Latest articles
by Jonathan Cook / June 16th, 2015
Two recent reports suggest that Israel could face catastrophic consequences if it fails to end the mistreatment of Palestinians under its rule, whether in the occupied territories or in Israel itself.
The Rand Corporation’s research shows that Israel could lose $250 billion over the next decade if it fails to make peace with the Palestinians and violence escalates. Ending the occupation, on the other hand, could bring a dividend of more than $120 billion to the nation’s coffers.
Meanwhile, the Israeli finance ministry predicts an even more dismal future unless Israel reinvents itself. It is likely to be bankrupt within …
by David Swanson / June 15th, 2015
I’m not sure if there’s been a better written book published yet this year than Ukraine: Zbig’s Grand Chessboard and How the West Was Checkmated, but I’m confident there’s not been a more important one. With some 17,000 nuclear bombs in the world, the United States and Russia have about 16,000 of them. The United States is aggressively flirting with World War III, the people of the United States have not the foggiest notion of how or why, and authors Natylie Baldwin and Kermit Heartsong explain it all quite clearly. Go ahead and tell me there’s nothing you’re now spending …
by Eoin Higgins / June 15th, 2015
On Monday June 15, 2015, Rachel Dolezal stepped down as President of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. Ms. Dolezal is the focus of media attention with the revelation that although she represents herself as an African American, she is actually a lily-white white woman of German and Czech descent who uses a modern makeup blackface to disguise herself.
Dolezal’s misrepresentation of herself as an African American is indicative of the status of both black and white Americans in the early twenty-first century. By playing at being black, Rachel Dolezal pretends to live her life …
by Yves Engler / June 15th, 2015
Should Africans pursue Stephen Harper for crimes against humanity?
The Africa Progress Report 2015 suggests they may have a solid moral, if not necessarily legal, case.
Led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Africa Progress Panel highlights Canada and Australia as two countries that “have withdrawn entirely from constructive international engagement on climate.” The mainstream group concludes that Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda have shown “far higher level of ambition” to lessen CO2 emissions than Canada.
The report, which was released last week, adds to a significant body of evidence showing that anthropogenic global warming poses a particularly profound threat to Africans. …
How the "Hard Left" embraces the policies of the Hard Right
by James Petras / June 15th, 2015
Greece has been in the headlines of the world’s financial press for the past five months, as a newly elected leftist party, ‘Syriza’, which ostensibly opposes so-called ‘austerity measures’, faces off against the “Troika” (International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank).
Early on, the Syriza leadership, headed by Alexis Tsipras, adopted several strategic positions with fatal consequences – in terms of implementing their electoral promises to raise living standards, end vassalage to the ‘Troika’ and pursue an independent foreign policy.
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by subMedia / June 15th, 2015
by William Boardman / June 15th, 2015
Kalief Browder committed suicide when he hanged himself with an air conditioner power cord on June 6. Actually Kalief Browder’s death at age 22 is a state killing with uncounted accomplices among police officers, prosecutors, judges, prison guards, prison officials, legislators, mayors, governors, and all the rest of the state justice apparatus that was utterly incapable of providing anything close to decent, just procedures in dealing with a wrongly-accused, innocent, 16-year-old black man.
Anyone who pays the slightest attention soon learns that the “justice system” is an oxymoron. It is a system that colludes with the rich, powerful, and guilty as …
by James Hoover / June 14th, 2015
Just before leaving office as president over fifty years ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower cautioned against the potential power of the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces. In the 1950s, Eisenhower saw retired generals, heroes of WWII, moving into industry board of director slots: for example, Douglas MacArthur went to Remington Rand, Lucius Clay, Continental Can, and Jimmy Doolittle, Shell Oil. Eisenhower saw the potential corrupting influence and the lack of accountability private contracting brought to the military endeavor.
The world was vastly different in early 1961. Shared sacrifice had been common in the 1940s …
by Robert Hunziker / June 14th, 2015
Fukushima’s still radiating, self-perpetuating, immeasurable, and limitless, like a horrible incorrigible Doctor Who monster encounter in deep space.
Fukushima will likely go down in history as the biggest cover-up of the 21st Century. Governments and corporations are not leveling with citizens about the risks and dangers; similarly, truth itself, as an ethical standard, is at risk of going to shambles as the glue that holds together the trust and belief in society’s institutions. Ultimately, this is an example of how societies fail.
Tens of thousands of Fukushima residents remain in temporary housing more than four years after the horrific disaster of March …
by Bill Annett / June 13th, 2015
Tim Geithner is seated at Charlie Rose’s exclusive Table Ronde, his fashionable curly locks carefully askew on his lofty forehead, his hands expressively illustrating his financial competence. He has published a book destined for stardom, Stress Test, and he confronts Charlie who loves to flog best sellers before they are. Tim has been here before – annually, on average – but tonight we are treated to the official word, the inside story on what we’ve accomplished since TARP, how much better the banking system is now, largely because of the astuteness of Tim Geithner himself, former Treasury Secretary.
…
by Paul Craig Roberts / June 13th, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015, is the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. In his book, Magna Carta, J.C. Holt, professor of medieval history, University of Cambridge, notes that three of the chapters of this ancient document still stand on the English Stature Book and that so much of what survives of the Great Charter is “concerned with individual liberty,” which “is a reflexion of the quality of the original act of 1215.”
In the 17th century Sir Edward Coke used the Great Charter of the Liberties to establish the supremacy of Parliament, the representative of the people, as the origin of law.
A …
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / June 13th, 2015
While we all cheered the failure (TAA) to pass Trade Adjustment Assistance in the hope that its defeat would stop Fast Track, the House quickly voted to pass Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) with 219 votes (218 is a majority but there were some abstentions). This situation means that the House and Senate have not passed identical versions of Fast Track (because the Senate version includes TAA) so Fast Track cannot go to the President’s desk yet to be signed into law. There are several possible scenarios ahead that leave the outcome of the fight against Fast Track …
by Rosemarie Jackowski / June 12th, 2015
News headlines report drug raids in towns across the country. Drug sales take place in high school parking lots every day. Are we in danger of losing an entire generation to the drug culture? The problem has received wide media coverage, but there is another war on drugs that is under the radar.
From Maine to California reports are coming in describing the plight of those who suffer from chronic pain. Florida is reporting a large number of chronically ill and disabled who now are being denied access to their pain relieving pharmaceuticals. Have some state legislatures created a more serious problem …
by Ralph Nader / June 12th, 2015
In the history of the United States, four presidential candidates who came in second in the popular vote were “elected” president (John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and George W. Bush in 2000). This inversion of democratic elections was due to the fifty states’ winner-take-all laws and the absurdity of the Electoral College. To political observers in other democratic countries, the U.S. is the laughing stock for their failure to change this system that rejects the popular will.
Change is in the wind. A remarkable civic movement is taking on this overlooked issue. …
by Ellen Brown / June 12th, 2015
It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
— Attributed to Henry Ford
In March 2014, the Bank of England let the cat out of the bag: money is just an IOU, and the banks are rolling in it. So wrote David Graeber in The Guardian the same month, referring to a BOE paper called “Money Creation in the Modern Economy.” The paper stated outright that most common assumptions of how banking works are simply wrong. …
by Matt Peppe / June 12th, 2015
American Pharoah last week cruised to a five-length victory in the Belmont Stakes and became the first thoroughbred to claim horse racing’s Triple Crown in 37 years. The publicity and excitement of finally having a 12th Triple Crown winner should be a much needed boon to a sport that long ago lost its iconic place in American culture. In New York, where American Pharoah’s victory took place, Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken advantage of the moribund status of the horse racing industry to unilaterally take over the state’s thoroughbred circuit to create a gift for wealthy corporations and donors.
The …
by Trevor Scott Barton / June 12th, 2015
The journalist interviewed an ancient miner, a man who was used as a tool in the depths of the darkness of mines his entire life. The color of his skin, the sound of his breath, the sadness in his eyes — these human characteristics were the characteristics of the mine itself, as if the inhumanity of the mine had overcome the humanity of the person.
They sat, the journalist and the miner, at a simple wooden table in simple wooden chairs. The soft light of the evening sun showed through the glass of the kitchen window onto his hands, battered hands …
by A.D. Hemming / June 12th, 2015
In 2009, after years of bloody insurrection in Congo, General Laurent Nkunda was ‘arrested’ with great fanfare in Rwanda. Wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, not a word about his situation has been reported for years. Are the regimes in Rwanda and Uganda using Laurent Nkunda and comrades in a new thrust to destabilize eastern Congo? The perpetual aggressors in this long, bloody saga of despair and death served on millions of innocent people in central Africa, Rwanda and Uganda protect the interests and insure the profits of their U.S., Canadian, European and Israeli patrons. …
by Nick Fillmore / June 12th, 2015
Many people are excited about the prospect of having a self-driven car. They envision sitting comfortably in the vehicle, reading their paper, or catching up on work.
Experts are telling us that there will be millions of fewer road deaths and, once the technology is developed, probably big financial savings.
At first glance, it sounds great, and after a long period of adjustment, it no doubt will mean big gains for us all.
But for several years there will be a huge downside. Businesses are licking their chops, looking forward to having fleets of self-driven vehicles. Millions of truckers will lose their jobs.
I …
Guardians of Our Souls
by Jack E. Mohr / June 12th, 2015
Kara Walker’s sculpture, “A Subtlety,” is a launch point. It is an image that has provided the impetus for an exploration of our subconscious mind’s primary motif – an artistic requiem of glory lost.
This article will begin to scratch the surface regarding the significance of the image of the Black Woman. It is a reflection upon the restoration of the Black-woman archetype and her/its importance to humanity.
Kara WalkerOne look upon Kara Walker’s work opens up the vastness of …
by David Swanson / June 11th, 2015
Presidential elections should be limited to as short a time period as possible and are generally the biggest drain and distraction going. I have two excuses for looking into Jeb Bush. One is that I’ve been collecting the evidence that Hillary cannot be a lesser evil than any living human, and campaigning for No More Bushes or Clintons. The other is that I only read Jeb Bush: Outed because I’ve long liked the author, Stephen Goldstein.
People such as Molly Ivins and James Moore gave the U.S. lots of warning, from the wisdom of Texans, before the …
by John Andrews / June 11th, 2015
An article on page 6 of The Times on 6th June 2015 appeared under the following title: “Cameron to rally G7 leaders in global fight against corruption“.
The article opens with a reference to a recent scandal about corruption in how world football is managed, and then continues:
Mr Cameron flies to Germany for the two-day annual meeting [of the G7] determined to use the Fifa scandal to highlight the fight against corruption.
In particular, he will press other leaders to link aid to the poorest countries to cleaning up corruption, with a pledge to start with a review of Britain’s own development …
by Danny Haiphong / June 11th, 2015
At the Left Forum, Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) took part in a debate with other socialist organizations on the character anti-imperialist struggle must take in this period. This debate is central to the overall struggle for liberation in a period where imperialism’s destruction is more than evident throughout the planet. FIST remains firm in asserting that the primary role of revolutionaries in the US is to defend and fight for the self-determination of oppressed nations. Too often, what passes as the left in the US makes the grave mistake of siding with white supremacy by disregarding facts and parroting imperialism’s racist war …
Pillage and Class Polarization
by James Petras / June 11th, 2015
About 75% of US employees work 40 hours or longer, the second longest among all OECD countries, exceeded only by Poland and tied with South Korea. In contrast, only 10% of Danish workers, 15% of Norwegian, 30% of French, 43% of UK and 50% of German workers work 40 or more hours. With the longest work day, US workers score lower on the ‘living well’ scale than most western European workers. Moreover, despite those long workdays US employees receive the shortest paid holidays or vacation time (one to two weeks compared to …
by David Swanson / June 10th, 2015
Senator McCain and friends have a new push on to once again ban torture (except for exceptions in the Army Field Manual) that is being presented as an effort to preempt future Republican presidents’ torturing. This reinforces two false beliefs. One is that torture is not ongoing today under President Peace Prize. The other is that torture wasn’t banned before George W. Bush was ever selected by the Supreme Court.
Last December, Senator Ron Wyden had a petition up at MoveOn.org that read “Right now, torture is banned because of President Obama’s executive order. It’s time for Congress to …
by Robert S. Becker / June 10th, 2015
The explosion in ever-widening collaborative transactions hardly lacks for catchy names. Are these radical, co-operative platforms captured as the “Sharing Economy,” “Collaborative Consumption,” even collaborative capitalism? Or, recalling perennial venture-capital roots, perhaps “Network Orchestration”? Whatever the imprint, dramatic breakthroughs in peer-to-peer exchanges are booming, posing large-scale challenges to top-down, over-determined corporatism. Not so much to private property, as every shareable “asset” has an owner, with rare exceptions when users co-own (now that’s bottom-up). Overall, we’re talking new livelihoods and looming horizons, especially with compelling pathways towards sharing general productivity across a far more equitable commons.
Barely out of the starting gate, …
Interview with Michael Hudson
by The Saker / June 10th, 2015
Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of The Bubble and Beyond (2012), Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971).
*****
The Saker: We hear that the Ukraine will have to declare a default, but that it will probably be a “technical” default as opposed to an official one. Some say that the decision of …
by John Scales Avery / June 10th, 2015
Violation of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Principles
In recent years, participation in NATO has made European countries accomplices in US efforts to achieve global hegemony by means of military force, in violation of international law, and especially in violation of the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Principles.
Former UN Assistant Secretary General Hans Christof von Sponeck used the following words to express his opinion that NATO now violates the UN Charter and international law: “In the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, the Charter of the United Nations was declared to be NATO’s legally binding framework. However, the United-Nations monopoly of the use …
by Ramzy Baroud / June 10th, 2015
Writing about and reporting the Middle East is not an easy task, especially during these years of turmoil and upheaval. But I cannot remember another time in recent history we needed journalists to shine, to challenge conventional wisdom, to think in terms of contexts, motives, alliances, not ideological, political or financial interests.
From the start, when addressing the issue of the Middle East, the actual entity of “Middle East” is itself highly questionable. It is arbitrary, and can only be understood within proximity to some other entity, Europe, which colonial endeavors imposed such classifications on the rest of the word. …
by James Hall / June 10th, 2015
Is it worth going to college to secure viable employment? Once, the future looked bright, for students earning a university degree and selecting from various offers from employers. Today the mere notion that such a question can and should be asked illustrates that the American economy has greatly transitioned into a very insecure and tenuous career opportunity society. When the lack of employment realities drives job seekers to leave the search for rewarding positions that offer a chance for a path to attaining middle class aspirations, the entire labor equation needs to be rethought.
Putting forth the optimistic viewpoint that …
