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What World Will Trump Walk Into in Beijing?

As US President Trump arrives in Beijing, two different understandings of power and world order meet again

In 1405, the admiral Zheng He sailed from China with one of the largest fleets the world had ever seen.

Over the next three decades, the Ming treasure fleets crossed Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and the East African coast. They carried silk, porcelain, medicines, imperial gifts, diplomats, astronomers, translators, and soldiers. Ports opened to them voluntarily. Local rulers entered tributary relations with the Ming dynasty. Some sent emissaries back to Beijing. Others received titles, seals, trade access, and recognition from the imperial court.

And then the fleets left.

No colonies remained behind them. No permanent military occupation followed. No East African coast became …

Empire Fighting: Counting the Ways of Doing It

MOSCOW — Once upon a time, in 2019, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia and Israel make “a true common family; I can say this without exaggeration. Almost 2 million Russian speakers live in Israel. We consider Israel a Russian-speaking country…Without any exaggeration, I can say with pride that probably there has never been such a high level of relations between Russia and Israel, if, of course, we don’t go back to the very first months or maybe the first couple of years of …

Are Historical Arguments Against Segments of the Jewish Community Proving True?

Part one of a two-part article that compares the relation of earlier and contemporary populations with the Jewish community, and examines Zionist genocidal behavior with behavior of Jews in ancient history.

Close attachment of segments of the worldwide Jewish community to the genocidal behavior of Israel divides the followers of Judaism. From this division, it is expected many Jews will leave the religion, others will fight to establish a religion with anti-Zionist credentials, and some will propose a revised Reform Judaism that promotes humanism, openness, and obedience to the religion’s moral codes, rather than inhumanity, orthodoxy, and a lip service to the Ten Commandments.

In retaliation to the cruel, morally corrupt, and criminal behavior exhibited by the Zionists and their followers, a Jewish person on the Quora discussion website offered a disturbing …

Revolutionary Social Change That Lasts

Or, 21st Century Common Sense, #10 and Conclusion

It is not enough to be against Donald Trump and MAGA, or against the control of both major parties in the USA by destructive corporate power, or even to be committed to hard work for the next eight and a half [now 6] months here in the USA to defeat the billionaire-supporting, would-be dictator Donald Trump. Our problems are too deep to accept this essential next step as the ultimate goal. Short-term, essential goal yes, but looking at things historically, it can only be the first major step in a fundamental, revolutionary process that over time not just saves the …

The Age of Water Exposes a Major Water Crisis in Rural Mexico

A stunning, unassuming documentary about one of the most urgent, and most invisible forms of extractivism.

— Ilka Kressner, Assoc. Prof. of Hispanic Studies, Chair of Languages, Literatures & Cultures, University at Albany-SUNY

In Mexico’s heartland, the community of La Cantera is mourning the deaths of three girls from leukemia, all in the span of a year. Elia, the local kindergarten teacher, and Nely, a mother who nearly lost her newborn, form MAYOYE, a group of women seeking an investigation. They’re met with resistance from government officials denying an underlying …

2 Anti-Racist Jews Facing 2 Years Imprisonment in Queensland

Big Brother in Orwell’s 1984: “and ignorance is strength” and “2 plus 2 does not equal 4” as now realized in US- and Zionist-perverted Australia:

(1) Australia was involved  in all post-WW2 US Asian wars (40 million Asian deaths from violence and deprivation) and supported the 9/11-enabled  and Zionist-promoted devastation of 7 Muslim countries  (as set out in the Pentagon Plan revealed by anti-racist Jewish presidential candidate and top US general Wesley Clark in Winning Modern Wars; the post-9/11 War on Muslims was associated with 30 million Muslim deaths). …

The Age of Human Arrogance, Part VIII

The Small Communities That Keep Humanity Alive

There are moments in history when nations falter, when institutions lose their moral center, when leaders mistake ambition for wisdom. Yet humanity has never endured because of empires. It has endured because of small communities — the quiet circles of people who choose compassion over convenience, presence over performance, and responsibility over applause. They do not appear in headlines. They do not command armies or draft policies. They do not seek recognition. Yet they form the hidden architecture of human survival. They are the places where dignity is restored, where conscience is protected, where the soul remembers what it means …

The Culprit of the Attack on the Transition Government in Mali ant the AES is NATO Imperialism

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns the imperialist-backed terrorist and separatist attacks against the Transition Government of Mali on April 25, 2026. This was a major attack that terrorized the population in several towns, resulting in casualties, among whom the minister of defense, General Sadio Camara, his wife, and grandchildren were killed. The Black Alliance for Peace offers our condolences to the family and comrades in the Malian transition government, as well as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Consistent with our principles, BAP stands in unity with all anti-imperialist fighting …

Can Cities and Towns and Rural Environs Balance the Needs of Families, Kiddos, Economics, Energy, Culture, & the ecologies of an area with CAPITALISM’s DRIVE for Unfettered Profits, Growth?

Land use — rural, neighborhood, transportation, scenic by-ways, tribal, parks and bikes, new urbanism, smart growth wise use, conciliatory, radical, historic neighborhoods . . .

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

— T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

LISTEN HERE, at DV, ahead of the …

For Woman the Creator

Human beings often search for meaning in distant philosophies, institutions, or ideologies, but the truth is far more immediate: what confronts us, what resists us, and what shapes our condition is what ultimately defines us. And nothing shapes the human condition more profoundly than the woman who brings humanity into existence. She is not a symbol to be admired from a distance, nor an accessory to the historical record. She is the creator of the species, the first architect of human survival, and the most exploited force in every civilization that …

AI Is Already Going Rogue

Wreaking Havoc Because It Feels Like It

Imagine there was a new country filled with people who had far more information/knowledge than any of our own citizens have — including our super-smart leaders and rulers. They knew every military strategy and plan ever attempted. These people never slept, ate, rested, or got distracted. They worked 24/7. They never even paused to scratch their nether regions. In fact, they had no nether regions.

They also had no morals or ethics or qualms about harming others. They possessed no care for humanity or the environment or a sustainable future.

US Continues to Blow Up Small Boats

Militarism Normalized in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific

Artisanal fishers collective, La Guaira, Venezuela

A US military strike on May 4 killed two mariners in an alleged “narco boat” campaign which now has a cumulative death toll of at least 188. The pace of extrajudicial executions is ramping up, according to The Guardian. But why?

The serial murders could be, as the Trump administration claims, a genuine counter-narcotics operation. Or Mr. Trump and company may be conducting a demonstration exercise of executive power. Alternatively, the “kinetic strikes” may reflect more domestic concerns or perhaps foreign policy issues. Another possibility …

100th birthday of Biosphere’s David Attenborough

8 May is the 100th birthday of Biosphere champion David Attenborough and also the 81st anniversary of VE Day (victory over genocidal Nazi Germany). It’s germane to consider the present and adumbrated destruction of species and of humans.

Famed scientist Stephen Hawking succinctly stated (2018): “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change”.

However in the last 2.5 years an out-of-control nuclear power Apartheid Israel (90 nuclear weapons) has bombed 6 countries (Qatar, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria …

Not Just an Ally: Radical Feminism for Men

When I was invited to write a chapter on men in feminism for a scholarly book, I told the editors that I would have to include discussion of my writing on the radical feminist critiques of pornography and transgender ideology, which are controversial subjects in academic feminism. They assured me that wouldn’t be a problem, but I submitted a draft early because I’ve had editors reject such writing at the last minute. Their response did not surprise me: “The editorial team has met and decided the article does not fit with our mission for the book.”

Rather than abandon the project, …

Why Hate Cuba? Especially Its Medical Practices

An assault on Cuba needs excuses for hating it. But given that any exchanges between the US and Cuba has been blocked out of the news for decades, it’s a bit difficult for a lot of folks to figure out why they are supposed to hate it and starve the people there. Let’s look through the eyes of those who promote an attack to find the real reasons.

Going back to Cuba’s 1959 revolution we can see that it occurred during the cold war anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era which permeated …

Two Centuries of U.S. Contempt for Cuba

I do believe I’ll be . . . having the honor of taking Cuba.

— Donald Trump

Donald Trump tightened already suffocating sanctions on Cuba on May 1, at the same time as he made renewed threats to “take” the island as soon as he finishes committing the greatest foreign policy blunder in U.S. history in Iran. The new measure to heap further unmerited suffering on Cubans was justified on the laughable pretext that their government poses an extraordinary national security threat to the United States, which, if it were true, would constitute an equally extraordinary confession of military impotence on the …

Cursor, SpaceX, and Pakistan’s Brain Drain

The Young Man from Karachi and the $60 Billion Deal

Pakistan raised a world-class mind. Silicon Valley cashed the cheque.

In the spring of 2026, a deal came out of California that stopped people mid-scroll. On April 21, SpaceX announced it had secured the right to buy Anysphere, the company behind the AI coding tool Cursor, for $60 billion before the year was out. If SpaceX changes its mind, it still hands over $10 billion as a collaboration fee. Either way, the founders of Cursor walk away rich. One of those founders is Sualeh Asif, 26 years old, …

The Second Global Sumud Flotilla: Israeli Piracy and Abduction on the High Seas

They have become adept flouters of international law. When doing so, they justify such violations with streaky, anaemic interpretations of self-defence and security. The Global Sumud Flotilla’s encore effort to break the Gaza blockade, which has been in place with varying forms of severity since 2007, did have one meritorious claim. After vanishing under a news cycle saturated with the Iran War, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and a global energy crisis, the unpardonably miserable plight of Gazans did make a return to the media stage.

The state of catastrophic misery for those on the Gaza Strip is …

Israel Plans to Resume Gaza War as It Violates the Ceasefire Every Day


Image courtesy the Freedom Flotilla Coalition

Did you hear the news? No, probably not. It’s not news anymore. The ongoing genocide in Gaza doesn’t count as newsworthy for Western media. Apparently there are a lot more interesting, important, and titillating stories than a US-funded and armed genocide.

A quick Google search shows zero mainstream western outlets covering Gaza recently other than articles about the Gaza aid flotilla that was just terrorized and intercepted by Israel 1,000km from Israel. Meaning, the actual genocide is no longer a story.

Yet, …

For Peace in the Americas, We Must Defend Cuba Against U.S. Imperialist Warfare

The U.S. Presidential Executive Order, “Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba and for Threats to United States National Security and Foreign Policy,” signed on May 1, 2026, International Workers’ Day, marks both an escalation of existing policy and a qualitative shift toward total economic warfare, deploying starvation as an instrument of statecraft. The timing of this escalation is not incidental. Issued amid renewed U.S. rhetoric around exerting control over Cuba, the EO signals an effort to consolidate that control in a moment of deepening crisis for U.S. imperialism.
By broadening sanctions to target any entity or …

Dangers to the Fourth Estate: The 2026 World Press Freedom Index

Scribblers, scribes, authors, and publishers – all of these are facing ever-worsening conditions in pursuing their work in battling the goons of secrecy and impunity. The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index has rotten news on that score. For the first time since the index came into being, RSF states that “over half of the world’s countries now fall into the ‘difficult’ or ‘very serious’ categories for press freedom. In 25 years, the average score of all 180 countries and territories surveyed in the Index has never been so low.”

In reaching its scores on press freedom, RSF uses …

Email Messages Are Now Being Subjected to AI “Overview” of Contents by Computer Service

Above a personal email from a friend (name changed) in early April was a small summation of her short message to me from something called “AI Overview”:

Barbara is getting a Jitterbug phone like Jan’s.
Beth asked Barbara about her writing group…”

Below it in smaller type was the AI author’s message:” ‘By Gemini; there may be mistakes. Learn more

There was no mistake. And I needed no translations of Beth’s email. Google’s Gemini program was invading my privacy.  And because millions of others and I have written adversely about President Trump in our Gmails, we are now being watched. Could it …

Pakistan should address Balochi grievances

The Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) was unified under British colonial rule. In 1947, India was divided into India and Pakistan. In 1971, Pakistan was divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since coming to power in 2014, Hindu nationalist Modi’s hatred of minorities, particularly Muslims, has created internal division and turned Muslims into second-class citizens.

On the other side, Pakistan today is facing another crisis which, if not handled humanely and fairly, could result in yet another division.

The Indian subcontinent is not a homogeneous entity; it is an amalgam of various ethnicities, one could say …

Dissecting an “Antisemitism” Psyop

I recently watched a Sky News segment on the need to ban pro-Palestine marches, which nicely illustrates the way the mass media have been working to manipulate the public into believing these demonstrations are causing antisemitic attacks.

Reporting on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recent assertion that the “repeat nature” and “cumulative effect” of pro-Palestine marches may necessitate a ban on some protests following the Golders Green stabbing, reporter Mollie Malone repeatedly told the audience of Sky News that the marches are happening in the “context” of antisemitic incidents and “against the backdrop” of attacks on Jewish people.

There is no evidence …

Brussels, Russia and the Venice Biennale: Art as Politics and Hypocrisy

The jury at the Venice Biennale Art Exhibition has outdone itself. Few juries at any art or literary festival can be trusted at the best of times, their judgment likely to be swayed by factions, self-interest, and the ethically sapping succor of the gravy train (the global art scene is an enormous racket after all), but to see such figures take a moral stand is a peculiar thing indeed.

The stand in question, which took the form of a mass resignation, was initiated in response to the decision to permit Russian participation for the first time since the February 2022 invasion …

Israel Kidnaps Two Canadian Activists from Gaza Flotilla

Two days ago, Israeli forces violently raided the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in international waters, and kidnapped unarmed activists at gunpoint, including at least two Canadians.

The …

McCarthyite Mischievousness even in Podunk Towns

Note: Just out in the Lincoln County Leader, AKA Newport News Times.  Read the article with enhanced images below.

Second note: I have been cancelled here, from teaching at the college (community) and from substituting at the K12 District.

My crimes? I was teaching years ago, subbing for high schoolers (I wrote about that here at DV). The sick English teacher was on the phone, and he was fine with me teaching Animal Farm and Of Mice and Men, since that IS my specialty — college-level writing and literature classes.

Subs with some flair, me, get asked, “What did you do …

Not One Drop of Blood from the Working Classes for Capitalist Interests: Defend Workers of the World and Defeat U.S. Wars

On this International Workers’ Day 2026, it is clear that the working people of the US must fight and organize more substantially to defeat U.S. wars domestically and globally. From Palestine to Haiti, from Iran to Cuba, from Venezuela to Sudan, from Lebanon to the Philippines, U.S. imperialism deploys military force, economic warfare, and political repression to discipline working peoples who resist its control. Domestically, this same system targets migrants, criminalizes dissent, murders freedom fighters, and intensifies the conditions of exploitation and disposability imposed on the working class.

For nine years, the Black Alliance for Peace has worked to advance this …

The Peoples of Asia Know the Cost of War: Hands off Asia!

Diego Rivera (Mexico), Pesadilla de guerra, sueño de paz (Nightmare of war, dream of peace), 1952.
On 30 April 1975, a tank crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace in Saigon, Vietnam, ending three decades of war. Vietnam had defeated the most powerful military force the world had ever known – at the cost of over three million Vietnamese lives and 7.5 million tonnes of US bombs dropped across Indochina. But this was not only Vietnam’s story. It was the culmination of a long tradition – stretching back nearly …

140th Anniversary of Strike for Eight-Hour Workday, Haymarket Massacre and Declaration of May 1 as International Workers’ Day

Origins of May Day


May Day, the international day of working class unity and struggle, finds its origins in the historic strike of U.S. workers for the eight-hour workday.

The strike started on May 1, 1886. In Chicago, workers’ defence organizations organized a general strike and tens of thousands of workers walked off the job. Some 80,000 people marched down Michigan Avenue with the cry, “Eight-hour day with no cut in pay.” Police and private security forces from Pinkerton were on hand to suppress the workers, but there was no incident that day. Over the next …