Latest articles
by Uri Avnery / April 3rd, 2015
I must start with a shocking confession: I am not afraid of the Iranian nuclear bomb.
I know that this makes me an abnormal person, almost a freak.
But what can I do? I am unable to work up fear, like a real Israeli. Try as I may, the Iranian bomb does not make me hysterical.
My father once taught me how to withstand blackmail: imagine that the awful threat of the blackmailer has already come about. Then you can tell him: Go to hell.
I have tried many times to follow this advice and found it sound. So now I …
by Robert Hunziker / April 3rd, 2015
When a Rockefeller decides to divest fossil fuel investments, heads turn. After all, America’s pioneer/father of oil production is John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) founder of America’s first great business trust, Standard Oil Company, dominating the oil industry for years.
In September 2014, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an $860 million philanthropy, decided to join the divestment movement of college campuses around the country. These forerunners of decarbonizing are acting on “environmental principles,” according to John Schwartz. ((John Schwartz, “Rockefellers, Heirs to an Oil Fortune, Will Divest Charity of Fossil Fuels,” New York Times, Sept. 21, 2014.))
In recent years, 180 institutions, including …
Crisis for capital, hope for humanity
by Al Engler / April 3rd, 2015
For capital in Canada and the U.S. the sudden drop in oil prices is a disaster. For humankind it is a signal that fossil fuel use must decline.
Thirty years ago scientists pointed out that the burning of fossil fuels was causing global warming. To prevent catastrophic climate change, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would have to be kept below 350 parts per million, a level that could be maintained only if three quarters of known reserves of conventional fossil fuels were left in the ground.
Corporate capitalism in Canada responded by investing tens of billions in tar …
Pax Amercana vs offshore balancing
by Eric Walberg / April 3rd, 2015
The latest jargon justifying imperialism, as if straight from the business page contrasts Pax Americana, where if they behave well, clients become more prosperous and more democratic. If that fails but you have a few reliable regional partners, there is an offshore balancing system, where the empire’s quislings bear the primary responsibility for dealing with crises on the ground, and US military strategy is oriented toward policing the seas and skies. Nothing new except the name. The British were masters of ‘offshore balancing’.
Since the Cold War, and especially since 1991, the Pax Americana idea has predominated. But in the Middle …
by Chris Williams / April 2nd, 2015
Barely discernible among the surrounding rock-strewn ground, a meandering dirt track winds its way up a barren, windswept hill. In the arid heat, dotted amid the dry ocher soil, the rocks look baked from the sun. A few stubby trees and scrubby bushes bestrew a landscape with no obvious signs of habitation in this parched land of northern Kenya. But on top of the hill, sitting behind a low wall made of the abundant stones that litter the ground, we find six men. They have been living on the hill for eight years. Every two weeks, food and water is …
by Elliot Scott / April 2nd, 2015
Having exhausted all diplomatic avenues, a Texas boy last week contracted Blackwater to carry out pre-emptive security services on his 89 year old grandmother, who had recently arrived from the old country to live with the family. The security services provider, formerly known as Xe Services and Academi is again known as Blackwater, as with the passage of time it is now viewed fondly for its services to our homeland.
A hair-trigger imbroglio between the adorable little nipper and the suspicious, babushka’d elder began when in defiance of house protocol and using recipes she may have concealed in her underwear, …
The Case of Andergachew Tsige
by Graham Peebles / April 2nd, 2015
On 23 June 2014 Andergachew Tsige was illegally detained at Sana’a airport in Yemen whilst travelling from Dubai to Eritrea on his British passport. He was swiftly handed over to the Ethiopian authorities, who had for years posted his name at the top of the regime’s most wanted list. Since then he has been detained incommunicado in a secret location inside Ethiopia. His ‘crime’ is the same as hundreds, perhaps thousands of others, publicly criticising the ruling party of Ethiopia, and their brutal form of governance.
Born in Ethiopia in 1955, Andergachew arrived in Britain aged 24, as a political refugee. …
You believe the lies of the elite, of the media, of the Hollywood crocodile tear factories -- we are all the precarity
by Paul Haeder / April 2nd, 2015
Interesting! National Adjunct Walkout Day. Sad and the same old. Same-same-same controlled opposition. Look at the tepidness of the movement, below – walking out and teaching in, at lunchtime –
Hello,
Because we believe the University of Arizona will support people who support education, we invite you to join adjuncts and Non-Tenure Track faculty as we reinvest in student learning and quality instruction. On February 25, 2015, in solidarity with National Adjunct Walkout Day, we will be walking out and teaching-in from 11:30 am – 1:00 pm, to raise awareness about the value of adjunct, contingent, and Non-Tenure Track labor. We invite …
by Ramzy Baroud / April 1st, 2015
Waiting on Israeli society to change from within is a colossal waste of time, during which the suffering of an entire nation – torn between an occupied home and a harsh diaspora – will not cease. But what are Palestinians and the supporters of a just peace in Palestine and Israel to do? Plenty.
Those who counted on some sort of a miracle to emerge from the outcome of the recent Israeli elections have only themselves to blame. Neither logic nor numbers were on their side, nor the long history laden with disappointing experiences of “leftist” Israelis unleashing wars and …
Drones, Technocracy, and Globalization
by John Klyczek / April 1st, 2015
If my rebuttal to globalist Robert I. Rotberg didn’t prove that Western globalization is driven by a network of Rhodes Secret Society Round Tables, then let me provide some more evidence of how the American Round Table, the Council on Foreign Relations, steers US foreign policy through the office of United States Secretary of Defense.
A Brief History of the Office in Bed with the CFR
Ashton B. Carter, who is a Rhodes Scholar and CFR member, will be the twenty-seventh United States Secretary of Defense. Twenty secretaries of defense total (almost 75% of all defense secretaries)—and …
by Gilad Atzmon / April 1st, 2015
For the second time in just a month, a British academic institution has been intimidated by an orchestrated Zionist lobby.
Yesterday we learned that Southampton University has decided to withdraw its permission to hold the academic conference on International Law and the State of Israel. The decision was taken on the grounds of “health and safety” with the university claiming it did not have enough resources to mitigate the “risks.”
This comes just one month after the Royal Northern College Of Music cancelled a concert of mine for similar safety reasons. Like Southampton University, the RNCM was bullied by a violent pro-Israel group …
by Peter Breschard / April 1st, 2015
Can such a simple and small action as raising taxes on the extremely wealthy be revolutionary? It seems that these days it can be.
Before chucking it all and moving somewhere off the grid where the oligarchs will never find us, there is one question which should be asked of every American politician seeking office this election cycle.
“Are you in favor of increasing taxes on millionaires? Yes or no.”
For decades corporate shills have terrorized American politicians by, among other things, forcing them to sign pledges not to raise taxes.
Everyone hates paying taxes. What …
by James Petras / March 31st, 2015
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) (3/25/15) headlined: “Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks with the US.” The article goes on to detail the way in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the confidential information to sabotage the talks, including ‘playing them back to US legislators to undermine US diplomacy’.
The WSJ report of this incident tries to play down the serious implications of Israel’s espionage by claiming that Israeli spying of US diplomatic negotiations is ‘normal even among allies’; that ‘both sides do it’; that the US …
Disrespect for the Arabic Language
by Sufyan bin Uzayr / March 31st, 2015
On March 18, a student in Pine Bush High School near New York City recited the American Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. This was done as part of the school’s Foreign Language Week, which was conducted to celebrate the “many races, cultures and religions that make up [the US and the Pine Bush] School District.”
One would expect the multicultural and cosmopolitan American society to appreciate such gestures. However, the reactions to the recitation of the Pledge in Arabic spoke otherwise: the language in itself was described to be meant for terrorists, and associated with Islam. Such bigotry …
by Eric Zuesse / March 31st, 2015
by Matt Peppe / March 30th, 2015
In the early months of 2015, there have been two separate mass murders inside France that have generated headlines worldwide for their brutality and disregard for human life. In early January, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi entered the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and gunned down 11 employees, and shot dead one police officer on their way out. Last week, in an act of mass murder with more than 12 times the number of victims, 27-year-old pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally guided the plane he was flying straight into the French Alps and killed all 150 people on …
by Sara Flounders and Lamont Lilly / March 30th, 2015
U.S. efforts to overturn the government of Syria have now extended into a fifth year. It is increasingly clear that thousands of predictions reported in the corporate media by Western politicians, think tanks, diplomats and generals of a quick overturn and easy destruction of Syrian sovereignty have been overly optimistic, imperialist dreams. But four years of sabotage, bombings, assassinations and a mercenary invasion of more than 20,000 fighters recruited from over 60 countries have spread great ruin and loss of life.
The U.S. State Department has once again made its arrogant demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down. This …
by James Hoover / March 30th, 2015
From the moment Fox News was founded in 1996, its goal was to offer a partisan view of the news. Accordingly, Roger Ailes turned Fox into a propaganda machine.
Probably the single most important tool that brings polarization to the American people is Fox News, though progressive news has provided aftermarket contributions as well. Second in importance is the Republican Party. But the clout that lent support to these percussive tools of control and persuasion resides among us – though at a comfortable distance — in mansions, yachts, classy cars, and board rooms of our nation. They are the force …
by Robert Hunziker / March 30th, 2015
It’s happening! Humanity’s greatest nightmare is already well underway.
Wherever ice is found, appreciable melt is deep-seated, out of control, cascading into the seas shore-to-shore all across the planet. It’s all about too much heat! The trend is in place, and it is accelerating. Global warming is very real.
Thus, the most pertinent questions going forward are: How fast it occurs, and when will coastal cities start erecting levees?
As for erecting levees, the sooner the better in order to keep water out of city streets. How high to build is impossible to answer but most likely, the higher the better. Three feet, …
by Burkely Hermann / March 29th, 2015
In February 2015, the New York Review of Books published a piece by Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, an organization often criticized for its close ties to the military and intelligence establishments. While he engages in moderate criticism of Obama, specifically his “ignored record,” my aim is to analyze Roth’s article and show that his criticism doesn’t go far enough.
While Roth’s argument is valid in its criticism of Obama for failing to: prosecute CIA torturers, end mass surveillance and drone warfare, and close Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo), it falls short. He claims that people, hoping …
Perspectives from the Mont Order Club
by L'Ordre / March 29th, 2015
The Mont Order Club’s first ever video conference in our society’s long existence was made in February, and saw spirited participation from our advisers. Foremost in importance were some of the wise judgments our advisers rendered on the ongoing crisis of the Westphalian nation-state. Namely, our advisers spoke of the challenges posed by the Internet and other new media to the archaic international system.
Arguably on the front line of the transition to a stateless society is the Zero State, a transnational collective and radical alternative community participating in the Mont Order. The Zero State was represented on our panel …
by Alton C. Thompson / March 29th, 2015
The Abstract for “Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate in the Anthropocene” (2014), by (Nobel prize-winner) Paul Crutzen and Stanis?aw Wac?awek, begins this way: “Humankind [’s] actions are exerting [an] increasing effect on the environment on all scales, in a lot of ways overcoming natural processes.” The deep explanation for that “increasing effect,” I would argue, is that with the Agricultural Revolution (or Neolithic Revolution) of around 10,000 years ago, the adaptive mentality that characterized humans prior to that “event” became replaced (gradually, of course, and affecting some people more than others) with a control mentality.
Whether or …
by subMedia / March 28th, 2015
A week with Wyden shows a secret fundraiser for a secretly negotiated corporate agreement
by Kevin Zeese / March 28th, 2015
Participating in US politics, as a citizen activist, puts you face-to-face with corruption and the ugliness of money-politics.
At least I find it ugly that a senator would be negotiating fast track legislation through Congress for secret corporate rigged trade deals while raising money from big business interests that would profit immensely from those deals. Taking money while negotiating legislation that benefits the donor should be illegal. It should be considered bribery or a pay-off, but the deep corruption of US politics has legalized that kind of bribery and made it the norm.
While this was occurring Wikileaks published the text …
US Congress urges President Obama to provide Ukraine with More Torture Techniques
by Andrey Fomine / March 28th, 2015
On Monday, March 23, the US House of Representatives adopted H. Res. 162 urging President Obama “to provide Ukraine with military assistance” in a dire attempt to reignite conflict in the East of Ukraine, mainly frozen as a result of the February 2015 Minsk agreements between Kiev and the outbreak Donetsk and Lugansk provinces with French, German and Russian mediation. The general presumptions of the resolution are as evident as false: it contains routine mantras about “Russian aggression”, “Crimea occupation”, “violent separatist proxies” and “insurrection that has resulted in over 6,000 dead, 15,000 wounded, and more than a …
"More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of [Shiites].” -- Bandar bin Sultan
by Gary Leupp / March 28th, 2015
What sense does this make? The U.S. is abetting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan–all ruled by Sunni Muslims many of whom despise Shiite Muslims–to attack and roll back advances by the Shiite Houthis of Yemen who are eager to fight al-Qaeda and ISIL in that impoverished, unstable nation.
Recall that shortly after 9/11, the George W. Bush administration declared that “he who is not for us is against us,” scaring the shit out of anyone hesitant to cooperate with U.S. war plans. Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had come to power …
by John Andrews / March 28th, 2015
At the Green Party of England and Wales’ recent spring conference in Liverpool an item titled “Constitutional Reform” appeared about half way down the policy agenda. It had been proposed by a small group of Green Party members hailing mostly from the East Midlands. Its position on the agenda had been determined by a “prioritisation ballot” — a good device used by the Party whereby any Party member can vote for the order in which they think agenda items should be discussed. You might think that something that appears halfway down an agenda would definitely be heard, especially if the …
The Canadian Recipe against ISIS
by Binoy Kampmark / March 28th, 2015
How is it possible to expand something that is, by definition, immeasurable? Such length of string arguments are bound to dog Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s opinion that the air campaign against ISIS needs expansion, lengthening, and deepening. “ISIL has made it clear that it targets, by name, Canada and Canadians.”
Earlier in the week, Harper told the House whilst announcing a one-year extension of its military mission against the Islamic State about his intention to avoid that stumbling block called sovereignty and the UN charter that acknowledges it with solemn clarity. Canada would “not seek …
by Gareth Porter / March 27th, 2015
With the agreed deadline for reaching a “political framework” for a final comprehensive nuclear agreement only a few days away, the fate of the negotiations now hang on closing the gap between the P5+1 and Iran on removing sanctions.
The issues associated with Iran’s nuclear programme have now been pretty much resolved, except for limits on research and development. But on sanctions relief, all the evidence indicates that the two sides have not advanced beyond where they were last November, when they were very far apart.
Part of the problem is the West’s myopic perspective on the issues. The Obama administration clings …
by Mirah Riben / March 27th, 2015
No doubt you’ve heard about the boycott of Dolce and Gabbana proposed by Elton John as a result of Domenic Dolce saying that In Vitro Fertilization (IFV) children, such as John’s, are “synthetic.”
The row created a great deal of discussion on social media and talk shows with parents who had utilized reproductive technologies defending IVF children with a knee jerk reaction from the left defending LGBTIQ rights without considering the rights of the children.
Domenic Dolce said that children are born to a mother and father, or should be. In fact, every human being is the progeny of a man …
