and endanger all countries seeking a path independent from US domination, especially Cuba and Nicaragua.
US actions indicate a strike on Venezuela is imminent:
After the Trump administration designated international drug-trafficking groups as “foreign terrorist organizations” (FTOs), without any …
by Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom / October 14th, 2025
Scott Ritter: “… what everybody’s forgetting is that the basic terms of this deal are the same terms that Hamas has been laying out since October 7th. And now these terms are being met. And uh, this is a Hamas victory.”
Depending on which source you consult, the twenty-point peace plan of President Donald Trump for securing peace in Gaza shows much exultance and extravagant omission. The exultance was initially focused on the return of the hostages. It then shifted to the broader strategic goals of the various parties. Commentary on this point, even as the living Israeli hostages convalescence after their exchange for Palestinian detainees, sidesteps the Palestinian people, those fly in the ointment irritants who never seem to exit the political scene.
The peace plan, in effect, is being executed to eliminate Hamas and any semblance of a Palestinian …
It’s no secret that almost every state conducts intelligence both at home and abroad. However, if several decades ago this activity was in the sidelines, the emergence and development of the Internet and information technologies lifted the veil on espionage and empowered intelligence with new, although sometimes controversial, capabilities.
