Latest articles
by Lawrence S. Wittner / December 22nd, 2019
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / December 22nd, 2019
Bernie Sanders is the person you used to be but forgot about
by Dave Lindorff / December 22nd, 2019
Sanders is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination this year, but you wouldn’t know it if you rely on the corporate media
I keep reading that polls show young people — the so-called Millennial Generation aged 23-38 — are overwhelmingly backing Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination (along with even younger voters) while the so-called Baby Boom Generation of people now aged roughly 55 to 75 are going for Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg or some other ossified mainstream Democratic pol.
Speaking as …
by Shawgi Tell / December 21st, 2019
Transparency and accountability have never been the strong suits of non-profit and for-profit charter schools.
Unlike the nation’s public schools, all charter schools (about 7,100) are run by unelected individuals, and many, if not most, charter schools regularly violate open-meeting laws, are not subject to public records laws, and avoid audits.
In these and other ways, non-profit and for-profit charter schools do not really want to be answerable to the public because they highly value their inherently private status, which is what allows them to cynically operate as pay-the-rich schemes under the veneer of high ideals. Charter school operators desperately want the …
by Peter Koenig / December 21st, 2019
Does anyone know what COP25 stands for? Probably very few. It’s unimportant. As unimportant as the whole roadshow itself. Just for the hell of it, for those who read this article, COP means Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 25 stands for the 25th year that such annual conferences have taken place, every year in another country. What a tourist bonanza for the hundreds, if not thousands of attendees and participants who travel — by air, many of them business class — to these most questionable, even useless, conferences.
The first …
by Dan Corjescu / December 21st, 2019
Globalization, Democracy, and Migration are themes which continually ignite both scholarly and non-scholarly debate. Not so surprisingly, none of this is new. In his own inimitable way, the German Enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant, touched upon all these current hot topics and more.
Kant’s political writings have only relatively recently been appreciated by the likes of political philosophers in the Anglo speaking world, a fact that was given a significant boost by the works of no one less than John Rawls especially in his A Theory of Justice and The Law of Peoples.
Putting the recent reception of Kant’s work aside, we now …
Western moral decay
by Jan Oberg / December 21st, 2019
Child from Eastern Aleppo receiving food in the Jibrin reception camp, December 14, 2016On December 12, 2012, on the day, 4 years earlier, Western countries and allies – perversely calling themselves Friends of Syria – carried through a regime change by statement and set up a Syrian National Council of people never elected by anyone in Syria and told the world that it was, from now on, the only ‘legitimate representative of the Syrian people!’
During the 4 years, Western, Saudi, Turkish …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 20th, 2019
On November 27 this year, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, delivered an address to the German Bundestag outlining his approach to understanding the mental health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. These comprised two parts, the initial stage covering his diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy, the second dealing with his formal detention in the United Kingdom at the hands of the UK legal and judicial system. The conclusion was a recapitulation of previous findings: that Assange has been subjected to a prolonged, state-sponsored effort in torture, …
by Gary Olson / December 20th, 2019
Vladimir: Let us not waste time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!
— Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Agate Keller: Don’t Wait for Lefty! …
by Evan Jones / December 20th, 2019
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron is a spiv, a first class spiv. Yet Emmanuel Macron is President of the French Republic, which is a worry.
The stamp of the man could have been readily gauged from his curious appointment and period as Economy Minister, August 2014 to August 2016, under President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
Macron’s first action as Economy Minister was the privatization of the Toulouse-Blagnac airport (SATB). It was a process steeped in anomalies, for which reason it has been the subject of unprecedented court …
by Michael Pappas / December 20th, 2019
Police are bad for our health. It is up to all those who strive to improve societal well being to oppose the violence the institution of “law enforcement “continues to perpetrate on us all.
APHA members rally in front of the conference center before the APHA vote on the policy statement (Image from Medium)
I was recently starting an overnight hospital shift, when I received a text from a medical colleague working in a hospital in New York: “The NYPD are here harassing a gunshot wound victim who is …
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies / December 20th, 2019
The trove of U.S. “Lessons Learned” documents on Afghanistan published by the Washington Post portrays, in excruciating detail, the anatomy of a failed policy, scandalously hidden from the public for 18 years. The “Lessons Learned” papers, however, are based on the premise that the U.S. and its allies will keep intervening militarily in other countries, and that they must therefore learn the lessons of Afghanistan to avoid making the same mistakes in future military occupations.
This premise misses the obvious lesson that Washington insiders refuse to learn: the underlying fault is not …
by John Steppling / December 20th, 2019
Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.
— Vladimir Lenin ((“Letters from Afar,” March/April 1917.))
Many on the left seem to have forgotten that capitalism is actually bad. That the reason the planet sinks under the weight of pollution and militarism is because of capitalism. Nothing that works within the capitalist system is going to save anyone and will only reinforce the existing problems and further the suffering of the poor and disenfranchised.
Now allow to me first start with a few observations on writers published by leftist sites, in …
by Linda Ford / December 19th, 2019
As Australian activist John Pilger recounts his visit to the world’s most abused US/UK political prisoner, Julian Assange, he gives us the brutal details of how the friends and families of political prisoners also face punishment, gauntlets, humiliation. And he tells of the terrible conditions and terrible treatment meted out to Assange, and the weakened, vulnerable state in which he finds his friend. But as he was leaving, Pilger looked back to see Julian Assange sitting with a raised fist in the air. Not beaten. Still defiant.
The women political prisoners I’ve written about recently are also still defiant—in spite of …
by Media Lens / December 19th, 2019
When we started Media Lens in 2001, we had a rather naïve expectation that journalists might: a) want to respond rationally to reasoned criticism; and b) have privileged access to unparalleled journalistic resources, experts and arguments that would enable journalists to respond with serious points to our challenges. In particular, we imagined that BBC journalists and editors – being funded from the public licence fee – might actually feel obliged to respond.
We were quickly disabused of such notions. Reasoned debate with journalists employed by the misleadingly-termed ‘mainstream’ media is …
by Robert Hunziker / December 19th, 2019
Five years ago: Nations of the world met in Paris to draft a climate agreement that was subsequently accepted by nearly every country in the world, stating that global temperatures must not exceed +2C pre-industrial. Global emissions must be cut! Fossil fuel usage must be cut!
Today: Following Paris ’15, global banks have invested $1.9 trillion in fossil fuel projects.
Not only that, global governments plan to increase fossil fuels by 120% by 2030, including the US, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, Canada, and Australia.
Additionally, over that past 18 months China has added enough new coal-based power generation (43GW) to power 31 …
by Andre Vltchek / December 19th, 2019
It is amazing how easily, without resistance, the Western empire is managing to destroy “rebellious” countries that are standing in its way.
I work in all corners of the planet, wherever Kafkaesque “conflicts” get ignited by Washington, London or Paris.
What I see and describe are not only those horrors which are taking place all around me; horrors that are ruining human lives, destroying villages, cities and entire countries. What I try to grasp is that on the television screens and on the pages of newspapers and the internet, the monstrous crimes against humanity somehow get covered (described), but the information becomes …
by Ramzy Baroud / December 19th, 2019
Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334. With fourteen members voting in favor and one abstention, the Resolution was the equivalent of a political earthquake. Indeed, it was the first time in many years that Israel was roundly condemned by the international body for its illegal settlement policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Unlike previous attempts at holding Israel accountable, this time the Americans did nothing to protect its closest ally.
What has happened since then, however, has been a testimony to the failure of the UN to furnish meaningful mechanisms that would force violators …
by C.J. Hopkins / December 18th, 2019
Well, it looks like we’ve somehow managed to survive another year of diabolical Putin-Nazi attacks on democracy. It was touch-and-go there for a while, especially coming down the home stretch, what with Jeremy Corbyn’s desperate attempt to overthrow the UK government, construct a British version of Auschwitz, and start rounding up and mass-murdering the Jews.
That was certainly pretty scary … but then, the whole year was pretty scary.
The horror began promptly in early January, when Rachel Maddow revealed that Putin was projecting words out of Trump’s mouth in real-time; i.e., …
The Global Culture: Part Two of a Four-Part Series
by William T. Hathaway / December 18th, 2019
The previous article,”The Homeland“, described the origins of Vedic civilization in India. This one tells how it spread around the world.
Vedic civilization was in full flourish 7,000 years ago, the most advanced on the planet. “The country was a leader in world trade relations amongst such people as the Phoenicians, Jews, Assyrians, Greeks, … Romans, … Egyptians, Turks, Portuguese, Dutch, and English.” ((Advancements of Ancient India’s Vedic Culture, Knapp, Stephen (Detroit: World Relief Network, 2012) p. 147.)) “The culture of India has been one of the world’s most civilizing forces. Countries of the Far East, including China, Korea, Japan, …
by Rick Sterling / December 18th, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn lost the election but one of his political friends, the progressive Mexican leader named Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been in power for one year. He is carrying out the plans and priorities described in his 2018 book New Hope for Mexico.
*****
With 129 million people, Mexico is the 10th most populous country in the world. It has the largest population of any Spanish speaking country and is twice the size of the United Kingdom.
Mexico is in a period of profound change. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and the Morena Party are charting a dramatically …
by Binoy Kampmark / December 17th, 2019
Britain is looking drenched at the moment; colours blue and yellow seem to be streaking through the country. The Scottish Nationalists have re-asserted control lost to the Conservatives in 2016. In the rest of the country, seats never touched by Tory Blue have are now occupied by the party of Boris Johnson. Yet again, British politics shows that the posh boys, when it comes to moments of crisis, can pull in the deluded, and denuded working class. This must count as the political version of Stockholm syndrome, the working class playing hostages finding affection for their Tory tormenters.
Overall, though, the …
by Dan Corjescu / December 17th, 2019
Faction: A number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community
— James Madison, The Federalist No. 10, “The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection”
The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie
— Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto, Chapter 1, “Bourgeois and Proletarians”
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
— …
by Farooque Chowdhury / December 17th, 2019
US Afghanistan War reveals imperialism’s limit. It’s, as Mao said decades ago, a paper tiger. The war is the evidence.
The just published The Washington Post report – “The Afghanistan Papers: A secret history of the war, At war with the truth”, (by Craig Whitlock, December 9, 2019) – carries the story of this limit. It’s, to some, a story of corruption. To another section, the war is mismanaged, which is inefficiency, wrong planning, etc. But, the root of the failure is in the deep: Imperialism’s characteristic.
The 18 years long war with nearly $1 trillion taxpayers’ money is costlier as the …
by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin / December 17th, 2019
Theatrical masks of Tragedy and Comedy. Mosaic, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE. Capitoline Museums, Rome
When the play ends, what begins?
Seeking conscientization: awareness leading to action.
— Sarah Thornton
Introduction
The importance of theatre is demonstrated by the prevalence and variety of forms it takes both locally and globally in society today. Indeed, over the centuries theatre has played an important sociological and ideological role. It has been used both by communities and elites to propagate and spread ideas for the consolidation of society (Morality plays), for social improvement …
by Medea Benjamin / December 16th, 2019
CODEPINK Cuba Delegation in Havana
December 17, 2019, Havana, Cuba: Gloria Minor had been preparing her AirBnB in Havana for years, investing every penny her sister sent her from Miami in repairing and refurbishing her apartment. With President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro re-establishing relations five years ago, Minor was sure the expected flood of U.S. visitors would make her business flourish. It did—until Donald Trump came along. Now her business is down 50 percent. “I feel like the bride who prepared everything for the wedding, but …
UK officials have stonewalled a campaign to expose a group that funded a park used to aid the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
by Jonathan Cook / December 16th, 2019
When is a war crime not a war crime? When, according to British officials, that war crime has been given a makeover as a “charitable act”.
The British state is being asked to account for its financial and moral support for a UK organisation accused of complicity in the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. So far, it appears determined to evade answering those questions.
The target of the campaign is the Jewish National Fund UK (JNF UK), which describes itself as “Britain’s oldest Israel charity”. Noting its role in “building Israel for …
by Alicia Jrapko and Bill Hackwell / December 16th, 2019
Celebration upon the release of the Cuban Five in Washington DC (Photo by Bill Hackwell)
Five years ago tomorrow, in near disbelief, we watched on television as the Cuban Five were released from US prisons and flown home after a 16 year struggle. Leading up there had been some signs that their freedom was being negotiated by the Obama Administration but out of a healthy distrust of the US government we didn’t accept it as reality until we actually saw them arrive in Havana, out of handcuffs, and …
by Shawgi Tell / December 16th, 2019
Charter school promoters are skilled at promoting disinformation about charter schools and public schools; they have decades of experience.
One of the most worn-out forms of disinformation deployed repeatedly by charter school promoters is to pressure people into thinking that the problem is not that privately-operated charter schools run by unelected individuals and funded by the public exist, but that some charter schools are “high-quality” while others are “low quality,” and that the real issue is purging “low-quality” privately-operated charter schools while increasing the number of “high-quality” privately-operated charter schools.
In other words, not only is the public supposed to automatically accept …
by Roger D. Harris / December 14th, 2019
A year ago, John Bolton, Trump’s short-lived national security advisor, invoked the 1823 Monroe Doctrine making explicit what has long been painfully implicit: the dominions south of the Rio Grande are the empire’s “backyard.” Yet 2019 was a year best characterized as the revolt of the dispossessed for a better world against the barbarism of neoliberalism. As Rafael Correa points out, Latin America today is in dispute. What follows is a briefing on this crossroads.
Andean Nations
Venezuela, the leader for regional integration and 21st century socialism, …
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