Latest articles
by Kathy Kelly / October 7th, 2014
On October 7, 2014, Kathy Kelly and Georgia Walker appeared before Judge Matt Whitworth in Jefferson City, MO, federal court on a charge of criminal trespass to a military facility. The charge was based on their participation, at Whiteman Air Force Base, in a June 1st 2014 rally protesting drone warfare. Kelly and Walker attempted to deliver a loaf of bread and a letter to the Base Commander, encouraging the commander to stop cooperating with any further usage of unmanned aerial vehicles, (drones) for surveillance and attacks.
The prosecutor, USAF Captain Daniel Saunders, said that if Kelly and Walker would …
by Jan Oberg / October 7th, 2014
First some principles to stimulate another discourse, another way of thinking that is not militarist – and then the concrete proposals below – 27 in all for your deliberation, discussion with friends and perhaps to share through your social and other media.
The proposals are not numbered – there is no linearity, some of it can be done simultaneously.
How to make bombing and wars irrelevant
Stop the financing of ISIS – sadly it is non-democratic allies of the West – Saudi-Arabia, Qatar, UAE etc – that seem to pay its bills. Joe Biden apologised for being truthful.
Allegedly, …
by Jan Oberg / October 7th, 2014
First some principles to stimulate another discourse, another way of thinking that is not militarist – and then some concrete proposals – 27 in all for your deliberation, discussion with friends and perhaps to share through your social and other media.
Neither war nor doing nothing
The principle of ”An eye for an eye will one day make the whole world blind” – said Mohandas K. Gandhi who was born on October 2, 145 years ago. Since then, human civilisation has not advanced much when it comes to handling conflict.
Let’s recognise that it is a difficult situation – the Middle East is …
by Jonathan Cook / October 7th, 2014
Questioning someone’s integrity is not something I do lightly, especially when I share much ideological common ground with them. But the unsavoury behaviour of George Monbiot, a leading columnist for the Guardian and one of Britain’s most prominent progressive intellectuals, is becoming ever harder to overlook – and forgive.
On a whole range of issues, such as corporate greed and threats to the planet posed by climate change, I agree wholeheartedly with Monbiot. It is also entirely possible for two people to disagree, even intensely, but still believe their opponent’s views are legitimate and advanced in good faith. That is how …
by Alton C. Thompson / October 6th, 2014
Knowledge has been accumulating over the past few decades suggesting that our current situation, as humans, is dire. One irony associated with this body of knowledge is that it is likely now too late to act on that knowledge in a way that might save us. A second irony is even more saturated in irony: Had we had this knowledge 40—or even 30—years ago, and acted on it, it’s likely that our situation would not now be dire; however, it’s unlikely that we would have acted to save ourselves even then! It’s enough to make one cry!
What knowledge am I …
by Scott Thomas Outlar / October 6th, 2014
Verily, that which is abominable must be abolished.
That which has become completely corrupted must now, with deliberate haste, be shunned and cast out.
Verily, ignorance and naivety are no longer justifiable states of consciousness with the Apocalypse being now so near at hand.
The heart, mind, gut and soul of every person must be fully alert and awake to witness the coming of that which is Most Awful so its onslaught of chaotic damage can be minimized as best as possible and our species can have at least a fighting chance for survival. Those who seek to hide from the storm will …
by Gary Engler / October 6th, 2014
My fellow lobsters, we are being cooked.
I know some of you don’t believe it and others have come to the conclusion there is nothing we can do, but the simple truth is the gas has been turned on, the fire lit and the temperature is slowly rising. There is no significant disagreement amongst our lobster pot scientists about these basic facts. In fact, the latest study argues the water is much hotter than previously thought. Our only way of avoiding the rolling boil is to come up with a plan to turn the gas off and then take the …
Now the Hard Part, Kick out the US, Build National Consensus
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / October 5th, 2014
When protests in Hong Kong exploded people looked for US involvement. It was not hard to find. The overt intrusion of the US is available in budgets, documents and websites; the covert involvement has not yet been uncovered but is no doubt there. What does US involvement mean for the credibility of the protest movement and the future of Hong Kong?
The issues raised by the protests, democracy and unfair economy, are very real. But so are the concerns of Beijing for economic growth and continuing to lift people out of poverty, something China has done remarkably well. Those who seek …
by Denis A. Conroy / October 5th, 2014
“FBI Believes It Has Identified ISIS Hostage Executioner
The U.S. believes it has identified the British-accented masked man in the video depicting the beheading of two American journalists and a British aid worker, The FBI director says.”
— Huff Post Politics September 25, 2014
A telling message percolating from top to bottom into the passive receptors of the mesmerised multitude? Yes, dear multitude, potato yourselves on your couches, get comfortable, stay uncritical and listen to big brother identify the goodies from the baddies for you. It’s them or us.
For starters, we the media of your choice, will regale you with some images …
by Dr. Hakim / October 5th, 2014
Kabul — “I woke up with the blast of another bomb explosion this morning,” Imadullah told me. “I wonder how many people were killed.” Imadullah, an 18 year old Afghan Peace Volunteer, (APV), from Badakhshan, had joined me at the APVs’ Borderfree Community Centre of Nonviolence.
The news reported that at least three Afghan National Army soldiers were killed in the suicide bomb attack, in the area of Darulaman. Coincidentally, the Afghan Peace Volunteers (APVs) had planned to be at the Darulaman Palace that same morning. To commemorate Gandhi’s birthday and the International Day of Nonviolence, we wanted to form …
by Steve Breyman / October 4th, 2014
Every national peace group (large and small, new and old, religious and secular) opposes Barack Obama’s war against ISIS in Iraq, and its recent extension to Syria. Their opposition extends to Obama’s Congress-sanctioned arming of “moderate” Syrian rebels (for which legislators found half a billion dollars).
The anti-war movement’s antagonism is sturdy and reasoned. It’s based on irrefutable historical, political, economic and cultural analysis focused on the past thirteen years of bloody, wasteful, failed war on Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen, Libya and Somalia. Find some here, here, and here.
The groups don’t merely oppose more war. They …
by Jason Hirthler / October 4th, 2014
The third century Christian theologian Tertullian is famously credited with defending his faith with the outrageous claim, “Credo quia absurdum” (I believe, because it is absurd). That is a paraphrase of Tertullian’s actual statements from De Carne Christi, notably “certum est, quia impossibile” (It’s certain because impossible). Some have claimed that Tertullian was appealing to an Aristolean notion that it is possible to deduce an argument of probability from the astonishing improbability of an event. If so, then we ought to take seriously President Obama’s strategy “degrading and destroying” ISIS, no matter how absurd it seems.
The folly of fools
Welcome …
by Jonathan Cook / October 3rd, 2014
It’s not often I praise the BBC for producing real journalism. Further, it is with some disbelief that I find myself applauding Jane Corbin, who I will struggle till my dying day to forgive for her despicable piece of Israeli propaganda parading as reportage a few years back on the Israeli navy’s attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship to Gaza.
Nonetheless, Corbin has now fronted a truly disturbing revisionist documentary on Rwanda, called Rwanda’s Untold Story. The programme’s argument is that the official story about a straightforward genocide by the Hutu majority of Rwanda’s Tutsis 20 years ago is highly selective and …
by Rajesh Makwana / October 3rd, 2014
As further evidence comes to light of how our economic systems are decimating the natural world, sharing is fast emerging as the central theme in the discourse on how to ensure prosperity for all within planetary boundaries.
*****
Barely a week after more than half a million people marched for decisive action on climate change, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) released their latest Living Planet report, which serves as a timely reminder that the environmental crises we face extend far beyond the popular discourse on global warming. As ever, this year’s report makes for grim reading, with updated …
by Ron Jacobs / October 3rd, 2014
British novelist Doris Lessing wrote a novel titled The Good Terrorist. The story revolves around an autonomous leftist cell in London that decides to step up their participation in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism by providing material support to the IRA. Eventually, the cell moves on to taking their own armed actions, which results in the death of one of their members. The main character in the novel, a woman named Alice, has political and moral disagreements with the course she and her comrades have taken but remains committed to the course of action. The cell’s living quarters is …
by Media Lens / October 2nd, 2014
The referendum campaign on Scottish independence heightened many people’s awareness of the pro-elite bias of the ‘mainstream’ news media. The grassroots power of social media in exposing and countering this bias was heartening to see. But the issue of independence for Scotland is just one of many where the traditional media consistently favour establishment power.
The essential feature of corporate media performance is that elite interests are routinely favoured and protected, while serious public dissent is minimised and marginalised. The BBC, the biggest and arguably the most globally respected news organisation, is far from being an exception. Indeed, …
by Ron Ridenour / October 2nd, 2014
1. President Barak Obama spoke to youth on June 11, 2014
And if there’s one message I want to deliver to young people like a Tumblr audience is, don’t get cynical. Guard against cynicism. I mean, the truth of the matter is that for all the challenges we face, all the problems that we have, if you had to be — if you had to choose any moment to be born in human history, not knowing what your position was going to be, who you were going to be, you’d choose this time. The world is less violent than it …
by Scott Thomas Outlar / October 1st, 2014
The duplicitous machinations of the insane elitists who menacingly hover above and methodically trample upon the downtrodden masses careen carelessly down the ever widening scope of masochistic malfeasance, crushing everything within a thousand mile vicinity with hobnailed boots of black-hearted doom. Nowhere to turn. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Cornered. Like a rat. Starving for its piece of the cheese. Ready to violently strike out. Lips snarling. Fangs flashed. Blood on the teeth. Knife to the neck. A shadowy sanctimonious scene silhouetted against the backdrop of a …
by Lesley Docksey / October 1st, 2014
English though I am, I was both angered and saddened by the result of the Scottish Referendum; saddened because I had hoped the Yes side would win, and angered because of all the sneering, negative and arrogant campaigning done by Westminster via the Better Together campaign. That didn’t go down too well so they brought in Gordon Brown to do his patriotic bit, which included talking about how many Scots had fought and died in the UK’s wars. To quote:
We fought two world wars together. And there is not a cemetery in Europe that does not have Scots, English, Welsh, …
by Rick Sterling / October 1st, 2014
The following six photographs confirm that a favorite “moderate rebel” leader, Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, is allied with ISIL.
The first photograph is from Spring 2013 and shows Okaidi with the American who has been the principal coordinator of US policy on Syria. The last two photographs are from a meeting days ago when Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (Rep Illinois) and George Holding (Rep. North Carolina) met with Okaidi and other “moderate rebels” in Turkey.
Other photos show Okaidi with ISIL fighters and being interviewed about his relationship with ISIL. The photographs are from videos identified at bottom.
…
by William Boardman / October 1st, 2014
“This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed.”
American hysteria is a wondrous thing to behold.
Our hysteria is usually obvious in retrospect, whether the freak-out is over witches, labor unions, or communists. Hysteria is not always so easy to perceive as it happens or, in this case, as it is happening right now with ISIS-centric Islamophobia running rampant around the nation’s terror-drenched reptilian brain.
The collective rush to do “stupid stuff” kicked in with the mass-pavlovian response to cleverly-marketed, ISIS-produced infomercials featuring the beheading of two Americans (earlier beheadings of non-Americans failed to have the same …
by Ben Schreiner / September 30th, 2014
2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force
The gift that just keeps on giving.
Bad Guys
Whoever it is that is currently being bombed and shot at by the U.S. and its “partners.”
Barbarians
Those committing war crimes without the use of cruise missiles and drones.
Chemical Weapons
A particularly heinous and savage munition no white phosphorous and napalm-using nation could ever stand to see deployed.
Coalition
A military alliance of democracy promoters comprised of the U.S., its European lackeys, and the medieval monarchies of the Gulf.
Collateral Damage
The inevitable killing of innocent civilians in military operations. Regrettable, but what’s one to do? Ground the drones and shelve …
by James Hoover / September 30th, 2014
What does the Keystone XL pipeline mean to you? Unless you have been schooled in the process of producing oil from tar sands and transporting it, along with the deadly mess it leaves, you probably don’t know. Fortunately, with a little effort of discovery, there is enough proof of its costs. Some are quite deadly.
Billions of dollars can be made by exploiters we love to hate, like the Koch brothers. Their interest in the Keystone XL pipeline is not based on patriotism. It is based on greed. In this space, we can’t possibly name all their holdings, only a few. …
by Alan Wieder / September 30th, 2014
This morning I was privileged to read the poet Amjad Nasser’s essay, “When Your Name is on the Blacklist,” describing United States Homeland Security interrogating him for two hours at London Heathrow before banning him from flying to New York to help inaugurate the Gallatin Global Writers series at New York University. Nasser was to appear at NYU on September 30th. Only one week earlier I was in New York and participated on a Nelson Mandela Panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival. I did contemplate, however, as I waited to board my flight from Portland to New York, whether or …
by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / September 30th, 2014
The climate action weekend built around the People’s Climate March proved that the climate movement has broad popular support and millions are ready to mobilize. These are two ingredients necessary to achieve climate justice. Also needed is a strategy that is widely understood so people recognize their work is connected to a larger movement and their actions are more effective.
Governments are sold out to big corporate interests who profit from dirty energy and false market-based climate change ‘solutions.’ Climate justice advocates must stop the government from doing more damage while creating new systems that allow us to stop participating …
by Brian Berletic / September 29th, 2014
As the US begins token airstrikes on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border, the fighting capacity of the “Islamic State” or “ISIS,” has seen no visible setbacks. This is because ISIS is, in fact, the very proxy mercenaries intentionally created to fight the West’s proxy war against Iran and its arc of influence stretching from neighboring Iraq, through Syria, and into Lebanon.
As early as 2007 – a full 4 years before the 2011 “Arab Spring” would begin – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his New Yorker article titled, “The Redirection: Is the …
by Denis Rancourt / September 29th, 2014
There is a crisis of access to justice in Canada. It is a crisis of systemic judicial partiality against ordinary citizens who cannot afford brand-name “justice”. ((A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice cited the author (Denis Rancourt) in criminal contempt of court for among other things publishing an earlier version of this article, and stated in open court that the author could consequently be sent to jail following a “show cause” hearing that the judge ordered the author to attend. The judge then (some three months later, prior to the hearing) dropped all his charges …
What do our clueless politicians care?
by Stuart Littlewood / September 29th, 2014
The indifference shown by Messrs Obama and Cameron to the slaughter and unimaginable destruction that Israel – the self-styled “only democracy in the Middle East” with “the most moral army in ther world” – inflicted on Gaza a month ago is beyond sickening.
In the UK a petition was raised, addressed to
Nick Clegg MP, Deputy Prime Minister
The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP, Foreign Secretary
The Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Prime Minister
The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition
The Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, Secretary of State for Defence
requesting them to send the ‘Argus’, a fully-fitted hospital ship of the …
by Ko Tha Dja / September 29th, 2014
Myanmar’s military rulers have wised up since 1990. After Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in a landslide victory the military rulers quickly discovered that Democracy threatened control over their self-interests. They promptly placed Suu Kyi under house arrest and returned to their business as usual. Prior to Suu Kyi’s release in 2010 Burma’s dictatorship announced its new Constitution.
The recent “reforms” rolled out in 2012 by a former general, President Thein Sien, was touted as amazing progress by governments, institutions and people across the globe itching to get their hands on a piece of Myanmar’s vast resources and access to …
Military or Economic Imperialism?
by James Petras / September 29th, 2014
Despite vast amounts of imperial data to the contrary, the great majority of writers on imperialism continue to describe and analyze US imperialism strictly in economic terms, as an expansion of “capital accumulation”, “accumulation on a world scale”.
In fact the major and minor US imperial wars have more to do with “capital dis-accumulation”, in the sense that trillion dollar flows have gone out from the US, hundreds of billions of dollars in profits from resource sites have been undermined, markets for exports have been severely weakened and exploitable …
