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The world—eight billion strong—stands at a precipice. In Gaza, a people are being systematically pulverized, displaced, and erased. And the architects of this devastation—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the governments that arm him—continue their campaign with brazen impunity.

This is not merely a geopolitical crisis. It is a moral apocalypse.

Where are the men and women of conscience? Where are the statesmen of principle, the diplomats of dignity, the theologians of truth? Where are the poets who once sang of justice, the journalists who once exposed tyranny, the clergy who once wept for the oppressed?

Haba! Shall we stand idly by while the …

For anyone who still thinks Donald Trump does not represent the interests of what is called “the deep state” but is actually the shallow or official U.S. state, it is time to think again. If he is not a figurehead for those alleged hidden forces, then he will agree to a Russia-Ukraine settlement on Russia’s fundamental terms – that is, a mutual security agreement that stipulates the pulling back of U.S./NATO forces encircling Russia, etc. – when he meets with Putin in Alaska this Friday. There will be no further delay.

This, however, is extremely unlikely. Trump knows little but bullying …

The United Nations, facing a liquidity crisis, has been threatening to lay-off about 20 percent of its estimated 37,000 employees world-wide: a proposed move that has triggered widespread protests from staff unions both in New York and Geneva.

Thus starts Thalif Dean’s analysis in a recent IPS article.

The UN is in a liquidity crisis!!??

This is an issue the whole world should talk about NOW.

This is a situation that every thinking person should condemn in the strongest possible terms: The UN must cut down, while the rest of the world, the West in particular with its 5% of …

One never knows where fascism “lite” might appear. We have one bumper sticker for our state which has confounded the foreign tourists along our coast:

Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire . . . Qué significa . . . was bedeutet es?

These French, Mexican and German tourists asked me last week, What does it mean when they pointed to a big jacked up dual-rear tire pick-up truck with this huge sticker in the rear window: Oregunian-Oregun-zed with six AR-15 rifles on the image.

Well well, …

In the United States today, everyday life has become for many an anxiety-driven race to nowhere, a stress-filled sprint on the work-and-spend treadmill. Under such dehumanizing conditions, people try to cope with such chronic stress through compulsive access to mood-altering drugs, food, alcohol, TV, the Internet, shopping, pornography and sex.

Several decades ago, responding to the growing market for improved anti-depressant drugs, several companies developed “selective-serotonin (re)uptake inhibitors” (SSRIs). Prozac and Zoloft, no longer under the 20-year patent and therefore cheap, have quickly been superseded by new, expensive SSRIs which, despite claims to the contrary, may not be any more effective …

I hate to say I told you so. It’s obnoxious, really. But sometimes it is an important point. In this case, the point is this: the people who are always right about wars were right about the war in Ukraine, whereas the “experts” who are always on television and in government were, as usual, wrong.

Which of the following statements about the war with Russia comes closest to your personal views?

Ukraine should continue fighting until it wins the war
Ukraine should seek to negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible

*****
Gallup asked that …

When it comes to recognising Palestinian statehood, the UK and US seem unable to grasp what their solemn obligations are. Fortunately, UN Resolution 37/43 of December 1982 is there to help.

It comprehensively reaffirms previous resolutions and treaties on the universal right to self-determination and the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples to provide an effective guarantee that human rights may be observed. And note the words “speedy granting”. Palestinians have been kept waiting for over 100 years for an effective guarantee of their human rights.

37/43 considers that denying the Palestinian people their inalienable rights to self-determination, sovereignty, …

“Assassination,” wrote George Bernard Shaw in The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, “is the extreme form of censorship”. Such extremism visited Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues in Gaza City late on August 10. Resting in a tent located outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, he was killed alongside Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa, and freelance reporter Mohammed al-Khaldi.

Palestinian journalist Wadi Abu al-Saud recalls the drone attack taking place at 11.22 pm. Having entered the tent opposite, he had raised his phone to make a call …

Orientation
Boogey men on parade
“How can you like Putin? He is a dictator who has been in power for 20 years. There is no democracy in Russia. Besides, Russia is not a socialist country, so why are you rooting for him?” Here is another one. “Venezuela is a failed country run by drug cartels. There is no democracy. Maduro is an incompetent strongman who suppresses freedom of speech. Finally, Gaddafi: “He dresses like a king and wants to control all the African gold. He murders his own people”. Here we …

What would happen if sheep gave up their rights?

President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order about the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, August 5, 2025

Trump’s threat of imposing a crippling 50 per cent tariff on all Brazilian imports to the United States took everyone by surprise, especially, considering the US enjoys a trade surplus with the South American giant (surplus it has enjoyed since 2007). Lula made it clear that Brazil would reciprocate in kind.

Trump tariffs against Brazil are in line with his overall policy …

To say that Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had lost the plot is to assume he ever had one. With a dearth of ideas as to how to come up with a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem, he has received a majority approval from his cabinet colleagues to take over Gaza City. It took a late-night meeting with the security cabinet lasting some ten hours.

A statement released on the morning of August 8 from his office mentioned a five-point plan intended to defeat Hamas and conclude the war. None of this is an improved version of what …

The headline read, “Trump tells Israel to ‘finish the job’ against Hamas.” Unexplained by Triumphant is why the United States is involved with determining the fate of Hamas. Has Hamas injured any American or threatened U.S. hegemony? Does Hamas have long-range ballistic missiles, tipped with nuclear weapons, that can reach the U.S. mainland? Does Hamas have submarines that can move close to shore? They don’t even have rowboats. Outside Israel, Hamas is not a threat to anyone.

Israel has murdered many Americans, including naval forces on the U.S.S. Liberty, has submarines that contain missiles tipped with nuclear weapons, …

The Sirens and Ulysses by William Etty, 1837

Just when I figured I had plumbed the depths of capitalism’s toxicity, I came across yet more proof; in fact, the apotheosis of toxicity. The toxicity to end all toxicity. Chris Hayes’ The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource (2025) describes how, with the latest social media revolution, capitalism has managed to penetrate our skulls and steal our very consciousness, what makes you you.

It steal …

Why would AI lie?