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The Walking Cane and the Mantle

A Memoir of Poverty, Rebellion, and Radical Kinship

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

— James Baldwin

 The Film That Stirred the Ashes

It came quietly, like a whisper from the margins. A DVD in the mail—When Did I See You Hungry? by Gerard Thomas Straub, narrated by Martin Sheen. A gift from a friend in South Carolina, sent after reading my essay on poverty. I watched it once. Then again. And then I wept.

The film did not show me anything new. I had seen hunger before—in the eyes of barefoot classmates, in the bellies of children bloated from malnutrition, in …

Mass Media Under-count Indigenous Deaths in US wars

The eminent, truth-telling and humane Australian web medium Pearls & Irritations has published a responding Letter from me about total sanctions demanded against Apartheid Israel because of hundreds of thousands of Gaza Genocide deaths: Gideon Polya, “MSM under-count indigenous deaths in US wars,” 5 September 2025.

I have been researching and writing about Indigenous deaths in US Alliance wars for over 30 years since discovering the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust in which 6-7 million Indians in British-ruled Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Assam were deliberately starved to death for strategic reasons with …

You Don’t Have to Believe in Their Supremacy

Reject it all

[Note: if you didn’t watch me and Nick Estes talking about the Book of Joshua on Red Nation, that discussion and the books therein – the Joshua Generation, Laying Down the Sword, and Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians – might be good to check out before or after reading this one.]

This replaces the Geneva Convention

Human progress is over. We’re in the Book of Joshua genocidal timeline

The history of the next thousand years is being decided in our time. Will the species survive? Should it? We certainly won’t solve …

Narcissism, Misogyny, Racism, and Fascism: Not Just a Trump thing

Note: This article below appears in the Lincoln County Leader, and I am waiting for the same rejoinder that the little county of Lincoln is running each Wednesday before my radio show, Finding Fringe, to appear on the Editorial page of a newspaper over 100 years old:

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any of the staff, programmers, board members and volunteers of KYAQ….

“Methinks thou doth protest too much!”


Listen up, Senator Warmonger.

Listen up, Congressman Forever War.

Hear me out, President China Hater.

Yes you, Vice-President Iran Hater.

And you, Secretary Cuba Hater.

Pay attention, General Russia Hater.

I’m talking to you, Ambassador North Korea Hater.

I think … no, I know … THOU PROTEST TOO MUCH.

You vilify and condemn, you slander and demean too much.

You insult and mock, you intimidate and provoke too much.

You posture and pose, you bully and brag too much.

You threaten and coerce, you beat the war drums too much!

WAY TOO MUCH!

Sure, we have some tough competition out there. Sure, there are …

All Elements in Place for a US Decapitation Strike on Venezuela

President Donald Trump euphorically concluded his White House press conference on September 2 with breaking news: the US military had just blown up a small motor vessel in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. He alleged that the skiff came from Venezuela and was loaded with illicit drugs headed to the US.

On social media, he further embellished his story by saying that the crew were members of the Tren de Aragua cartel, which Trump claims is controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump alleges that this cartel is “responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts …

The Admonishment of China by Governments in Glass Houses

As I was reading Gareth Evans’s recent piece on what a ‘mature’ relationship with China should comprise, I was reminded of the photograph set out below, which was taken in December 1989. It depicts the then foreign ministers, Gareth Evans of Australia and Ali Alatas of Indonesia, on an aeroplane toasting their signing of the Timor Gap Treaty, which divided the vast oil and gas resources discovered in the Timor Sea between the two countries they represented.

National Archives of Australia, A8746 KN19/12/89/69.

The date of the photograph is …

The Real Reason Trump Wants to Reshape the NYC Mayoral Race

Politics makes strange bedfellows. This is especially true in New York, where Donald Trump seems ready to support almost anyone in an effort to defeat Zohran Mamdani. While Zohran’s opponents include the “Never Trump” Republican Curtis Silwa, the Democratic heir Andrew Cuomo, and the unpopular incumbent Eric Adams, Trump sees all of these candidates as better alternatives. Most obviously, Zohran Mamdani is a committed socialist who will oppose the interests of wealthy businessmen, such as Donald Trump. However, the mainstream media has largely ignored another reason why Trump might desperately want Mamdani to lose: Israel.

Simply put, Zohran Mamdani is a …

Veterans For Peace Condemns the Deployment of National Guard in Washington, DC, and the Misuse of U.S. Troops and ICE to Create Terror in Our Cities

Veterans For Peace unequivocally condemns President Trump’s unlawful deployment of the National Guard to Washington, DC. This follows the outrageous deployment of National Guard and U.S. Marines to the streets and parks of Los Angeles in support of ICE terror tactics in a city where as many as one in ten residents are undocumented workers. Even U.S. military veterans have been targeted and deported.

The crime rate in Washington, DC, is at a 30-year low. The claim that an emergency exists requiring military policing is a blatant lie. The use of the U.S. military for domestic policing violates the Posse …

“We Will Not Be Silent:” Hearing Stilled Voices of the Gaza Genocide

In his last minutes of freedom before Israeli Defense Forces arrested him, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, clad in a medic’s white coat, walked alone toward two Israeli tanks. His captors awaited him amid the rubble of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital. An artist swiftly created a dramatic poster showing Dr. Safiya striding through the ruins of the hospital he directed. The artist, David Solnit, recently updated the poster’s caption. It now reads:   Free Dr. Abu Safiya   Eight months in prison Dec. 27, 2024 – August 27, 2025.

Dr. Safiya had already endured agonizing losses at the Kamal Adwan hospital. In late October …

Cold War 2.0 Is Against China

Trump’s military spending for the coming fiscal year is $1 trillion and this is all about targeting China in an attempt to stave off U.S. hegemonic decline.

“Globally, all available resources are to be focused on a zero-sum increase in U.S. power and on the defeat of China as the newly arising rival.” — John Bellamy Foster, “The Trump Doctrine and the New MAGA Imperialism

On September 3, China staged a grand gathering of over 20 foreign leaders to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. China’s loss of some 20 million people was second only to the USSR in terms of deaths in WWII. We also need to acknowledge the 30,000 …

Trump and the International Criminal Court

Blunting Justice

The International Criminal Court bash fest is getting ever more frenetic in Washington and among the law shredding members of the Netanyahu cabinet in Israel. Last month, the Trump administration smacked sanctions on judicial members Kimberly Prost of Canada and Nicolas Guillou of France via Executive Order 14203. Prosecutors also received a chastening, sanctioning experience, including Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal.

The US Secretary State Marco Rubio, who occupies more administrative posts than he can identify, confirmed the line of his boss, President Donald J. Trump.  The ICC was “a national security threat that had been …

Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies have come out with the expanded and revised second edition of their book War in Ukraine (OR Books). Defying logic, the subtitle is Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.

A blurb from professor Noam Chomsky calls it: “An invaluable guide.” I agree.

Media analyst Norman Solomon calls the book a “concise primer … historical context with balance and compassion.” Benjamin and Davies are compassionate advocates for peace; this is laudable and undeniable. However, too often information that criticizes all sides in a conflict, more or less equally, …

Trump Redecorates the Oval Office

Donald John Trump, born June 14, 1946, the 47th president of the United States, has decided to leave his imprint in history by redecorating historical landmarks in the nations capital. After reciting plans for a grand ballroom in the Whitehouse, which will feature Klezmer bands on Wednesday nights and Hora dancing on Sunday evening, also duplicated periodically at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the master decorator has prepared simple renovations for the Oval Office.

The renovation does not attempt to obtain a more pleasing and aesthetic environment. The thrust of the renovation is to clarify power, reveal who controls, …

The True, the Brave, the Few

Be not intimidated… nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

— John Adams, “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, National Archives.

Victims of great crimes deserve to be memorialized. So, too, those who bravely protected them. Hitler’s genocide indeed is solemnly recognized in prominent votive memorials – in Berlin, in Russia-Babi Yar, in Washington. The heroes and heroines who put themselves at risk to save innocent souls …

A Yank and a Dutchman Exploring on their BettBeat Channel The World

Interview of Karim and Peter from Chinese University of Hong Kong

They’ve had skin in the game — the Podcast and Substack game — for four years.

Amazing guests, and unfortunately for us, but fortunately for us, too, they have been covering the genocide in the Jewish State of Raping and Murdering and Starving and Maiming and Poisoning Palestine: Going on TWO goddamned years.

One of their favorite guests, and mine too: Assal Rad, Peter and Karim examine the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the failure of international institutions to respond effectively. The conversation explores how Israeli propaganda has become increasingly ineffective as images of starvation make their …

Field Trip

“This is gonna be exciting, lieutenant, and I bet they don’t teach it in the military academy. The kinda real action you can only learn in the trenches.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Watch now, Wild West in the East. Sergeant Balik’s climbing up the roof and covering the chimney with his coat. As you can tell already, the idea is that the old rickety farmhouse’s gonna be filled up with smoke. Pretty slick, ain’t it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now the enemy’s got two choices. If they stay inside, they’re gonna suffocate to death. If they run out of the house, we’re gonna have a turkey shoot.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The …

Senate Subcommittee Hearing

“Sir, are you or have you ever been member of the underground terrorist organization known as PAAP?”

“Yes, senator,  but PAAP is neither terrorist nor underground. We are a multi-ethnic multi-faith charity group, and most of our activities involve…”

“Yes or no, please. Is that true that PAAP stands for the inflammatory statement – let me read it, these are not my words – Palestinians Are Also People?”

“Yes, senator, but I don’t understand why that…”

“Yes or no, please. Let the record show, your answer was yes, you still insist that Palestinians are also people.”

“Yes, senator, I do.”

“Do you or have you ever …

How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza

One year ago, the UN General Assembly demanded that Israel must end its occupation of the Palestinian Territories within twelve months.
The General Assembly voted, by 124 votes to 14, with 43 abstentions, for a strong resolution that not only “demanded” an end to the occupation within a year, but called on all countries to refrain from trade involving Israeli settlements and from transfers of weapons “where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”…

Plausible Parody: A ‘Property Development’ Theory of Geopolitics

Since resuming residence in the White House a few months ago, it has not been difficult to detect in President Trump’s behaviour traces of his background as a real estate deal maker. Indeed, it could be said that his statements and actions since becoming president demonstrate a clear predisposition to perceive geopolitics predominantly as an arena of opportunity for ‘property development’. ‘Property’ defined in a broad sense to include any high value natural resource, land, or other asset that can be turned into profit.

We argue that the acquisition of such assets by fair means or foul (mainly the latter) and/or …

Nuclear Snobbery and Atomic Anniversaries

How do we commemorate it? The atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War on August 6 and 9, 1945 by the United States remain the only examples of the use of such a weapon in history. Rather than banishing any temptation to use them, the wholehearted killing of tens of thousands of civilians through experimental designs laid the grounds for an arms race that has never dissipated. Once found, the military use of the atom was never abolished or dissipated. As Henry Stimson, US Secretary of War, put it to President Harry Truman in …

The Old World Order Was Buried in China

Here’s why it matters

Xi, Putin and Modi have lead calls in Tianjin for a UN-centered multipolar system, as Eurasian blocs tighten and the EU is sidelined.

The latest gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tianjin looks at first like another summit – handshakes, family portraits, scripted statements. But the meeting on August 31–September 1 is more than diplomatic theater: it is another marker of the end of the unipolar era dominated by the United States, and the rise of a multipolar system centered on Asia, Eurasia, and the Global South.

At the table were Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, …

How to Stop Israel from Starving Gaza

Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes.

Israel, with US complicity, is committing genocide in Gaza through the mass starvation of the population as well as direct mass murders and the physical destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. Israel does the dirty work.  The US Government funds it and provides diplomatic cover through its UN veto.  Palantir, through “Lavendar,” provides the AI for efficient mass murder. Microsoft, through Azure cloud services, and Google and Amazon  through the “Nimbus” initiative, supply core tech infrastructure for the Israeli army.

This marks 21st century …

The People’s Champion: Howard Zinn

Labor Day is a good time to pay tribute to the late Howard Zinn, a rebel historian who broke with the tedious orthodoxy of “patriotic” history to tell the tale of those consigned to the bottom of the social pyramid: Indians, slaves, factory workers, indentured servants, sharecroppers, farmers, immigrants, political prisoners, soldiers, socialists, pacifists and other anti-war protesters.

From Manufactured Scandals to AI Misinformation

How Power Shapes Reality

FAKE NEWS
This section chronicles some of the most pressing examples of disinformation and fake news from the previous two weeks. I define fake news as information that appears to be real news but is baseless, inaccurate, misleading, or false.

Fake news isn’t just a headline problem — it’s a cultural crisis. A tattooed Justin Bieber lookalike crashed a DJ set in Las Vegas and convinced Gryffin, the headliner, to bring him onstage. Minutes later, security exposed the imposter and …

Deja vu-Lebanon

43rd commemoration of the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Sabra Shatilla

In 1982 the world watched as Israeli troops invaded Lebanon, taking over the capital city of Beirut. The Americans and International Community made a deal with Israel that if the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) withdrew from Lebanon, Israel would retreat from Beirut.

Under a guarantee that the women, children and elderly would be protected by an International peace keeping force, all Palestinian men of fighting age left Lebanon for foreign shores. What happened after the PLO left is well documented. September 1982, Israeli forces surrounded Sabra/Shatilla allowing their proxy Christian Phalange militia to massacre over three thousand civilians.

There are credible witness …

Structural Foundations of Africa’s Biggest Slum

Poverty is an artificial creation. Join political activist Ajam Baraka and members of the Communist Party of Kenya on a trip, making the case using Kibera, Africa’s largest slum.

It is symptomatic of a larger issue because, despite Nairobi being the wealthiest county in Kenya, contributing 27% of the country’s GDP, 60% of its 5 million residents live in squalor across 200 slums. Successive governments since independence have done little to change the status quo, leaving the people to predatory organisations that, at best, provide a band-aid to a gaping wound, or at worst, serve to depoliticise the masses.

Black Agenda Report …

Refugee Dunghills: Australia Makes Another Nauru Deal

Over the last two decades, Australia has made a name for itself by pursuing barbaric policies towards refugees and asylum seekers arriving by sea. Priding these moves as noble and humanitarian, cruelty born of kindness, these have entailed attacking the right to seek asylum guaranteed under the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and the obligations of a state signatory not to penalise, discriminate or return (refoul) those to a place which would imperil them.

From these policies grew the Pacific gulag – offshore refugee centres where desperate human beings were treated like hunks of undifferentiated meat …

Clean Solar Outshines Filthy Oil

We can have a world that runs on a resource that’s available to everyone everywhere.

— Bill McKibben

There’s a renaissance of nature powering the world, and it’s happening throughout the planet hidden from public view because it’s everywhere all at once and not in one isolated location easily identified. It’s solar panel installations experiencing smashing success everywhere throughout the world. Solar panels are consuming the world faster than public media has caught up with the trend to broadcast the good news. People simply aren’t aware of this ongoing miracle.

Nobody knows this better …

Digital Siege of Balochistan

To the people of Balochistan, connectivity is not meant by scrolling through their social media or by undertaking a light entertainment. Internet access is tenuous at best, which – in one of the most poorly dealt with provinces in Pakistan – serves both as a lifeline to education, economic opportunity, and communication with the rest of the world. However, on 6 August 2025, that lifeline was immediately severed as the provincial government ordered a blanket block on mobile internet access in all of its 36 districts, saying that it would remain blocked until …