Latest articles
by Mateo Pimentel / December 18th, 2014
Carl Gustav Jung, the father of analytical psychology, attributed hypocrisy to individuals who are unconscious of “the shadow-side” of their nature. From this idea arose a simple argument: If people better understood their natures, they might love their neighbors more uprightly. For, as Jung says, “…we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures.” Yet, of all its incarnations, the hypocrisy of “pure evil” seems worst. A few simple characteristics define it: perpetrators engender evil intentionally and wield it astutely; they inflict wanton destruction on others to their own …
by Maryam Sakeenah / December 17th, 2014
The attack on the Peshawar school is a tragedy that sends senses reeling, an enormity that confounds the senses. It does not help however, to dismiss the people who committed this foul atrocity as ‘inhuman’, or to say they were not really Muslims. It is a convenient fiction that implies a most frustrating unwillingness and inability to understand how human beings are dehumanized and desensitized so they commit such dastardly acts under the moral cover of a perverted religiosity.
This unwillingness and inability to understand is deeply distressing because it shows how far away we are from even identifying what …
“We are [not so] awesome” after all
by Ramzy Baroud / December 17th, 2014
The logic that torture is a “stain” on US history is the heart of the problem, since it blocks an honest reading of whatever “values” Washington actually stands for.
“This is not who we are. This is not how we operate,” were the words of President Barack Obama commenting on the grisly findings of a long-awaited congressional report on the use of torture by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
But what if this is exactly who we are?
The report is difficult to read, not just because it is awfully long – hundreds of pages of a summary …
by Patrick Kennelly / December 17th, 2014
2014 marks the deadliest year in Afghanistan for civilians, fighters, and foreigners. The situation has reached a new low as the myth of the Afghan state continues. Thirteen years into America’s longest war, the international community argues that Afghanistan is growing stronger, despite nearly all indicators suggesting otherwise. Most recently, the central government failed (again) to conduct fair and organized elections or demonstrate their sovereignty. Instead, John Kerry flew into the country and arranged new national leadership. The cameras rolled and a unity government was declared. Foreign leaders meeting in London decided on new aid packages and financing for the …
by Barbara G. Ellis / December 17th, 2014
At the speed global water conversion from foul-to-fresh is spreading around the globe—via inexpensive household solar ‘desal’ units—a few hundred billion ordinary people will NOT go thirsty.
The average human adult can survive for only two or three days without potable water, depending on the region, altitude, temperature, and humidity levels. ((Younos, Tamim and Tammy E. Parece, (2013), Water use and conservation, 21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook. Stoltman, Joseph P., U.S. Geological Survey, SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks CA, 40, p. 447.)) Yet world population—7,164,000,000—has outstripped potable water supplies. At least a sixth of that population …
A vicious cycle feeding off its own crimes inducing greater abuses
by Mark Weiser / December 17th, 2014
Only those who chose their natural skin color are allowed to be racists, and only then if they also chose their natural physique and the innate qualities of their own mind. Concerning natural given characteristics where no one ever had any choice, it’s completely irrational to hold those things against anyone else. Life is like the lottery – when your numbers come up, or almost come up, you’re given no choices – you’re simply destined to be born with certain characteristics at a time and place, none of which come at your own choosing. No one made themselves, and no …
by Robert Hunziker / December 17th, 2014
Neoliberalism may be the most domineering socio-politico-economic influence in the history of humankind, far and away.
Moreover, when left unregulated, neoliberalism goes bonkers by concentrating wealth into fewer and fewer and fewer and fewer hands. The evidence is everywhere, same as the late 18th century when too much wealth concentrated in too few hands finally became too much, depicted by the rich golden splendor of Versailles (Fr).
Back then, in the 18th century, peasants starved on the streets of Paris, and as a result, conspicuous consumption became the formula for the French Revolution, one after another, aristocrats lost their …
by East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) / December 17th, 2014
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) is concerned that recent events in Timor-Leste weaken the country’s hard-won constitutional democracy and endanger the right of Timor-Leste’s citizens to live in a society governed under the rule of law.
On October 24, Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister persuaded Parliament and the Council of Ministers to fire seven international judges and prosecutors and an adviser to the Anti-Corruption Commission. When the Chief Judge explained that this was an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers, the Government revoked their visas and ordered them out of the country within 48 hours, and they complied. ((These resolutions …
by Nicola Nasser / December 17th, 2014
Overtly, the Israeli superpower of the Middle East has been keen to posture as having no role whatsoever in the four-year old devastating conflict in Syria, where all major regional and international powers are politically and militarily deeply involved and settling scores by Syrian blood.
In his geopolitical weekly analysis, entitled “The Islamic State Reshapes the Middle East,” on November 25 Stratfor’s George Friedman raised eyebrows when he reviewed the effects which the terrorist group had on all regional powers, but seemed unaware of the existence of the Israeli regional superpower.
It was an instructive omission that says a lot …
by Doug Minkler / December 17th, 2014
It is time to get Oscar Lopez Rivera out of prison. He has been unjustly locked in prison for 33 years and is the subject of my most recent collaboration.
About Oscar López Rivera
Bronze star awarded Vietnam veteran; Chicago community activist and institution builder; advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico; U.S. government-held political prisoner for over thirty years. These are the most common cited facts given about Oscar López Rivera, and they are reasons many, including Nobel Prize laureates, elected officials, scholars, and community leaders, are compelled to join in …
By analogy, blaming it all on Eichmann while giving Hitler a pass
by William Boardman / December 16th, 2014
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has been taking bows for being the guardian of American law, decency, and character. It’s not. It’s not even close. American law, decency, and character have yet to be redeemed. Worse, only a small percentage of Americans in or out of power seems to care enough to act against the pall of moral failure still spreading through the culture.
The intelligence committee has done a good, small thing in its effort to make some partial truth somewhat better known, but its report is fundamentally short on meaningful intelligence. This is a committee divided against itself …
Concerns about Insufficient Intelligence Production
by Gary Leupp / December 16th, 2014
[GTMO Interrogation and Control Element Chief] Mr. [David] Becker also told the Committee that, on several occasions, MG [Major General] Dunlavey had advised him that the office of Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz had called to express concerns to him about the insufficient intelligence production at GTMO. Mr. Becker recalledMG Dunlavey telling him after one of these calls, that the Deputy Secretary himself said that GTMO should use more aggressive interrogation techniques.
MG Miller said that, while he was in Command at GTMO, he had direct discussions with the DoD’s [Department of Defense’s] General Counsel office and the Office of …
The Politics of a Police State
by Winston Alpha / December 16th, 2014
By the time the officer (pictured below) said “OK, everyone here is under arrest!” it was too late. Encircled on three sides by the police and on one side by a tall brick wall, there was seemingly no place to go and nowhere to hide. We were, as they say in protester argot, completely kettled-in. I had been at the protest for about an hour, had committed no crime, and yet there I was: trapped on the corner of 29th and Telegraph in Oakland.
All photos …
by Sufyan bin Uzayr / December 16th, 2014
So Malaya Yousafzai recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, and everyone all around the world is singing her praises. Rightfully so.
In fact, Malala’s case is probably the only one wherein all media verticals seem to be in absolute agreement, be it Al Jazeera, or Press TV, or even Fox News. That girl deserves praise for her efforts.
However, whilst Ms Yousafzai was receiving her Nobel Prize, my attention was drawn towards the case of another young girl from Pakistan: Nabeela Rahman. Much like Malala, Nabeela too recently travelled to the Western part of the world, albeit the latter went to USA …
by James Petras / December 16th, 2014
The US Senate Report documenting CIA torture of alleged terrorist suspects raises a number of fundamental questions about the nature and operations of the State, the relationship and the responsibility of the Executive Branch and Congress to the vast secret police networks which span the globe – including the United States.
CIA: The Politics of a Global Secret Police Force
The Senate Report’s revelations of CIA torture of suspects following the 9/11 bombing is only the tip of the iceberg. The Report omits the history and wider scope …
by Jonathan Cook / December 16th, 2014
The floodgates have begun to open across Europe on recognition of Palestinian statehood. On Friday the Portuguese parliament became the latest European legislature to call on its government to back statehood, joining Sweden, Britain, Ireland, France and Spain.
In coming days similar moves are expected in Denmark and from the European Parliament. The Swiss government will join the fray too this week, inviting states that have signed the Fourth Geneva Convention to an extraordinary meeting to discuss human rights violations in the occupied territories. Israel has threatened retaliation.
But while Europe is tentatively finding a voice in the …
by Herb Dyer / December 16th, 2014
I will state flatly that the bulk of this country’s white population impresses me, and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. They have been white, if I may so put it, too long; they have been married to the lie of white supremacy too long; the effect in their personalities, their lives, their very grasp of realty, has been as devastating as the lava which so memorably immobilized the citizens of Pompeii. They are unable to conceive that their version of reality, which they want me to accept, …
by Daniel McGowan / December 15th, 2014
On December 8, 2014 WXXI-TV’s Great Performances presented the legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman and the renowned cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in a musical exploration of liturgical and traditional works for both chamber orchestra and klezmer settings. To fortify its Jewish character the program included a short discussion between Itzhak Perlman and Elie Wiesel, arguably the foremost proponent of the current Holocaust narrative.
Wiesel told the incredulous Perlman that as a boy he too had studied violin. Moreover he claimed that he took his violin to Auschwitz in June 1944; his father suggested that since Elie was already there he …
An Indigenous People's History of the United States
by Kim Petersen / December 15th, 2014
Our nation was born in genocide…. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade.
— Martin Luther King Jr. ((Quoted on p. 78 of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2014).))
Somehow, even “genocide” seems an inadequate description for what happened, yet rather than viewing it with horror, most Americans have conceived of it as their country’s manifest destiny.
— Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz ((An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2014): p. 79.))
Given …
US sides with a colonizer
by Linn Washington, Jr. / December 15th, 2014
ALGIERS — The Western Sahara is not just a section of the famous desert that dominates North Africa.
The Western Sahara is a country on the Atlantic Ocean coast of North Africa with the dubious distinction of being the “Last Colony” on the vast continent of Africa. The current colonizer of this mineral-rich nation is the neighboring country of Morocco, which for decades has been conducting a viciously brutal occupation. A long history of human rights violations by Morocco in the Western Sahara have drawn wide condemnation from diverse entities including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United States, ironically …
by Mateo Pimentel / December 15th, 2014
Humanity indeed finds itself embedded in a technological world. This is a world where human beings consume technology, and where technology in turn incorporates human identities. It shapes human interaction, and it shapes the future. There have been many unforeseen byproducts from the advancement of technology and technologic science. The nonplussing lack of “miracles,” and astounding strides in progress, for example, reveal the deep-seated complexities that arise from the dynamic relationships inherent to science, technology and human society. James Smith writes in his book Science and Technology for Development: Development Matters, that, “Society and technology are mutually constitutive.” …
by Ted Glick / December 14th, 2014
Moments of unusual unrest provide opportunities for those without money or influence to break through attitudes of indifference — and to highlight social and political injustices. ‘Our power is in our ability to make things unworkable,’ argued prominent civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin. ‘The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places, so wheels don’t turn.
— Mark and Paul Engler ((“What Makes Nonviolent Movements Explode?“))
Mark and Paul Engler’s well-reasoned piece published just a few days ago reminded me of what was, without question, the most personally impactful action I have ever taken …
by Lesley Docksey / December 14th, 2014
Pathological cruelty and neglect have to be dealt with so that animals do not fall prey to the farming trade’s worst practitioners. This means that the meagre welfare laws and regulatory restraints currently in place must be strengthened and enforced. But no-one should imagine that either regulated or unregulated suffering can be banished from animal farming and slaughter. Meat, egg and milk production are pitiless, bloody activities that are predicated on industrial-scale animal exploitation and killing.
– Animal Aid
Intensive farming is carried on all over the world, and animals suffer terribly in their millions because of it. Compassion in World …
The Fracking Truth
by Bill Annett / December 14th, 2014
My neighbor Warren doesn’t understand how much the petroleum industry has turned the economy around in the last few years. Just the other day over the back fence, he was belittling – even criticizing – our breakthrough in extractive technology. That is, until I set him straight.
“Just think of where we are today,” I pointed out, “compared with just a few years ago, when we were dependent on those wogs in the Middle East for the very oil we breathe – I mean, burn.”
…
First ‘truth commission’ avoids issue of reconciliation as veteran Israeli fighters due to confess to 1948 war crimes
by Jonathan Cook / December 14th, 2014
The first-ever “truth commission” in Israel, to be held on Wednesday, will feature confessions from veteran Israeli fighters of the 1948 war who are expected to admit to perpetrating war crimes as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes.
The commission is the culmination of more than decade of antagonistic confrontations between a small group of activists called Zochrot, the Hebrew word for Remembering, and the Israeli authorities as well as much of the Jewish public.
Founded in 2002, Zochrot is dedicated to educating Israeli Jews about what Palestinians call the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, referring to Israel’s creation …
by Larry Everest / December 13th, 2014
I’ve been in Ferguson since November 22, and I don’t think a day has gone by where there hasn’t been a protest, most often multiple protests. There may be one at the Ferguson police station, and another in the St. Louis Shaw neighborhood, just south of the City Center, or perhaps on one of the campuses: Washington University, St. Louis University, the University of Missouri St. Louis, and/or out in Clayton or West County.
At 2 pm, on Wednesday, December 10 — International Human Rights Day — 70 medical students at the Washington University Medical School conducted a moving protest and …
The Citizens of the Internet Can Defeat the Telecom Mafia
by Kevin Zeese / December 13th, 2014
The ‘false-on-its-face’ telecom claim of increased costs to consumers is designed to protect their unregulated monopolies that charge too much and provide terrible service.
In a claim that must have people laughing out loud, the telecom and broadband providers are fighting net neutrality by claiming that they will raise the rates of consumers! It is hard to believe that even telecom lobbyists, well-paid to mislead Congress and regulators, could make this claim without smirking as cable bills have been rising at four times the rate of inflation without net neutrality.
Now they claim to be concerned about consumer costs. Why? Because they …
by James Petras / December 13th, 2014
The Brazilian working class is facing the most savage assault on its living standards in over a decade. And it is not just the industrial workers who are under attack. The landless rural workers, public and private salaried employees, teachers and health professionals, the unemployed and the poor are facing massive cuts in income, jobs and welfare payments.
Whatever gains were made between 2003-2013 will be reversed. Brazilian workers face a ‘decade of infamy’. The Rousseff regime has embraced the politics of “savage capitalism” as …
Are They Rational? Are They Sane?
by Jim McCluskey / December 13th, 2014
On 15 November 2014, Mr Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, was in Canberra addressing the Australian Parliament.
He was flaunting his aggressive macho/militaristic credentials. His speech included the following words.
For the first time since the 1970s the UK is expanding our presence east of Suez, opening diplomatic posts across Asia.
Our economic prosperity underpins our national security and we are using it to modernise our armed forces with the most modern equipment—new fighters; new hunter-killer submarines; renewing our nuclear deterrent; type 26 global combat ship, the world’s most advanced frigate; and two new aircraft carriers, the most powerful the Royal Navy has …
Justice Antonin Scalia is a Publicity-Seeking Intellectual Midget
by Dave Lindorff / December 13th, 2014
Sometimes you really don’t need to write much to do an article on something. Writing about the inanity of Justice Antonin Scalia, the ethics-challenged, lard-bottomed, right-wing anchor of the Supreme Court, is one of those times.
Scalia just weighed in on the CIA torture issue in an interview for a Swiss broadcast network, saying that he didn’t think there was anything in the US Constitution that would prohibit torture under all circumstances, and positing a situation — a suspect with knowledge about a hidden nuke to be detonated in Los Angeles — that he suggested would make torture an acceptable tactic.
First …
