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by Kersasp Shekhdar / February 12th, 2016
Amidst a hand-wringing defence of the indefensible, The New Statesman propagated a common myth thus: “The European Union has indeed brought peace and prosperity to the people of Europe . . .”
Indeed, it never did. The institution that arguably brought peace and truly brought prosperity to Europe was the E.E.C. Colloquially, ‘it was a different type of animal,’ say, the cow in the barn as opposed to the wolf at the door (now which institution might that symbolize?).
And talking about animals, we never had a single ‘PIGS’ during the E.E.C.’s years, did we? Neither were there so many ailing and …
by Gary Brumback / February 12th, 2016
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
National Council of Churches of Christ in the US
National Council of Synagogues
Unitarian Universalist
US Council of Muslims
World Council of Churches
World Council of Independent Christian Churches
Were it not for its record of either engaging in war, promoting it or acquiescing to it, one would think organized religion would be a natural ally of and prominent activist for peace. There are, to be sure, some exceptions among the various denominations or religious sects (e.g., the Quakers and the Mennonites), and small religious, antiwar groups can be found protesting now and then, here and there. Overall, though, and throughout history …
by Gary Corseri / February 12th, 2016
“A” Is for “Asininity”
That’s a particular kind of stupidity.
All of us can be stupid at times. (Ever see that picture of Einstein with his tongue hanging out like an aardvark’s, clowning—one supposes—for the camera?)
It’s in our genes to be stupid at times. Looking back on the Vietnam War—which ultimately took his own son’s life—Secretary of Defense McNamara attributed his own stupidity to the “fog of war.”
I would rather call it “asininity.”
Asininity is stupidity that is stubborn as a jackass; stupidity that insists on itself in spite of all contrary evidence.
The US has been guilty of asininity for a couple …
by Jonathan Cook / February 12th, 2016
Israel’s frantic cocoon-weaving entered a new phase last week, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stepped up efforts to stifle the last vestiges of dissent.
The military censor’s office, a draconian 70-year-old hangover from British rule in Palestine, extended its powers over Israeli press and TV to prominent blogs and social media.
The government has also threatened to revoke the press cards of “journalists and editors who are negligent in their work” – aimed at those who depart too obviously from the official line.
These moves follow culture minister Miri Regev’s announcement of a “loyalty law” that will deny state funding to artists and cultural …
by Jack A. Smith / February 12th, 2016
The Obama Administration is expanding its military power and threats against Russia and China as well as increasing its war efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria while preparing to restart Washington’s old war in Libya.
Most of this has been revealed in the first six weeks of the 2016 election year and President Barack Obama’s last full year in office without any significant new provocations against the United States. At least part of the White House motive must be to undercut right wing Republican campaign rhetoric alleging Obama and the Democrats are “soft on defense,” and creating a more robust martial …
by Paul Larudee / February 12th, 2016
The Syrian Army and its allies have clearly turned the tide in the Syrian war. The “facts on the ground” have changed dramatically for all the major players, and constitute a major reversal for all the forces that have tried to institute “regime change” in Syria, in violation of its sovereignty. The Geneva “Peace Conference” opposition delegation, composed of marginal figures representing a tiny fraction of the armed anti-government factions but ostensibly speaking for all of them, is now largely irrelevant. As the terrorists and foreign mercenaries and their families flee Aleppo, thousands or tens of thousands of Syrian civilians …
by Jan Oberg / February 11th, 2016
Thanks to tabloidization – a concept rapidly integrating into even quality mainstream media – you’ve probably heard that Donald Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2016.
Well, that prize has been thrown out to so many who didn’t qualify according to Alfred Nobel’s will – not even with a very liberal interpretation.
But there are two things you may not have seen which have very far-reaching implications and are much more newsworthy.
Court case against the Nobel Foundation
One is that four individuals and an NGO filed a brief to open a court case against the Nobel Foundation – and thus implicitly …
by James O'Neill / February 11th, 2016
The publication on 21 January 2016 of the report by British Judge Sir Robert Owen on the death of Alexander Litvinenko was predictably seized upon by anti-Russian elements as confirmation of their conviction that Russia in general and President Putin in particular were the personification of modern day evil.
Almost completely absent amidst the anti-Russian hysteria was any perspective on the history of Mr Litvinenko ((For a details background analysis an excellent source is the series of articles written by David Habakkuk and others found on the Euro Tribune site, 1 August 2008, and 5th, 11th and 19th December 2012)); the …
by Steve Church / February 11th, 2016
So, superstar Yanis Varoufakis is inaugurating his new outfit, DiEM25, the other day in Berlin, at the Volksbühne theatre, calling for the democratization of the European Union. What?, you say. Isn’t the EU already democratic?
It is if you think the United States is a democracy. The US was one of the prime movers behind the creation of the EU. And if you don’t believe me, read Circus Politicus (Deloire and Dubois, Albin Michel, 2012).
Post WW II, the US didn’t like the idea of all those foreigners experimenting with communism and socialism, getting the idea that unbridled …
by James Hoover / February 11th, 2016
Congress, especially its GOP members, created the Martin monster.
Martin Shkreli is only one of the monsters the GOP Congress has created. Probably our best hope is that one or many, like Shkreli, will overreach in an outrageous greed that our government has condoned for decades. Like errant spoiled children, pharmaceuticals (Pharma) have run roughshod over an obliging Congress and a consuming public since politicians – in effect – gave them license to steal.
George W. Bush’s GOP-controlled Congress actually passed a Medicare drug program that forbade Medicare officials to bargain with Pharma for reasonable drug prices paid by seniors, even though …
by Nozomi Hayase / February 11th, 2016
Last week, the United Nations Working Group (UNWG) on Arbitrary Detention ruled that journalist Julian Assange had been subject to arbitrary detention by the Swedish and British governments and that it must end. The Center for Constitutional Rights noted the significant precedent in the law of detention and the larger implications this has, not only for Assange’s case, but also for the protection of whistle-blowers and refugees around the world.
For the last five and half years, Assange has been detained without charge (first in solitary, then house arrest and now confined in the Ecuadorian Embassy). Over …
by Israel Shamir / February 11th, 2016
The Russians and their Syrian allies have cut the main supply line of the rebels to the north of Aleppo, the Azaz corridor. In our last report, we wrote about the Azaz corridor, “a narrow strip of land connecting Turkey to the rebel forces in Aleppo. Though it has been narrowed down to four miles in some places, the Syrian [government] Army can’t take it, despite the Russian aerial support. For the success of the whole operation, it is paramount to seize the corridor and cut the supply lines, but there is a heavy political flak and military difficulties. …
by Jack Balkwill / February 10th, 2016
It’s come to my attention that André Vltchek, writing in Pravda, has demystified the entire US presidential election scam in a piece titled “Please do not poison my brain with the US elections.” Americans should understand how our elections are seen by people abroad.
To my American friends I feel your pain, political phone calls will disrupt everything you do until the election in November, when you will be asked to step into a polling booth to vote for a lesser evil, which often seems like a choice between Hitler and Satan. You will hold your nose and wretch, finally …
by Steven Strauss / February 10th, 2016
French President François Hollande lost no time declaring a state of emergency following the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in Paris this past November, which killed 130 people. Within hours the ink was dry. Two days later, French pilots were bombing ISIS targets in Raqqa, Syria.
“We must face up to a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam,” declared Prime Minister Manuel Valls. This is the alleged rationale behind France’s moves.
…
by Frank Scott / February 10th, 2016
As the incumbent occupier of subsidized housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue works on his legacy by fending off mad dogs of the neo-zio-con right and still bringing us closer to provoking war with Russia, a seemingly eternal presidential race for the next tenant continues while the nation passes through a critical period of confusion, disinformation and social-economic disorder. All this is part of the divide and rule politics to reinforce the weakening foundation of a political economic structure that threatens a global as well as national population if it ever collapses.
Bernie Sanders’ candidacy offers some hope for reform that will …
or Why US Politics Turns Ordinary People into Drooling Morons
by Kieran Kelly / February 10th, 2016
The problem, in a nutshell, is this: when people decide to support a prospective candidate in the US primary races they are putting themselves in the position of defending the indefensible. The very nature of this politico-Darwinist death match means that once you pick your chosen leader you must reject all criticism and suppress all doubt. You must become aggressively defensive and you must, above all, prevent your own wayward brain from thinking those bad thoughts that weaken the image of the immaculate leader. Any chink in their armour will be exploited by the enemies that surround them. Loyalty must …
Luke Mogelson’s These Heroic, Happy Dead: Stories
by Christy Rodgers / February 9th, 2016
I think it was Anthony Swofford, author of the memoir Jarhead, who said there is no such thing as an anti-war war movie. Any film that portrays combat, however horrifically, he averred, still inevitably whets the appetite for it of young men who have never experienced it.
Literary fiction is in a different category, particularly when you can probably just about guarantee that few budding recruits will read any more of it than the rest of the US population does – maybe one book a year. It’s unlikely that any literary portrayal of war (possibly excluding comics and graphic novels), positive …
Why the Status Quo Is a Precursor for War
by Ramzy Baroud / February 9th, 2016
It is not true that only three wars have taken place since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Other wars that were deemed insignificant or ‘skirmishes’ also took place. Operation Returning Echo in March 2012, for example, killed and wounded over 100 people. But since the death toll, relative to the other major onslaughts seemed trivial, it was not cited as ‘war’, per se.
According to this logic, so-called operations Cast Lead (2008-9), Pillar of Defense (2012) and the deadliest of them all, Protective Edge (2014) were serious enough to be included in any relevant discussion, …
by subMedia / February 9th, 2016
This week we look at the growing fascist movement in Europe and what the antifa are doing to fight back. On the break we have Sindicato Latino, a hip hop collective based in Europe and made up of Latinx migrants. We wrap things up with an anti-election rant and an interview with American anarchist Scott Crow. TRIGGER WARNING: cursing, street fighting, blood, politicians
Click here to download an extended interview with Scott Crow.
This week we stole footage from Power (watch this!), Groundhog Day, House of Cards, Why we Fight, Bowling for Columbine, Stranger than fiction
On the ones …
The politics of deflection’ (shoot the messenger, ignore the message) exposed
by Stuart Littlewood / February 9th, 2016
With obvious relish Richard Falk, former professor of international law at Princeton and UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Occupied Palestine, has issued a well deserved slap on the wrist to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for his naivety. It follows Israel’s furious reaction to Ban’s remark to the Security Council that “Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half-century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process”.
The usually timid Ban, suddenly emboldened, also called Israel’s illegal settlement building “an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community”. He added: “Security measures alone will …
by Fran Quigley / February 9th, 2016
Jessica Reznicek, 34, an Iowa peace activist, was arraigned yesterday and charged with two felonies for breaking three windows with a sledgehammer at the Northrup Grumman facility outside the Omaha Nebraska Strategic Air Command at Offut Air Force base. After her court appearance she was returned to the Sarpy County Jail where she has remained on $100,000 bond since her action on December 27. Reznicek, who has no plans to post a cash bond, is facing up to twenty years in prison if convicted on both counts. Her trial is set for May 24.
Writing from her jail cell, Reznicek, …
by Dissident Voice Communications / February 8th, 2016
by Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson / February 8th, 2016
Two years ago, Russian officials discussed plans to privatize a group of national enterprises headed by the oil producer Rosneft, the VTB Bank, Aeroflot, and Russian Railways. The stated objective was to streamline management of these companies, and also to induce oligarchs to begin bringing their two decades of capital flight back to invest in the Russia economy. Foreign participation was sought in cases where Western technology transfer and management techniques would be likely to help the economy.
However, the Russian economic outlook deteriorated as the United States pushed Western governments to impose economic sanctions against Russia and oil prices declined. …
Did Hillary's Machine Rig Iowa?
by John V. Walsh / February 7th, 2016
Hillary Clinton “won” the Iowa caucuses, in part because of 6 coin tosses all of which she won! Six precincts, at least, ended up with a dead tie between the two candidates. The tie was broken and a winner declared based on a coin toss in each case.
What are the odds of one of two candidates winning all six coin tosses if the outcomes are random, that is, if the tosses are fair, unbiased and with honest coins?
The calculation is so simple that a schoolboy or schoolgirl can do it. The formula is simply 1/2 raised to the power of …
by Jonathan Cook / February 7th, 2016
Something extremely dangerous is happening before our eyes as we watch British officials and the corporate media respond to the February 6, 2016 ruling of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which found that Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained in the UK.
A major international institution upholding the rights of political dissidents around the world as they face illegal detention, abuse and torture is being turned into a laughing stock with the enthusiastic connivance of supposedly liberal media outlets like the Guardian and the BBC.
Reporters, columnists and comedians are pouring scorn on the UN group, legal experts who until yesterday …
by Ken Meyercord / February 6th, 2016
As Galileo engaged in his examination of the solar system with the aid of a newly invented scientific instrument, the telescope, he must have known his heliocentric theory of the solar system, if accepted, would destroy many Christians’ belief system. Was that the purpose of his investigations? We can never know for sure, but I don’t think so. He simply wanted to arrive at the facts, to understand the world around him.
Nonetheless, should he have stopped his investigations, or at least kept quiet about his findings, so as not to shatter people’s faith and thus cast aspersions on the …
Zika, GMO’s, the Pentagon and Wall Street
by John Stanton / February 6th, 2016
Synthetic biology also appears likely to open up opportunities in the human performance modification field through the potential to make regulatory molecules in laboratories or, more directly, inside the body. For example, bacteria that live in the human digestive system already convert food into neurotransmitters and other molecules that influence performance; by engineering these organisms to sense the levels of compounds in the body and to supplement or counteract them when needed, it may be possible to enhance physical, cognitive, and socioemotional (or interpersonal) performance.
— DOD Office of Technical Intelligence
The mainstream media, the public and financiers are agog over the …
by Jonathan Cook / February 5th, 2016
At what point do we cry foul when we witness the abuse of a political dissident, one who dares to take on mighty vested interests?
When his own state, the local legal system and the media all turn on him? When he is forced to seek sanctuary in a foreign embassy for many years, surrounded by state security forces threatening to arrest him if he leaves? When the world’s highest arbiter on the matter of his confinement, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, supports his case? When the state, legal authorities and the media ignore the ruling and continue to …
by Binoy Kampmark / February 5th, 2016
Should the UN announce tomorrow that I have lost my case against the United Kingdom and Sweden I shall exist the embassy at noon on Friday to accept arrest by British police as there is no meaningful prospect of further appeal.
— Julian Assange, Twitter, Feb 4, 2016
LONDON — The UN is a funny old thing. It has provided, historically, the strangest collective of bedfellows, fed on a good staple diet of hypocrisy and political jousting. It has more panels than Italian pasta varieties, more working committees than French cheese. At times, its workings reek of private school understandings …
by Franklin Lamb / February 5th, 2016
DAMASCUS — Among these patriots are regular citizens as well as the stellar nationalist employees of Syria’s Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) who this observer has interviewed extensively over the past nearly three years as they elucidate why ISIS destroys and loots our irreplaceable antiquities. This observer’s research has been augmented by other eyewitnesses, some who are themselves former jihadists or their victims, to ISIS looting and its distribution of franchises to sell off our shared cultural heritage give witness.
Heretofore, three varying but cogent explanations for ISIS’ rabid destruction of our shared cultural heritage have been commonplace.
The first …
