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by Don Fitz / January 14th, 2021
The May 25, 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a civil rights explosion. It ignited pushes to demilitarize the police, reallocate police over-funding to necessary social services, end economic and power divides, and replace symbols of oppression with recognition of those who have suffered and resisted.
In University City, one of the oldest and more progressive suburbs of St. Louis, much happened during the upsurges of 2020. During the spring and summer, multiple Black Lives Matter protests made their way though U City. In July, the Green Party …
A book review of Gerald Horne's White Supremacy Confronted and The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century
by T.P. Wilkinson / January 13th, 2021
Thirty years ago this month I was preparing for what would be a three-month tour of the Republic of South Africa. The original research objective—conceived in 1990—had been to visit mission stations and other properties and operations of Christian churches in South Africa and to collect data on their role and function in the system of statutory segregation known as apartheid. By the time I had made my travel arrangements, I was forced to modify an initial assumption of the doctoral dissertation for which this trip was to form the empirical basis—namely the end of apartheid rather than its continuance. …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 13th, 2021
Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, said little in the statement from her department, which was a good thing, as it might have been dangerously useful. The finding of a UK court on whether Julian Assange would be extradited to the United States was made “on the grounds of his mental health and consequent suicide risk.” She does not care to mention the actual details of the case, the fact that the decision by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser, while blocking the extradition, was nastily focused against journalism.
Payne insists on objective distance from the proceedings. “Australia is not a party …
by David Rovics / January 13th, 2021
After seeing some very strange, amnesiac discussion threads on social media, I have a few words to consign to the screen.
Naturally, social media and the media media are all going nuts since the more or less successful far right siege of the Capitol. There are a variety of talking points that I’ve been hearing that I have some thoughts on.
First of all, in one of Trump’s various post-siege missives, he assured his followers that the “our incredible journey is only just beginning,” …
by Medea Benjamin and Leonardo Flores / January 13th, 2021
(Photo credit: Yander Zamora/EFE)
On January 11, in his final days before leaving office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added one parting blow to the series of bludgeons his administration has inflicted on Cuba for four years: putting the island on the list of “state sponsors of terror” that includes only Iran, North Korea and Syria. The designation drew swift condemnation from policymakers and humanitarian groups as a decision widely characterized as “politically motivated.” It comes six years after the Obama administration had removed Cuba from the same …
by Ramzy Baroud / January 12th, 2021
Israel’s decision to exclude Palestinians from its COVID-19 vaccination campaign may have surprised many. Even by Israel’s poor humanitarian standards, denying Palestinians access to life-saving medication seems extremely callous.
Amnesty International, among many organizations, condemned the Israeli government’s decision to bar Palestinians from receiving the vaccine. The rights group described the Israeli action as evidence of the “institutionalized discrimination that defines the Israeli government’s policy towards Palestinians.”
The Palestinian Authority was not expecting Israel to supply Palestinian hospitals with millions of vaccines as it hopes to receive two million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in February. Instead, the request made by …
The Only Thing Scarier than QAnon Is the Reaction to It
by Roger D. Harris / January 12th, 2021
The right-wing demonstration turned violent riot at the US Capitol on January 6 was a spectacle, complete with Confederate flags and a QAnon shaman in red-white-and-blue face paint. The Venezuelan government stated: “With this unfortunate episode, the United States is experiencing what it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression.”
Some half of the active electorate voted for Trump, who believed the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. The other half of the active electorate was abhorrent about what happened in Washington on January 6, speaking with semi-religious reverence about the desecration of sacred institutions. They believed, in …
by Edward Curtin / January 12th, 2021
Something is happening here,
But you don’t know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Jones?
— Bob Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man, 1965
It’s hard.
Life today seems like a dream, doesn’t it? Surreal to the point where everything seems haunted and betwixt and between, or this against that, or that and this against us.
Something.
Or a Luis Buñuel film. The logic of the irrational. Surrealistic. A film made to draw us into an ongoing nightmare. Hitchcock with no resolution. Total weirdness, as Hunter Thompson said was coming before he blew his brains out. A life movie made to hypnotize in this darkening world where …
by Robert Hunziker / January 12th, 2021
Early this new year, the Alliance of World Scientists (13,700 strong) delivered a biting report, not mincing words:
Scientists now find that catastrophic climate change could render a significant portion of the Earth uninhabitable consequent to continued high emissions, self-reinforcing climate feedback loops and looming tipping points. ((William J. Ripple, et al, The Climate Emergency: 2020 in Review, Scientific American, January 6, 2021.))
The mission: “We scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat.”
Even though it is very difficult to accept a cartoonish statement that …
by Yanis Iqbal / January 12th, 2021
The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry – released in late 2020 – serves as a barometer for the level of savagery imbibed by imperialist countries in their unending reign of terror against the Global South. The document is the outcome of a four-year investigation, initiated by the military in 2016 and headed by retired Major General Paul Brereton. Its scope was the period from 2005 to 2016.
With the help of the report, 39 homicides have been confirmed in 23 separate incidents and 25 soldiers – some of whom are still serving in the Australian Defense Force (ADF) – …
When will the American people realise that the biggest threat to American freedom is not from without but from within its very own walls, where it has been prominently residing for the last 112 years…
by Cynthia Chung / January 12th, 2021
Nothing to Excess,
Surety Brings Ruin
– inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi
Many are aware of the Apollo at Delphi inscription and associate it as words of wisdom; after all, the Temple at Delphi was at the center of global intelligence. Kings, emperors, statesmen, generals from all quarters of the ancient world would travel to the Temple with a very generous payment in gold in hopes that the wisdom of the great god Apollo would be bestowed on them and give strength and power to their particular cause.
One of the most famous prophecies made by the Cult of Delphi, according …
by Graham Peebles / January 11th, 2021
We live in a world of plenty, resource rich, financially wealthy, but, despite this abundance an estimated 700 million people go hungry every day. Millions more are food insecure, meaning they may have food today, but have no idea if they will have any tomorrow or next week. Additional millions can only afford nutritionally barren, poor quality food laced with salt and sugar, increasing the risk of illness and obesity.
In September 2020 a report published by the Global Hunger Index concluded that hunger could be eradicated by 2030, at a cost of $330 billion if rich countries doubled “their …
by James O'Neill / January 11th, 2021
It is a great pity that the Australian mainstream media is so narrow in its choice of sources for stories to appear on its pages and in its telecasts. This point was vividly brought home to me when I read in the English language version of the Russian website Pravda.ru (truth) about the alleged killing of Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden. The story was written by Larry Romanoff and entitled The Death of Osama bin Laden 10 January 2021).
Mr Romanoff details at some length the whole sorry saga of the alleged raid by six United States helicopters on …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 11th, 2021
This was Twitter Safety’s January 8 post, full of noble concern: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them – specifically how they are being received and interpreted off Twitter – we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Is it ever wise for a social media platform to suspend the accounts of political representatives, especially if they are of such character as Donald J. Trump? The question is a big tangle, though anything to do with the exiting US president encourages hotted up simple binaries, …
by Margaret Flowers / January 11th, 2021
Since the assault on the US Capitol on January 6 by right-wing Trump supporters, the fallout has been rapid. The Democrats, both elected officials and voters, were quick to jump on the impeachment train. Some elected officials are calling for Members of Congress who supported the events to resign and to refuse to seat them in the new Congress. Employers are firing employees who participated or supported the events. And, people on the Left are cheering on social media censorship and calling for stronger laws to go after domestic …
by Shawgi Tell / January 11th, 2021
The U.S. labor force participation rate stood at 61.5% in November 2020, the lowest rate in 44 years. According to Investopedia:
The labor force participation rate is a measure of an economy’s active workforce. The formula for the number is the sum of all workers who are employed or actively seeking employment divided by the total noninstitutionalized, civilian working-age population.
Note that this metric includes those who are not employed, meaning that the labor force participation rate is actually lower than 61.5%.
In related news, nearly 60% of Americans withdrew or borrowed money from their IRA or 401(k) during the …
by Jonathan Cook / January 11th, 2021
Anyone who believes locking President Donald Trump out of his social media accounts will serve as the first step on the path to healing the political divide in the United States is likely to be in for a bitter disappointment.
The flaws in this reasoning need to be peeled away, like the layers of an onion.
Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Trump for, among other things, “incitement of violence” effectively cuts him off from 88 million followers. Facebook has said it will deny Trump access to his account till at least the end of his presidential term.
The act …
A Conversation with Ilan Pappe and Awad Abdelfattah on the One Democratic State Campaign
by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo / January 11th, 2021
As the US ruling elites have fully succumbed to Israel’s political discourse on Palestine, the Israeli government of right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may feel that it, alone, is capable of determining the future of the Palestinian people.
This conclusion is, perhaps, gleaned from Israel’s behavior in recent years and months. The expansion of illegal Jewish settlements, the plan to annex large swathes of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the entrenching of the existing system of apartheid and perpetual colonialism are all evidence that demonstrates Israel’s renewed sense of empowerment.
Israel is further emboldened by the fact that the so-called ‘international community’ …
by C.J. Hopkins / January 11th, 2021
So, welcome to 2021! If last week was any indication, it is going to be quite an exciting year. It is going to be the year in which GloboCap reminds everyone who is actually in charge and restores “normality” throughout the world, or at least attempts to restore “normality,” or the “New Normality,” or the “Great Normal Reset,” or “The New Normal War on Domestic Terror” … or whatever they eventually decide to call it.
In any event, whatever they call it, GloboCap is done playing grab-ass. They have had …
by Bill Quigley / January 11th, 2021
Four-and-a-half months after two hurricanes ripped apart Louisiana, tens of thousands of people are still suffering. While the national election has absorbed the attention of the nation, thousands of people are still not back in their homes. Many have had to move a half dozen times. Some are living in tents. It is past time the nation turned some of its attention back to these mostly forgotten people.
Hurricane Laura, a category 4 storm with winds of nearly 150 miles an hour, hit on August 27, 2020 on the coast of southwest Louisiana. Forty-three days later, on October 9, Hurricane …
by Kim Petersen / January 11th, 2021
The coverage of groups of people, described as mobs, rioters, or protestors depending on one’s prejudice or adherence to accurate reporting, who “stormed” the Capitol in Washington and the Legislative Council in Hong Kong is revealing for how media and politicians react. The American media ran headlines such as:
“Trump supporters storm Capitol,” Washington Post
“Inside the mob that swarmed the US Capitol,” CNN
“A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in Washington,” LA Times
“In Photos: Mob Storms U.S. Capitol Building” New York Times
“Pro-Trump mob sends US Capitol into chaos,” Chicago Tribune
State/corporate media …
by Gary Olson / January 10th, 2021
Caller: Don, as your departure draws near, we’re calling to thank you for your service. As you know we had some serious doubts about you at the outset — loose cannon, unguarded comments, and some crazy foreign policy ideas. But hey, our concerns were short-lived and we’re beyond grateful for the tax breaks, subsidies and deregulation. And your use of faux populism and race-baiting to keep the rabble in line, divert their attention and keep them off our backs was honestly — just masterful.
Trump: Yeah, just tremendous! Just …
by Paul Haeder / January 10th, 2021
The number of gun sales in Oregon by Christmas Day, 2020, was a whopping 4,000,000. The year before, an anemic 300,000.
It is the law of the gun. Guns in jets, guns in bombers, guns in schools, guns here on the streets, in Salem, at the Capital, guns in Grand Theft Auto V, guns in purses, guns in boudoirs, guns in locker-rooms, guns in nurseries, guns in churches, guns in cars, guns in drones, guns guns guns.
Dalton Trumbo, quote from Johnny Got His Gun :
An equation: 40,000 dead young men = 3,000 tons of bone and flesh, 124,000 pounds of brain …
by Farooque Chowdhury / January 10th, 2021
Hundreds of protesters breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, forcing lockdowns as the US Congress was convening a joint session to count the certified 2020 Electoral College votes. The entire episode, although with a few gaps, was in the mainstream media. Death number, arrests, etc. accompanied. There are some more things. What came out was an exhibition of bourgeois politics. A part of a show of regime change in an advanced bourgeois democracy it was, also.
Some of the protesters breached hallways, offices …
by Colin Todhunter / January 9th, 2021
The UK government has launched its public consultation on the deregulation of gene editing in England. To kick things off, somewhat predictably Environment Secretary George Eustice recently spun a staunch pro-industry line at the Oxford Farming Conference by stating:
Gene editing has the ability to harness the genetic resources that Mother Nature has provided in order to tackle the challenges of our age. This includes breeding crops that perform better, reducing costs to farmers and impacts on the environment and helping us all adapt to the challenges of climate change.
In the wake of Brexit, he attacked …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 9th, 2021
How strange it must have seemed for US lawmakers to be suddenly facing what was described as a “mob”, not so much storming as striding into the Capitol with angry purpose. A terrified security force proved understaffed and overwhelmed. Members of Congress hid. Five people lost their lives.
With the US imperium responsible for fostering numerous revolutions and coups across the globe during its history, spikes of schadenfreude could be found. China’s state paper Global Times found it irresistible to use the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as a point of comparison. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s remark that the Hong …
A tragic milestone, the result of ignoring China’s experience?
by John V. Walsh / January 9th, 2021
A health worker conducts a nucleic acid test on a resident in Chengdu, in western China’s Sichuan province, on December 8, 2020, after new Covid-19 cases were detected in the city. Almost from the start, China has responded rapidly to outbreaks. Photo: AFP / STR
December 11, 2020, is another December day that should “live in infamy” in the United States. On that day total US deaths due …
by Jonathan Cook / January 8th, 2021
There was a fascinating online panel discussion on Wednesday night on the Julian Assange case that I recommend everyone watch. The video is at the bottom of the page.
But from all the outstanding contributions, I want to highlight a very important point made by Yanis Varoufakis that has significance for understanding current events well beyond the Assange case.
Varoufakis is an academic who was savaged by the western political and media establishments when he served as Greece’s finance minister. Back in 2015 a popular leftwing Greek government was trying to oppose the imposition of severe loan conditions on Greece by …
by Bruce Lerro / January 8th, 2021
A specter is haunting western psychology, the specter of dialectics. The scaffold of the academic world is shaking. The time for its transformation is near…
Dialectical psychologists unite! You have nothing to lose but the respect of vulgar mechanisms and pretentious mentalists. You will win a world, a changing world created by ever-changing human beings.
— Klaus F. Reigel, Psychology, Mon Amour: A Countertext, March 1, 1978
Orientation
We may or may not know it, but part of being a Marxist has involved learning to think in a dialectical manner. Whether through the study …
(a note written with Noam Chomsky)
by Vijay Prashad / January 7th, 2021
The first newsletter of the new year is written in collaboration with our friend, the great linguist and prophetic voice, Noam Chomsky. What follows is a statement by Noam and me.
Xiang Wang (China), Extinction, 2020
Three Major Threats to Life on Earth That We Must Address in 2021: A Note from Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad
Large parts of the world – outside of China and a few other countries – face a runaway virus, which has not been stopped because of criminal incompetence by governments. That …
