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Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court marks a continuation and deepening of the lopsided ethno-religious representation in the US judicial system. If Garland is appointed, Jewish justices will comprise 45% of the Court, even though they represent less than 2% of the overall population. Roman Catholics comprise the other 55% of the Court – even though they represent approximately 30% of the population. Protestants (historically the authors and signers of the country’s foundational documents, and the major confessional group) are totally absent from this august body of jurists.

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Mistreatment often—usually?—has consequences, and of a negative nature.  Let me limit myself here to just two examples.

First, humans have—especially since the Agricultural Revolution of millennia ago, and more particularly since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century—been perceiving themselves as apart from, rather than a part of, Earth System.  They have, for example, perceived Earth as a mere resource to be exploited rather than as their home—a place, therefore, to respect, and treat with care.

This attitude toward Earth System has led them to engage in activities that have impacted Earth System negatively; and as their activities have increasingly had the …

Is there political life outside of electoral politics?

Is it possible to be “political” in the United States and not get involved in electoral politics? For most of human history there have been “high politics” of kings and aristocrats and “low politics” of peasants, artisans and proletarians. Yet before roughly the 20th century, staging elections was not part of the political process. The root meaning of politics is “policy” which means setting a course or direction. A deeper meaning of politics is to “steer” the way a ship is navigated through dangerous currents and weather conditions. With this in mind I …

In her oily, cringe-inducing and totally predictable speech to AIPAC on March 21, Hillary Clinton argued that, since (according to her) “anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world… we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate and undermine Israel and the Jewish people.” In other words, we must do what we can to shut down any legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. A reliable means of doing so is to conflate said criticism with anti-Semitism and thus vilify the critic in question. This particular strategy has been perfected and institutionalized for decades, and was perhaps best deconstructed by Norman Finkelstein …

If some intelligent extraterrestrial beings were circling over our planet in their spaceship, monitoring for decades and centuries all that has been and is taking place on its surface, they would, most likely, be horrified by our brutality, and shocked by the countless contradictions, double standards and inconsistencies.

For instance, after registering the recent loss of lives in Brussels, visitors from outer space would immediately detect the enormous amount of activity all over the Belgian metropolis: police cars, the military, ambulances, and media vans. More than 30 people were killed at the airport and at the metro station, while over 200 …

There are among us today, as there always have been, those who act against the scheme of things that degrades them, and in the process of action everything we have accepted out of fear or insensitivity or ignorance is shaken before us and examined… More important, from this total questioning of what has previously been unquestioned, we learn. And such a process is not beyond the common man.

— Arthur Miller, “Tragedy and the Common Man”, 1949

Mass media would like to print neat-and-tidy articles about Donald Trump’s ascendancy, tracing the roots of his meteoric popularity to former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. …

Recently the New York Times produced another propaganda gem. This article, entitled “A New Libya, With Very Little Time Left,” led with the “grisly” description of the death of “dictator” Muammar Gaddafi. Interesting that there was no condemnation of the grisly anal rape and gangland execution of the former president. I suppose this is the vaunted objectivity of the Times rearing its own “pock-marked head.” The article also noted Hillary Clinton’s vulgar moment of levity after receiving word of Gaddafi’s death on her mobile (“We came, we saw, he died.”) But in the spirit of journalistic impartiality the paper of record declined to record …

I have been filming in the Marshall Islands, which lie north of Australia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Whenever I tell people where I have been, they ask, “Where is that?” If I offer a clue by referring to “Bikini”, they say, “You mean the swimsuit.”

Few seem aware that the bikini swimsuit was named to celebrate the nuclear explosions that destroyed Bikini island. Sixty-six nuclear devices were exploded by the United States in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 — the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for twelve years.

Bikini is silent today, mutated and contaminated. …

One might expect that only historians would care to revisit the 1948 war that created Israel. And yet the debate about what constitutes truth and myth from that period still provokes raw emotions.

Much rests on how those events are reconstructed, not least because the shock waves have yet to subside. Israelis fear, and Palestinians crave, a clearer picture of the past because it would powerfully illuminate the present. It might also influence the international community’s proposed solutions for the conflict.

That is why the unearthing of an Israeli soldier’s letter from 1948 detailing what was probably the war’s worst massacre – …

In the past year, some progressives have explained why they are not supporting Bernie Sanders.  Last summer, Bruce Dixon from Black Agenda Report presented a “sheepdog” theory suggesting that people who join the Bernie campaign will eventually be herded into supporting Hillary.  More recently, Chris Hedges wrote “We must focus exclusively on revolt” and break with the establishment parties. Steven Salaita criticized Sanders’ lack of a radically different foreign policy, especially regarding Israel and Palestine. While there is some truth in all these criticisms, I think it’s important to support Bernie Sanders. Here is why.

Sanders is not …

David Brooks’ recent Op-Ed is a flaccid and flailing attempt to denigrate democracy without denigrating democracy. The ghost of Eddie Bernays’ circular sophistry permeates this snoot-fest like a cheap uninterrogated suit. We recall Mr. Ed in one of his more breathtaking loopty-loops:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”–from Propaganda 

The impudence!

Brooks is no Lippmann. If this is the best they’ve got in the centennial run-up to Public Opinion, then NASCAR Nation might be in the driver’s seat, even in the battle of ideas. Scary much? My intertextualisms appear in italics.
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The voters have …

The cocksure pro-nuclear crowd has trumpeted Fukushima as an example of Mother Nature taking lives because of an earthquake and tsunami; whereas, the power plant accident proves nuclear power can withstand the worst without unnecessary death and illness. All of the deaths (16,000) were the fault of Mother Nature, not radiation.

After all, it’s only one year ago that science journalist George Johnson’s article, “When Radiation Isn’t the Real Risk,” appeared in the New York Times, September 21, 2015: “This spring, four years after the nuclear accident at Fukushima, a small group of scientists met in Tokyo to evaluate the deadly …

The hunt for evidence before embarking on a course of state action is becoming less and less important.  Such matters as accusations of terrorism seem to have a suspending effect on the laws of proof. State authorities, and their respective ministers, seem indifferent about proving the case against the accused.  Charges without more are sufficient.  The reversal of the onus of proof is assumed.

The relevant Australian laws dealing with foreign incursions by its citizens and residents are to be found in Part 5.5 of the Criminal Code Act 1995.  A person is said to commit an offence if he …

There is no need to argue for the US Senate to provide “Advice and Consent” for presidential appointments to the Supreme Court.  It’s right there in the U.S. Constitution:  Article II, Section 2, Clause 2.

The crass partisanship of majority Republicans in the U.S. Senate in refusing such consent is grossly insulting to citizens of the United States, not only in terms of the lame arguments posed by our illustrious Senate majority leader, for example, but also in terms of the continued affront to a constitutional democracy that Republicans violate. Republicans’ professed reverence for the Constitution especially highlights their hypocrisy.

However, …

In a recent article written for Information Clearing House, Franklin Lamb states: “I confess to having purchased four children near Ramlet el Baida beach recently from a stressed-out Syrian woman.” The article goes on to describe the illegal practices of brokering, bartering, purchasing, and trafficking children. The eventual goal seems to be a “re-homing” of these young ones, with the side benefit of a journalistic coup in terms of self-promotion. In this light, Franklin Lamb represents the very worst of “white savior syndrome”, and reveals a complete inability to understand his privilege as a foreigner in this region. …