The Base Heather Stroud
Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism Sean Carleton and Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair (Eds)
Wired for Authoritarianism: American Oligarchies and How to Re-Wire America for the People Charles Derber
The Political Economy of Dissent Peter Blunt
Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion Dollar Race to Replace You–and How to Stop It Garrison Lovely
What I Saw in Ukraine: 2015-2022: Diary of an International Observer Benoit Paré
At the Lost and Found: Personal & Political Dispatches of Resistance and Hope Edward Curtin
Class War, Then and Now: Essays toward a New Left Chris Wright
America's Hijacked Peace Dividend: Long Overdue and Immediately Payable John Rachel
Mind Abuse: Media Violence and Its Threat to Democracy Rose Dyson
During the past three decades the American people have been kept in the dark about the true status of the Social Security program. Politicians, from both political parties, give out false and conflicting information on a regular basis, and nobody knows who to believe. At the Republican presidential debate, held in Boulder, Colorado, on the night of October 28, 2015, New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, shocked a lot of people when he said, “Let me be honest with the people who are watching at home. The government has lied to you and they have stolen from …
Greek port worker and union leader Giorgos Gogos says most of the demonstrations across the country were peaceful and unified against austerity measures imposed by the lenders and accepted by SYRIZA.
https://youtu.be/BrN1U1NAp5c
News item: California’s Right to Rest Act would give homeless people the right to use public space without discrimination. It also describes the right to rest in public, to protect oneself from the elements in public, to eat in public and to occupy a legally parked car.
*****
I first became aware of the complex of societal problem related to poverty when — one winter in downtown Toronto — I was confronted by a homeless man. In fact, I had to step over him because he was rolled up …
At 7pm on Friday 13th we do not have much information about the “terrorist attacks” in Paris other than that Paris is closed down like Boston was after the “Boston Marathon Bombing,” also a suspected false flag event.
Possibly believable evidence will be presented that the Paris attacks were real terrorist attacks. However, what do refugees have to gain from making themselves unwelcome with acts of violence committed against the host country, and where do refugees in France obtain automatic weapons and bombs? Indeed, where would the French themselves obtain them?
The millions of refugees from Washington’s wars who are overrunning Europe …
Awakening once again to songs of mourning doves and the clanging of numerous church bells, I’m counting my last few precious days here in the heart of Mexico. Ornately painted calacas (skulls), elegantly clad skeletal Catrinas, ten foot tall mojigangas (giant puppets), fireworks and parades of Dia de Los Muertos are finished. Now it’s back to life as usual the streets of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.
My wife and I love this beautiful little city. What’s not to love? Eternal spring weather, picturesque countryside. A World Heritage Site with some of the most painstakingly preserved Spanish Colonial architecture anywhere. And …
The problem with half-measures
Recently there was a chalk picture drawn on a particular sidewalk in Greenwich Village—a colorful image of Hillary Clinton. Her face was upturned, much like Obama’s starry gaze in 2008. Her cosmetic upgrades this summer—dutifully rendered in finely contoured jowls—returned to her cheeks a faint glow of youth. Her shut-lipped grin, a poor man’s Mona Lisa, gave her face a humble cast, almost grandmotherly in its saintliness. The picture got its point across: here was someone we could believe in. Had there been a companion portrait of Bernie Sanders gazing up at Hillary, it would have only been appropriate.
Like this …
Fact: Tens of millions of Americans do not have a bank account. As a result, many of these Americans spend a reported $89 billion annually in interest and fees by using predatory services such as payday loan and check cashing services. It’s a perpetuating cycle of poverty in which the poor get poorer just by accessing their own money. Fortunately, there is an ideal solution staring us in the face. An important voice driving the conversation is Professor Mehrsa Baradaran of the University of Georgia Law School. Her excellent new book, …
Saudi Prince Abdulmohsen bin Walid bin Abdulmohsen bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was obviously not fully satisfied with his life. A private jet, several luxury cars and a mansion were not enough to make him feel a truly fulfilled and respected member of the Gulf ruling “elites”. Others had more, like those double-decker Airbus 380’s, or tremendous duplexes overlooking Karbala.
Perhaps that was the reason why he tried so hard to catch up, by smuggling from Beirut, Lebanon to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (KSA), some 40 suitcases and boxes neatly packed with Captagon pills, with some cocaine thrown in for good measure.
I say …
In December of last year we published an intriguing article by Dmitry Kalinichenko, “Grandmaster Putin’s Trap,” which has drawn far more attention from readers than we ever expected. It continues to be cited by many international political and economic experts. That article addressed Russia’s latent strategy to get rid of US bonds and use its petrodollars to buy monetary gold. It seemed for a while that the ruble’s nosedive late last year, coupled with the Kremlin’s reduced fiscal space, has left Moscow unable to pursue its plan to permanently diversify the international financial system. Nevertheless, taking …
The 2015 Paris Climate Conference scheduled for November 30th – December 11th looks to be a humongous event, a big win with extremely significant world-changing implications for economic behavior and planetary health for decades and centuries to come.
If the hints and statements by Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework on Climate Change (“UNFCCC’) prove correct, the world is about to change in a very positive way.
Expectations are rising by the month, and now by the week, that COP21 will not be a cop-out, rather, for the first time in over 20 years of intransigency, a legally binding universal …
What Will We Do When One Third of Us are 65 or Older? Village to Village Movement Tackles the Needs of Living at Home As Long As Possible
Roots
I remember ageism striking me right between the eyes, in Oaxaca, while I was climbing a pyramid at Monte Alban. Running, really. A silly sight from afar, trying to beat the veronica of the sun so I could get the “perfect” dusk shot with my Nikon.
Two elderly ladies on the side of the steps were selling beautiful weavings, something for which the Zapotec Indians of that region are known.
I got all huffy and puffy about their goods spread out on the steps. One of the 80-year-old women said to me in heavily accented Spanish, “ Calmate, joven. Despacio. En la …
The worlds we inhabit are noisy places. The external environment, particularly cities, where over half the population now live, suffocates under a cacophony of competing sounds, from road and air traffic, to power tools, car alarms and neon lights: and, for most of us, the internal, mental space in which we live is equally chaotic and cluttered. Contradictory thought patterns rise up one after another, jostling for attention, demanding to be heard and acted upon. Conditioned, and therefore partial thoughts, move us away from the present – where exists peace – and into conflict.
This endless stream of space invaders is …
The paradox of the current global crisis is that for the last five years, all relatively responsible and independent nations have made tremendous efforts to save the United States from the financial, economic, military, and political disaster that looms ahead. And this is all despite Washington’s equally systematic moves to destabilize the world order, rightly known as the Pax Americana (“American peace”).
Since policy is not a zero-sum game; i.e., one participant’s loss does not necessarily entail a gain for another, this paradox has a logical explanation. A crisis erupts within any system when there is a discrepancy between its internal …
In 1885, the Knights of Labor organized a successful strike against Jay Gould’s Missouri Pacific Railroad. In response to the strike, Gould famously growled, “I can hire half the working class to kill the other half.”
Gould was right. In any hierarchical arrangement, where power and wealth become concentrated in the hands of a few, this tactic becomes available to those wielding this power over a vast majority. Among the masses of workers, slaves, and impoverished, there will inevitably be many willing to “police their own” in order to be in the masters’ good graces. History is rife with these examples.
In …
As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead trying to kill me.
They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are only doing their duty, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil.
— …
Elite Syrian army units have broken the siege of Kweires airbase, following weeks of intense fighting against Islamic State and other jihadist forces. The base, which opens up routes for offensives against Raqqa and Aleppo, had been encircled for nearly two years.
“We, the heroes of Kweires, are now celebrating this victory with our brothers,” a soldier told Syrian state television. “We dedicate this victory to President Bashar Assad and we promise him we will continue fighting until all of Syria is liberated. We will not kneel to Daesh” [Islamic State].
The advancing Tiger Forces, the name for the commando units in …
Behind the headline news of clashes between Palestinian youths and armed Israeli soldiers, Israel has – as ever – been quietly tightening its grip on Palestinians’ lives in the occupied territories.Last week in Hebron, a current flashpoint, 50 embattled families still living in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, faced a new restriction on movement designed to help free up the area for intensified Jewish settlement.
Some of Tel Rumeida’s residents could be seen silently queuing at the local checkpoint to register their ID cards. Anyone not from the neighbourhood and not on the military’s list will be barred from entering.
Their response differed …
The annual experience of pontificating politicians and their media stenographers extolling the virtues of the brave, heroic, selfless and dedicated heroes these draft dodgers and service avoiders laud for doing what they would never dream of doing is becoming ever more sickening. Especially as so many veterans are reduced to poverty, unemployment, living in their cars or on the street or wasting away in VA hospitals where budget cuts administered by free market fanatics of the right, center and what passes for a liberal left strengthen market forces at the expense of these quickly forgotten “patriots” who make life safe …
The Terrible Cost of Avoiding the Dangers of Kabul
When I arrived at the Kabul International Airport on November 4, I was unaware that the same day the New York Times published an article, “Life Pulls Back in Afghan Capital, as Danger Rises and Troops Recede.” My friends Abdulhai and Ali, 17 years old, young men I have known since my first visit five years ago, greeted me with smiles and hugs and took my bags. Disregarded by soldiers and police armed with automatic weapons, we caught up on old times as we walked past concrete blast walls, sand bag fortifications, check points and razor wire to the …
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is often perceived as one of the ‘good ones’ – the less hawkish of top American officials, who does not simply promote and defend his country’s military adventurism but reaches out to others, beyond polarizing rhetoric.
His unremitting efforts culminated partly in the Iran nuclear framework agreement in April, followed by a final deal a few months later. Now, he is reportedly hard at work again to find some sort of consensus on a way out of the Syria war, a multi-party conflict that has killed over 300,000 people. His admirers see him as …
The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the peoples of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice, unparalleled for its principled and selfless character…Cubans came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers, agricultural experts, but never as colonizers. They have shared the same trenches with us in the struggle against colonialism, underdevelopment, and apartheid.
— Nelson Mandela, Address to the Cuban People, July 26, 1991
November 5, 2015 marked the 40th anniversary of Operación Carlota, Cuba’s 15-year mission to defend Angola’s independence, which played a decisive role in southern African …
Ben Carson is the quiet, almost somnolent, version of Donald Trump. He is, like Trump, a political outsider, but a crafty politician all the same, without the reality TV persona of Donald Trump. Carson seems to share other attributes with “the Donald” though not commonly discussed in the media.
In an era of celebrity when we are encouraged, in fact, marketed to placate and coddle ourselves, flaws in the character of public images are usually deflected in the glow of spotlight. The image is often falsely projected and the best of it amplified for effect. Motivations and flaws are hidden behind …
The recent ‘American boots’ committed to Syria seem tailor-made for walking in directions unknown. One hears the echoing footfall of ‘military advisers’ sent by Eisenhower to South Vietnam in 1955—a mission that crept like a snail into ignominy eighteen long years later with over 3 million Vietnamese dead and 58,000 US soldiers.
Before a mission can creep though, it must first possess discrete coordinates to creep away from, some postulated line in the sand. Empires buffer themselves from internal contradiction by speaking clearly. Language matters. The term itself — boots on the ground — is a mystery wrapped in an obfuscation. …
The following is the index I submitted to the British Columbia Supreme Court in relation to Arthur Topham’s trial. This text may help activists and anti imperialist commentators in their future battles with Israel’s supporters, Hasbara merchants and Sayanim in general.
Jewish Symbols
Zionism
Semitism
The Holocaust
Germany Must Perish/Israel Must Perish
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today
The Controversy of Zion by Douglas Reed
Conclusion
Jewish Symbols
Once we realise the crucial distinctions among Jews (the people), Judaism (the religion) and Jewishness (ideology and politics), we are ready to accept that Jewish symbols …
In America, a nascent movement against “politics as usual” or to put it another way, “anything other than the establishment” is reflected by the popularity of weird, offbeat presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson. This looming national mood reflects a provocative anti-establishmentarianism, targeting exploitative and repressive neoliberal governmental policies.
But, America’s fledgling anti-establishmentarianism is relatively negligible when compared to the worldwide movement, which is gathering momentum by the month, by the year. It is now officially worldwide, as acrimony turns outrageously furious when people hit the streets.
Capitalists should be concerned. After all, neoliberal principles have effectively removed working people …
Let's remember the victims of Canada's troops
Trudeau “unveils most diverse Cabinet in Canada’s history”, was how one media outlet described the new Liberal cabinet. It includes a Muslim woman, four Sikhs, an indigenous woman, two differently abled individuals and an equal number of women and men. Half even refused any reference to God at Wednesday’s swearing in ceremony.
But in one respect there was no diversity at all. Every single person wore a Remembrance Day poppy. Even Justin Trudeau’s young children were made to publicly commemorate Canadians (and allies) who died at war.
As we approach the 11th hour of the 11th day of the …
Just the other night we were discussing our upcoming November actions to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other corporate trade agreements with two organizers, both in their twenties, Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins and J. Lee Stewart. We were trying to figure out what we could do to stop the corporate push for laws that will undermine workers and the environment while strengthening corporate power over democracy. This led to talking about how it is impossible to predict what the impacts of a protest action will be, even when the odds are against you.
President Carter was not "The Human Rights President" – none were
Molotov cocktail’s the local drink
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
They mix ’em up right
In the kitchen sink
And all she wants to do is dance— “All She Wants to do is Dance,” written by Danny Kortchmar, and recorded by Don Henley on his Building the Perfect Beast album, 1985
Of all the modern presidents, Jimmy Carter is probably the most popular among Americans for his post-presidency. A recent poll shows this. Indeed, Carter said so himself when he told NBC News in 2010 that “my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other …
Sexual assault is a very serious matter. Any violence is serious.
Recently, a very skilled professional hockey player, Patrick Kane of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, made headlines because of his being alleged to have committed sexual assault against a woman. The woman who was allegedly the victim had her identity protected – as should be the case. But what about the alleged perpetrator who is now known to all followers of hockey and other news?
TSN reported, “People may not look at Kane the same way after this, even without prosecution but, on the ice, he’s had an exceptional start …
US goes on punishing Younous Chekkouri for, well, nothing really….
What do you say about the blameless man who was held at the Guantanamo concentration camp for 13 years, without trial, without charges against him, without credible evidence that he had done anything remotely deserving of 13 years of torture and isolation, with no hope of anything remotely like justice?
If you happened to be US senator Dianne Feinstein, you might write a chilly op-ed piece for the New York Times, calling for the umpteenth time since 2007 for closing the festering moral abscess you previously supported. In your op-ed you won’t mention those eight years of failure …
