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A Review: The Hotel Tacloban by Douglas Valentine
by Edward Curtin / June 29th, 2017
The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies.
— Vergil, The Aeneid
Not since Edmund Gosse’s classic memoir, Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments, has an estranged son written more nobly of his father than Douglas Valentine. Nobly because, apart from a brief author’s note, the son is absent from the book, except as a faithful and creative amanuensis to his father’s chilling, dark, life-long secret of his WW II years as a prisoner of war of the …
by Margaret Flowers / June 29th, 2017
image from ATTN.com.
We thought that Senator Sanders was on track to introduce and advocate for a national improved Medicare for All bill, but Tuesday he stated publicly at a Planned Parenthood rally that his priorities are to first defeat the Republican health plan, then to improve the Affordable Care Act with a public option or allowing people to buy-in to Medicare, and then we can work for single payer.
This was confirmed by his deputy communications director Josh Miller-Lewis who said “[Sanders has] said many times over …
by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich / June 29th, 2017
In Egyptian mythology, gods were considered heroes. In more modern times, it is men who are the heroes. Without a doubt, General Gamal Abdul Nasser has secured his legacy as a hero – a revolutionary who fought for Egypt and strived for Arab unity against Israel and Western imperialism. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war; a pre-planned war of aggression and expansion by Israel against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, aided by the US and Britain.
Israel’s cronies assisted in the planning and execution of the war which led to the seizure and occupation of East Jerusalem, …
by Paul Craig Roberts / June 29th, 2017
Unlike Oliver Stone, who knew how to interview Vladimir Putin, Megyn Kelly did not. Thus, she made a fool of herself, which is par for her course.
Now the entire Western media has joined Megyn in foolishness, or so it appears from a RT report. James O’Keefe has senior CNN producer John Bonifield on video telling O’Keefe that CNN’s anti Russian reporting is purely for ratings: “It’s mostly bullshit right now. Like, we don’t have any big giant proof.” CNN’s Bonifield is reported to go on to say that “our CIA is doing shit all the time, we’re out there …
by Randy Shields / June 29th, 2017
Looks like Mordor-on-the-Potomac is psyching itself up to attack Russia and Iran.
All-purpose ignoramus Sean Spicer is quoted in the Washington Post as saying, “The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children. The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack. If Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”
Never to be out-neoconned, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley …
by Ramzy Baroud / June 29th, 2017
Mohammed Abed is a 28-year-old taxi driver from the village of Qarara, near the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. He has no teeth.
Lack of medical care and proper dentistry work cost him all of his teeth, which rotted and decayed at a very young age. Yet, his dire financial needs prevented him from acquiring dentures. His community eventually pitched in, collecting the few hundred dollars needed for Mohammed to finally being able to eat.
Mohammed is not unemployed. He works ten hours, sometimes more, every single day. The old taxi he drives between Khan Younis and Gaza City …
by Sophie Mangal / June 28th, 2017
It’s not a secret for anyone, how much hardship, how much grief and suffering people endure as they confront many various explosive devices, booby-traps and other deadly bombs especially on the territory of settlements. Aleppo, the largest city of Syria, was literally loaded and the fields strewn with all kinds of explosives and mines left by terrorists. Syrian sappers recently shared the first results of their activities on mine clearance in the territory of Aleppo and also their impressions and experience from the missions in a discussion moderated by Inside Syria Media Center’s military correspondents.
…
by Bashar Salame / June 28th, 2017
“Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free”. From a modern version of the Hippocratic Oath.
A hallmark achievement of Obamacare (ACA), recognized by advocates and detractors alike, the law provided 20 million previously uninsured Americans much needed healthcare coverage. With a simple majority vote, Senate Republicans can basically repeal Obamacare, in so doing eliminating all accompanying progress. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), 22 million people will lose coverage by 2026, saving the …
by Shawgi Tell / June 28th, 2017
These are some of the news headlines that appeared when searching for “charter schools” in GoogleNews in June 2017:
Stop bashing charter schools. The Tennessean.
Charter school parents to Legislature: Hands off. The Sacramento Bee.
Here’s how charter schools ‘could’ succeed: Mac Gordon. The Clarion-Ledger.
Guest Essay: Charter school overcoming barriers. The Democrat & Chronicle.
Another success for the schools de Blasio detests. New York Post.
Such haughty headlines appear every day and reveal the intensification of charter school disinformation and desperation. Total irrationality has set in among charter school promoters.
Disinformation is …
A Brutal Part of Canada's Dark History in Africa
by Yves Engler / June 28th, 2017
Canada’s 150th anniversary offers a unique opportunity to shed light on some darker corners of Canadian history. One of the dustier chapters is our contribution to one of the most barbarous regimes of the last century and a half.
In a bid to extract rubber and other commodities from his personal colony, Belgian King Léopold II instituted a brutal system of forced labour in the late 1800s. Individuals and communities were given rubber collection quotas that were both hard to fulfill and punishable by death. To prove they killed someone who failed to fulfill a quota soldiers from the Force Publique, the …
by Binoy Kampmark / June 28th, 2017
It is also a story of deceit and lies, of institutional defensiveness defeating truth and justice. It is evidence of a culture of denial within South Yorkshire Police.
— Anne Burkett, BBC, April 27, 2016
It took 28 years for the tables to turn on the South Yorkshire police regarding the Hillsborough disaster that took the lives of 96 fans. The 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest saw a sporting catastrophe that was portrayed as less a matter of institutional accountability as the consequence of loutish, irresponsible fans.
The finger pointing began instantly, with the police arguing that the bad …
We Eat the Mad Cow Disease Meat of their Capitalism
by Paul Haeder / June 28th, 2017
And I love all people, rich or poor. But in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense? Does that make sense?
From the criminally insane leader to his insane captives, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday [6/21/17], as Trump was stumping for the health (sic) care (sic-sic) death bill the Republicans are pushing with the blessings of the kleptocracy that is the millionaire-billionaire class (sic). That’s us, folks, poor people – looking at a cool 150 million of us in the USA, or maybe even more! He wants zero voice or self-agency from us poor, …
by Ellen Brown / June 28th, 2017
Japan has found a way to write off nearly half its national debt without creating inflation. We could do that too.
Let’s face it. There is no way the US government is ever going to pay back a $20 trillion federal debt. The taxpayers will just continue to pay interest on it, year after year.
A lot of interest.
If the Federal Reserve raises the fed funds rate to 3.5% and sells its federal securities into the market, as it is proposing to do, by 2026 the projected tab will be $830 billion annually. That’s nearly $1 trillion owed by the …
by John R. Hall / June 27th, 2017
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed…for lack of a better word… is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all its forms…greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge…has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed…you mark my words…will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.
— Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) from the 1987 movie Wall Street
Their attitudes may taste like shit
But go real good with wine
Eat the rich
There is only one thing that they are good for
Eat the …
by Anna Jaunger / June 27th, 2017
Having ordered the attack on the al-Shayrat air field near the western Syrian city of Homs, U.S. President Donald Trump knew that the Syrian government hadn’t used any chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun. At the same time the current U.S. administration was making every effort to develop an information campaign against Damascus.
This was reported by Welt am Sonntag, a German Sunday newspaper. An American investigative journalist and political writer Seymour Hersh stressed that actually the Syrian Air Force had targeted a two-story building, where extremists from various terrorist groups held meetings. According to Hersh, a bomb, …
by Paul Larudee / June 27th, 2017
The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime.
— Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, June 26, 2017
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, you can’t get fooled again.
— George Bush, Sept. 17, 2002
The White House statement raises a number of questions. Who has identified the “potential preparations”? No reference is given, not even a source agency. Does the information come from intelligence sources? Apparently the Pentagon had not even been informed. What is “potential information” and how does it compare with real information?
Of course, the White House has its own …
by Binoy Kampmark / June 27th, 2017
Google’s practices have deprived millions of European consumers of the full benefits of competition, genuine choice and innovation.
— Margrethe Vestager, June 28, 2017
Google, for some time, has been the leviathan of the tech world. A KQED radio discussion on a Tuesday morning treats the company as a creator and dispenser: creator of transport infrastructure, funnelling employees from the city of San Francisco via shuttle service; dispenser of largesse to the people of California, if not the globe. It can provide affordable housing, suggest the discussants. It can supply services that would otherwise be the domain of government.
This troubling supremacy has …
by Jonathan Cook / June 27th, 2017
Veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the man who exposed the Mai Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and the US military’s abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004, is probably the most influential journalist of the modern era, with the possible exception of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the pair who exposed Watergate.
For decades, Hersh has drawn on his extensive contacts within the US security establishment to bring us the story behind the official story, and to disclose facts that have often proved deeply discomfiting to those in power and exploded the self-serving, fairy-tale narratives the public were …
by Jordan Flaherty / June 27th, 2017
Several days a week, columnist James Gill exemplifies the mediocre writing, faulty arguments, and ignorance of basic facts that too often pass for commentary in The New Orleans Advocate. Gill’s work is a symptom of a deeper prejudice from the management of our local media. New Orleans is still 60% African-American, but you wouldn’t know it from the mostly white staff and management of The New Orleans Advocate, or Gill’s former outlet, The Times-Picayune.
Gill was far out of his depth on June 1, when he attacked Norris Henderson, a passionate advocate and reformer who spent over 27 years behind bars for a crime …
by William Hawes and Jason Holland / June 27th, 2017
While supporters of our two-party system wring their hands over the sensationalist nonsense reported by the mainstream media, we thought it might be worth touching on the most dangerous lie of all-time: capitalism. It’s an all-encompassing delusion, including: the myth of continual technological progress, the mendacious assumptions of endless economic growth, the lie that constant bombardments of media and consumer goods make us happy, and the omissions of our involvement in the exploitation of the planet and the resources of distant, poorer nations, among other things.
We’ve taken the time to hash out some of the most pernicious mendacities we’ve come …
Plutocracy: Class War from Metanoia Films
by Kim Petersen / June 27th, 2017
In 2017 the United States finds itself with a billionaire president who defeated, as adjudged by electoral college votes, the multimillionaire Hillary Clinton. In fact, high political office in the US has become a stepping stone to personal enrichment. Barack Obama is cashing in now with exorbitant book deals and speaking fees.
It is highly illustrative of the divide between the working masses and the 1%-ers of Wall Street who effectively own the American political system. The politicians know the voters want change, but …
by James Petras / June 26th, 2017
The most striking feature of recent elections is not ‘who won or who lost’, nor is it the personalities, parties and programs. The dominant characteristic of the elections is the widespread repudiation of the electoral system, political campaigns, parties and candidates.
Across the world, majorities and pluralities of citizens of voting age refuse to even register to vote (unless obligated by law), refuse to turn out to vote (voter abstention), or vote against all the candidates (boycott by empty ballot and ballot spoilage).
…
by James O'Neill / June 26th, 2017
On Thursday of last week (22/6/17) the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly by 94 votes to 15, with 64 abstentions, on a motion advanced by Mauritius seeking a referral to the International court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on the Chagos Islands.
One suspects that the majority of any given population in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australasia would have trouble identifying where the Chagos Islands might be, let alone the significance of the vote.
It was, however, a vote of considerable significance and to understand why, and the identity of the 15 naysayers, a …
Un-Independence Day 2017
by Abahlali baseMjondolo / June 26th, 2017
On 29 June 2017, the Congolese Solidarity Campaign (CSC), a grassroots human rights based social movement will once again hold its Un-Independence Day event in a form of panel discussion. It will take place at the Diakonia Centre — 20 Diakonia venue, Durban, South Africa.
While the rest of the country celebrates 57 years of “Independence,” we the impoverished, the marginalized and the oppressed will be mourning the absence of this independence that our mothers and fathers fought for so hard. We will say as long as the history of our country is still characterized by civil wars, political instability, insecurity, …
by T. Mayheart Dardar / June 26th, 2017
Here in south Louisiana we are, to a degree, surrounded by levees. For those not familiar with them, levees are manmade earthen barriers that are designed to protect the inhabited areas of the region from rising waters and storm surges. They are not a new strategy, historical accounts tell us of levees being erected by the first European settlers to the area three centuries ago. European styled settlements were always challenged by the climate and ecology of the bayou land.
Levees, locks, canals, and pumping stations are all modern …
by Sophie Mangal / June 23rd, 2017
The French president Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with El Pais (22 June 2017), said that the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power is no longer a priority in resolving the Syrian crisis.
“France no longer sees the displacement of Assad as a priority for anything as well as I do not see who could become his legitimate successor,” Macron said.
President Emmanuel Macron (center), in an interview with
El Pais. Jean-Christophe Marmara
The French president also called on countries to concentrate on …
"Beyond urgent... on verge of a catastrophe... last chance to save Christian presence in Holy Land"
by Stuart Littlewood / June 23rd, 2017
The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine (NCCOP) has just issued a final plea for help in the form of an open letter to the World Council of Churches and the ecumenical movement. It is signed by over 30 organisations in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and can be read in full here.
The problem is well known to everyone who’s paying attention. The letter recaps for us:
We are still suffering from 100 years of injustice and oppression that were inflicted on the Palestinian people beginning with the unlawful Balfour declaration, intensified through the Nakba [Palestinian ‘catastrophe’] and the …
by John Andrews / June 23rd, 2017
Unsurprisingly, and not unreasonably, many people are looking for heads to roll as a result of the terrible fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower in London. It killed as yet unknown numbers of people, at least seventy nine so far. It was a fire that should never have happened. An excellent documentary about the tragedy by Panorama revealed that for the last few years many warnings had been given to the owners of the building, Kensington and Chelsea Council, warnings that fire precautions were inadequate and a tragedy waiting to happen, warnings which were all but totally ignored. At this …
by Yves Engler / June 23rd, 2017
If a guy does something bad to someone else, but then complains later when another person does that same thing to him, what do we say? Stop being a hypocrite. Either you change tact or you got what you deserved.
Does the same moral logic apply to countries?
Purported Russian meddling in US, French and other elections has received significant attention recently. “Russian meddling abroad underscores need for electoral reform in Canada” declared a Rabble.ca headline this week while CBC noted “Russian attempts to infiltrate U.S. election systems found in 21 states: officials”. An earlier Globe and Mail headline …
by Graham Peebles / June 23rd, 2017
Charred, lifeless and brutal, the hollowed out remains of Grenfell Tower in west London screams of the human agony inflicted when, on 14th June, the building became an inferno.
Whilst there are various theories about what triggered the fire – dodgy wiring, a faulty fridge, a gas leak – what is clear is that this disaster was not an accident, it was the consequence of a social housing policy dating back to the 1980’s, systematic neglect, social injustice and the ongoing war being waged on the poorest members of British society by the Conservative government. And this time the result is …
