Of some 53,100 adults in 102 countries and territories around the world surveyed for the ADL Global 100: An Index of Anti-Semitism, 26% were found to be ‘deeply infected’ with ‘anti-Semitic attitudes.’
I find both the ADL and its polls quite amusing. Can you think of another people on this planet who so spend so much time and energy measuring how much they are loved or hated? Do the Brits measure how despised they are in Moldovia? Do the Palestinians question …
It has been over ten years since Wisconsin endured a kind of deer holocaust. The terminal deer and elk disease, chronic wasting disease (CWD), descended upon its deer population with such vengeance officials declared “CWD eradication” zones in which fauns and does would be killed before bucks. Thousands of deer carcasses were stored in refrigerated trucks in La Crosse while their severed heads were tested for CWD. If the carcasses were disease-free they were safe to eat (any takers?); if not, they were too dangerous to even put in a landfill. Why? Because “prions” (which also cause mad …
Greenpeace recently released a report that details “how by 2050, renewable energy sources could be producing close to 97% of electricity in the U.S. and approximately 94% of the country’s needs for heating and cooling homes and businesses.” The report “presents the case for a radical and rapid energy transformation and a pathway for meeting the reduced emissions that the scientific community says is urgent.”
The “plan” would lead “to about 1.5 million energy-related jobs in 2030,” contribute to energy independence, and would enable citizens to gain more control over energy production.
To make this energy “[r]evolution” possible, it would …
Reading the words of Felicity Arbuthnot and the culture of murder by decree, by political affirmation, through the international bodies of the dead, the UN, the leaders who eat babies at birth, with the flick of a pen, and with the stealth of billion-dollar bombers, or the guided propaganda or hand-to-hand instruction of the School of Murder, Inc., and she puts it right in the bullseye of a warped world of sick awards and accolades.
These people are ruthless, war criminals, thugs in any sense of the word. Clintons, Bushes, Carter, LBJ, any number of the tens of thousands who …
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
— Voltaire, 1694-1778
It is impossible not to gain the impression that the criteria for being awarded prestigious honors for services to “peace”, “humanity” or “distinguished public service” is a candidate who is duplicitous, vicious, stone-hearted and above all prepared to kill, plan killings or rejoice in killing on an industrial scale as brutally as can be devised.
Moments after being informed of the horrific death of Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011, then Secretary of State Hillary …
The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.
— James Madison, Constitutional Convention, June 29, 1787
The greatest dangers of totalitarianism – the variant that produced the European regimes of the 1920s and 1930s – is the sense of a permanent emergency that underpins its existence. The raison d’être of such states lies in the need to maintain the fear, precipitating dangers through the social body, and fostering a permanent sense of vigilance against looming threats. Australia’s Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has certainly borrowed from that historical legacy, attempting to make the angst and …
At one time most people referred to the Original Peoples of the western hemisphere as Indians, as though they were all a common ethnic group. In the Arctic they were called Eskimos. The Original Peoples, however, knew, and still know, themselves as Inuit, Innu, Haudenosaunee, Beothuk, Nuu-chah-nulth, Inka, Mapuche, etc. They all became known as Indians because Christopher Columbus landed somewhere in the Caribbean, likely the Bahamas, but he reckoned that he was in India. As a consequence, he called the Lucayan people Indians, and everyone else in the western hemisphere were called Indians by the Europeans, even after they …
“Occupy the FCC” encampment gathers support from tech companies and advocacy groups as net neutrality protesters surround FCC headquarters with tents and banners
Unsatisfied with backpedaling and empty promises from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, activists are camped out day and night on the agency’s doorstep demanding the Internet be reclassified as a common carrier
*****
WASHINGTON, DC — This morning, and every morning since last Wednesday, FCC employees were greeted on their way in to work by a dedicated group of net neutrality activists who are camped out on the agency’s doorstep with tents, signs, and a giant banner reading, “Don’t …
Despite more damning insights, capitalist-fueled imperial violence marches on
by Jason Hirthler / May 13th, 2014
Thomas Piketty’s book Capitalism in the Twenty First Century is all the rage, notably for its 700-page rationale of a very simple formulation: r >g. In this formula, “r” stands for return on capital and “g” stands for general economic growth. Having read a few fairly painless selections from the celebrated tome, and a host of reviews, here’s what I have gathered: the idea seems to be that capital gains, rents, and other forms of moneymaking in which you don’t have to break a sweat, all grow faster than the general economy. We are thus condemned, should the status …
Where almost every word of news isn't what it seems
by John Chuckman / May 13th, 2014
I think a description of the political space in which we live as a kind of twilight reality is not an exaggeration. Not only is a great deal of the news about the world we read and hear manipulated and even manufactured, but a great deal of genuine news is simply missing. People often do not know what is happening in the world, although they generally believe they do know after reading their newspapers or listening to news broadcasts. People receive the lulling sounds or words of most of this kind of news almost unconsciously just as they do to …
Despite objective evidence that hosting international sports events does not bring money into a metropolis, cities continue to battle each other for the ability to host such events. The Olympics, World Cup, and smaller extravaganzas are the cause of much courting of executives and extravagant promises. The city that wins usually spends several times more than expected, creates numerous edifices that are rarely used again, and taxes the local citizens above and beyond most can afford. In addition, there are the not-so-obvious expenses. These range from the neglect of normal infrastructure costs associated with day to day existence; roads, schools, …
Kiev Supporters Burn Opponents Alive in Odessa, Police Do Nothing
by William Boardman / May 12th, 2014
The acting president of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov told regional governors on May 1 that the Kiev interim government was “helpless” to re-establish central government control in eastern Ukraine, where anti-Kiev forces (pro-independence and/or pro-Russian) have taken control of numerous cities in a manner imitating the way the Kiev government itself seized power in February.
“I will be frank. Today, security forces are unable to take the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions quickly under control,” Turchynov said at the May Day meeting. He reported that numerous Ukrainian military and security personnel had defected to the rebels, taking their arms …
– Monday: Dinner Provided by Golden Frog (Let us know you’re coming so there is enough food, gro.ecnatsiseRralupoPnull@ofni).
– Tuesday: Performance night, music and spoken word, bring your instruments.
– Wednesday: Art Build
– Thursday: Rally at 9 AM, Open Commission Meeting at 10:30
Last week we wrote about the importance of taking action to save the Net. The Chairman of the FCC Tom Wheeler is proposing new rules that will be great for Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon, but terrible for the rest of us. The FCC has been surrounded by corporate lobbyists for too …
Lenin on State and Revolution: Chapter 3, Parts 2 - 5
by Thomas Riggins / May 11th, 2014
Chapter Three of State and Revolution is devoted to Lenin’s commentary on Marx’s analysis of the 1871 Paris Commune. It is divided into five parts. This article deals with parts 2 -5 of the chapter:
2. What Is To Replace The Smashed State Machine?
According to Lenin Marx and Engels had no answer to this question when they wrote the Manifesto. Marx thought the experience of the working class would provide the answer. He summed up that experience in his work The Civil War in France on the Paris Commune and, although Lenin says that experience was “meager”, came to conclusions thought …
We’ve had plenty of those. We weren’t told the Taliban was willing to turn bin Laden over to a neutral nation to stand trial. We weren’t told the Taliban was a reluctant tolerator of al Qaeda, and a completely distinct group. We weren’t told the 911 attacks had also been planned in Germany and Maryland and various other places not marked for bombing. We weren’t told that most of the people who would die in Afghanistan, many more than died on 911, not only didn’t support 911 but never heard of it. We …
April 25, 2014 was the 99th Anniversary of the Disastrous Battle of Gallipoli
by Gary G. Kohls / May 10th, 2014
A number of years ago I read portions of a book entitled The First Casualty: From the Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker by Phillip Knightley.
Knightley points out in that book that in order to start (and then perpetuate) a war, a nation’s leaders have to lie, and the lies usually start with the war correspondents or “embedded” journalists who obediently only tell pre-approved sugar-coated, heavily censored versions of what is really happening in the war zone. Conservative editors, who are sensitive to the demands of patriotic advertisers, typically edit out the unpleasantness that …
CJFE has an almost 30 year history of carrying out vital press freedom work throughout the developing world with its own programs and, in particular, through the creation and operation of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), a worldwide network of 88 groups. Working with other groups, lives have been saved and entire nations of people …
At this time of economic turmoil it can be difficult to perceive for oneself how the principle of sharing is a solution to world problems, and this is especially true for many intellectuals. There are libraries of books and reports that analyse what is wrong with society, the majority of which are trying to reach the impossible – which is to propose new ideas and alternative policies to the government. A government that represents and upholds the disastrous commercialisation of our political, economic and social structures.
The more intellectual and thorough our analysis, the more we become entangled in an endless …
On April 17, 2014 Algeria held its presidential election. As expected, the incumbent Abdelaziz Boutiflika won the election with 81.53 percent of the vote against the leading opposition candidate Ali Benflis, who received 12.18 percent of the vote.
Benflis was widely proclaimed in the French press as being the candidate of ‘change’ and ‘democratic reform.’ It is clear that Benflis was the preferred candidate for the French corporate and political elite. The French media launched a concerted campaign to discredit Boutiflika before the election, while there was much talk about the anti-government youth movement ‘barakat,’ as well as the separatist claims …
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
— from “The Sermon on the Mount”
Footfalls echo in the memory/ Down the passage which we did not take/
Towards the door we never opened/ Into the rose-garden.
— T. S. Eliot, “Four Quartets”
… all that is seething below is an ever-present potentiality of consciousness.
— Carl Jung ((From the “Foreword” to D.T. Suzuki’s An Introduction to Zen Buddhism))
About 20 months ago, I accompanied my Japanese wife on a business trip she made to Kiev. My interests were touristic and a bit genealogical. My mother’s parents were Ukrainian Jews who …
“Any government with both the power and the will to remedy the major defects of the capitalist system would have the power and the will to abolish it altogether” said economist Joan Robinson analyzing the situation a generation ago. But her words are a call to create such a government now. Our global problem is not only a perpetually war making empire but also the economic basis of its imperial system. The evidence seemed clear to only some scholars in the past, but it is becoming more obvious to anyone who notes the signs of breakdown in the present. They …
Western corporate media and the White House have dissimulated Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s boast of a $5 Billion contribution to the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government, blaming Russian aggression rather than Western duplicity and illegality. However, correspondence has come to light which demonstrates that the US Administration was aware to the last detail exactly what the ramifications of their actions would be in Ukraine.
The author of the minutely detailed cable outlining the complexities and dangers of US-EU-NATO meddling in Ukraine is William Burns, currently Deputy Secretary of State. From November 2005 to May 2008, he …
It is no secret that in the war against meat pathogens in commercial U.S. meat production, the pathogens are winning. The logical result of the tons of antibiotics that Big Meat gives livestock (not because they are sick but to fatten them) is clear: antibiotics that no longer work against antibiotic-resistant diseases like staph (MRSA), enterococci (VRE) and C.difficile. Antibiotic resistant infections, once limited to hospitals and nursing homes, are now in the community and have been found on Florida public beaches and on the highway behind a poultry truck. Big Meat has found some novel ways to retard …
“The Russians are coming … again … and they’re still ten feet tall!”
So, what do we have here? In Libya, in Syria, and elsewhere the United States has been on the same side as the al-Qaeda types. But not in Ukraine. That’s the good news. The bad news is that in Ukraine the United States is on the same side as the neo-Nazi types, who – taking time off from parading around with their swastika-like symbols and calling for the death of Jews, Russians, and Communists – on May 2 burned down a trade-union building in Odessa, killing scores of …
May is “Older Americans Month,” designated in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, who said, “Our seniors deserve the best our country has to offer.” At the time about a third of seniors were living in poverty. In more than half a century, that hasn’t changed much. Unfortunately, seniors, like every other generation, could be celebrating the “National Short End of the Stick Month.” I can think of an even better designation, but I leave that to you.
The week beginning with Mother’s Day is “Nursing Home Week.” I see the two celebrations linked in advertising, but I don’t like it. …
Just before Israel’s 66th Independence Day, the country acquired a new national hero.
If it is true that every nation gets the national heroes it deserves, it was a rather worrying spectacle.
The video clip that turned David Adamov from an anonymous soldier into a national figure was taken with a Palestinian camera in Hebron.
Such video cameras have become the bane of the Israeli army. They have been widely distributed to young Palestinians throughout the occupied territories by Israeli peace organizations, especially B’Tselem.
The clip starts with the scene in Hebron. In the middle of Shuhada street stands a solitary soldier with a …
The New York Times vs. Russia’s “White Book": Part One
by Walter C. Uhler / May 9th, 2014
Daily examination of the online headlines and news links found on the Kyiv Post allows any disinterested observer to conclude that it is a propaganda bullhorn for the provisional government; the one installed after the duly elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted in a violent anti-Russian coup. Thus, it was hardly a surprise when, on May 6, the propaganda bullhorn published an article of opinion by Oleh Tiahnybok that was riddled with rubbish.
Mr. Tiahnybok is the leader of Svoboda, a right-wing party that captured 38 seats and 10 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections and …
