Latest articles
by Binoy Kampmark / January 15th, 2014
They came, they plundered and they left a country in ruins. Not that this narrative impressed itself upon the architects of the invasion of Iraq who cooked up and implemented a ghastly recipe of power that opened up new fronts for radical Islam. Iraq is now descending into something less than peace and more than civil strife. The term civil war, initially one as popular as leprosy, is now being used. Ever since the despotic Saddam was deposed, the country has been part of a song and dance with its occupiers and molesters.
Even the tepid editorial board of Bloomberg had …
An Eye Witness Account
by Felicity Arbuthnot / January 15th, 2014
As Israel buried Ariel Sharon amid eulogies from world figures, Tony Blair, a Butcher of Baghdad, paid a tribute to the Butcher of Beirut which included the line that Sharon “didn’t think of peace as a dreamer, but did dream of peace.” Also that “…he sought peace with the same iron determination” as he had fought (read slaughtered) across the Middle East. Re-writing history does not come more blatant, but Blair was ever good at fantasy, think “weapons of mass destruction” and “forty five minutes.”
Surgeon Dr Swee Chai Ang went to help the wounded of Beirut after the 1982 Israeli …
MLK’s Plea to Break the Silence on Militarism
by Gary G. Kohls / January 14th, 2014
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
— Martin Luther King, in his famous speech at the Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967
King’s Riverside Church speech was titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” It was delivered exactly one year before his April, 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis.
The people who heard that speech recognized it as one of the most powerful speeches ever given articulating the immorality of the Vietnam War and its destructive impact on social progress in …
by Bill Johnston / January 14th, 2014
I am a Capitalist. I am a Socialist and — hold on to your hats — I also believe in some circumstances Communism works great! I know this would be impossible for the “either/or” talking heads at Fox Noise to understand but let me explain.
I am a small business person myself. Part of my income is from family rental property. Hardly a more capitalist venture exists and occasionally I make some money writing and selling my “product” to others.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest I have benefited from the lowest cost energy rates in the United States thanks to …
Cesar Chavez and the Rise and Fall of the United Farm Workers
by Joseph Nevins / January 14th, 2014
About three months after Cesar Chavez died in April 1993, The Nation magazine published an essay by Frank Bardacke on the famed farmworker union leader-organizer. Entitled “Cesar’s Ghost: Decline and Fall of the UFW,” the article asserted that the United Farm Workers was no longer primarily a farm worker organization, but instead a “fundraising operation, run out of a deserted tuberculosis sanitarium,” one “staffed by members of Cesar’s extended family.”
Bardacke, a former farm worker and UFW member who later became an adult education teacher in Watsonville, California, offered a hard-hitting analysis of the union’s precipitous demise. While he emphasized …
"The Preface"
by Thomas Riggins / January 14th, 2014
It’s been 97 years since Lenin first wrote what has since become a “classic” of Marxism — The State and Revolution: The Marxist Theory of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution, hereafter referred to as SR. I propose to discuss the significance of this work for today (the beginning of the 21st Century) and so will not spend a lot of time discussing its relevance to the world of 97 years ago.
Therefore, the tasks of the working class in the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 will only be touched upon and I will concentrate …
by Robert S. Becker / January 14th, 2014
What a shocker: our most pugnacious politician, who apes sneering TV tough guys, finds himself starring in his own reality-survivor drama. The only question remains: is he really a fool (the victimized micromanager who knows nothing) or a low-class knave (with an ex-prosecutor’s bag of trick decoys)? Whatever the final evidence, this scandal will devolve from snarling bridge traffic to the trollish character of our pudgiest of pugs.
Tripped by a willful, smack-down staff, the image of the most electable party “moderate” lurched with ease from “straight-talking pragmatist” to rogue pettiness. But what exactly new does the Fort Lee fiasco say …
Thomas Patterson’s Failed Technocratic Dream for Journalism
by Robert Jensen / January 14th, 2014
Thomas Patterson’s new book on the current crises in journalism is organized around six specific problems, starting with “The Information Problem” and moving through Source, Knowledge, Education, Audience, and Democracy problems.
All problems, indeed. But, unfortunately, there is no chapter on the most crippling affliction of mainstream journalism in the United States: “The Ideology Problem.” That missing chapter would help explain the routine failure of mainstream journalism at what should be its central task in a democratic society—to analyze and critique systems of power to help ordinary people take greater control over our lives. The fact that this subject is missing …
by William T. Hathaway / January 14th, 2014
The below photo of my parents reveals much about their personalities (hers vivacious and outgoing, his withdrawn and closed off), their relationship (little real contact), and also the times (could be captioned Gender Roles in the 1950s: The Bathing Beauty and the Soldier).
The typicality of their lives reveals much about the USA. My mother was a farmer’s daughter whose father lost the farm to the banks, and they had to scrabble along in the slums of the big city, St. Louis. All her life she yearned for her bucolic childhood …
by Stuart Littlewood / January 14th, 2014
In a statement marking the death of Ariel Sharon, British prime minister David Cameron said he was “one of the most significant figures in Israeli history and as Prime Minister he took brave and controversial decisions in pursuit of peace, before he was so tragically incapacitated.”
This sickening tribute will not go down well outside Israel. Sharon, real name Scheinermann, was the child of immigrants fleeing Russia to the British mandate of Palestine in the 1920s. At the tender age of 10 the boy joined the Zionist youth movement Hassadeh. At 14 he was a member of a paramilitary youth …
by David Macaray / January 14th, 2014
For those who didn’t follow the Boeing story, here’s a thumbnail sketch. Boeing threatens IAM union members in Seattle with economic homicide by issuing an ultimatum: either re-open the current contract, which doesn’t expire until 2016, and let us ravage the health, pension, strike and wage provisions, or we move assembly of the 777X (its new airliner) to another state, and you’re all out of a job.
But the local union surprises everyone. By a 2 to 1 margin, they vote down the offer. Stunned by the rejection, Boeing pretends to follow through on its plan to pull up stakes and …
by Alan Hart / January 13th, 2014
Until recently I thought Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had no rivals in the business of talking propaganda nonsense (Israel’s Jews in danger of annihilation etcetera, etcetera, etcetera). But if there was a Nobel Prize for talking nonsense it does now seem that there would be a number of contenders.
At the top of my list of them would be British Prime Minister David Cameron. In paying tribute to Sharon he praised him for his “brave and controversial decisions in pursuit of peace.”
In an article for the Nation under the headline How Ariel Sharon Shaped Israel’s Destiny, and which contains chilling quotes …
British War Crimes Alleged
by Felicity Arbuthnot / January 13th, 2014
A “devastating” two hundred and fifty page document, “The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008”, has been “presented to the International Criminal Court, and could result in some of Britain’s leading defence figures facing prosecution for “systematic war crimes” the (London) Independent on Sunday has revealed.
The dossier charges that “those who bear the greatest responsibility” for alleged war crimes “include individuals at the highest levels” of the British Army and political system.
Among those named, states the Independent, are two former Defence Ministry supremos, Geoff Hoon and Adam Ingram, Defence Secretary and …
by Bill Quigley / January 13th, 2014
Here are the top ten examples of corporate welfare and welfare for the rich. There are actually thousands of tax breaks and subsidies for the rich and corporations provided by federal, state and local governments but these ten will give a taste.
(1) State and Local Subsidies to Corporations. An excellent New York Times study by Louise Story calculated that state and local government provide at least $80 billion in subsidies to corporations. Over 48 big corporations received over $100 million each. GM was the biggest at a total of $1.7 billion extracted from 16 different states but Shell, Ford and …
Obama’s Propaganda Presidency
by Jason Hirthler / January 12th, 2014
The American propaganda machine rolls on, superior to the paltry efforts of past American, British, and German public relations machinery. Then, it was enough to sketch terrifying cartoons of Huns or Jews or other ethnicities and fulminate nonsensically about racial purity. No more. We have evolved. Now the deception of the tirelessly distracted masses requires dissimulations of far greater sophistication.
Take, for instance, the recent news that, once again, for the umpteenth month in a row, the unemployment rate has dropped. This happy turn of events was accompanied by the heart-warming news that President Obama has launched “Promise Zones” …
by Angola 3 News / January 12th, 2014
This past Fall, Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 made news headlines around the world when his conviction was overturned and he was dramatically released from prison after 41 years in solitary confinement. At the time of his release on October 1, 2013 he had been fighting terminal liver cancer for several months. Three days later, on Oct. 4, Herman was surrounded by loved ones as he passed on at a friend’s house in New Orleans, Louisiana.
As reported by Democracy Now, one of the final things that Herman said was, “I am …
by William A. Cook / January 12th, 2014
For eight years, Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of the State of Israel from 2000-2006, has been kept alive, though he has been in a comatose state, unable to talk or communicate naturally. The Times of Israel, the Huffington Post, Haaretz, and Britain’s Guardian have recognized his impending death. Perhaps it is time to bring closure to this man, known as the “butcher of Beirut” for his massacre at the refugee camps in that city, Sabra and Shatila: “The massacre lasted for three days (16, 17, and 18 of September 1982), approximately 3500-8000 persons, including children, infants, women and elderly …
by Jonathan Cook / January 11th, 2014
It is easy to forget, with eulogies casting him as the unexpected “peace-maker”, that for most of his long military and political career Ariel Sharon was known simply as The Bulldozer. That is certainly how he will be remembered by Palestinians.
His death was announced on Israeli army radio on Saturday. He was 85 years old and had been comatose since 2006.
Mikhael Warschawski, a founder of the joint Israeli-Palestinian advocacy group the Alternative Information Centre, describes Sharon as one of only two “political visionaries” in Israel’s history, along with the country’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.
“Yes, he was brutal, but …
by Carlos Latuff / January 11th, 2014
The legacy of Ariel Sharon.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn / January 11th, 2014
After having many positive views of New Jersey Governor Christie mainly because he seemed like a better kind of politician, maybe being someone the public could actually trust, I now see him as just another untrustworthy, dishonest politician.
As a political junkie I have followed very closely the whole bridgegate scandal. Today I closely listened to the two-hour press conference Christie held.
Despite all his apologizing, Christie looks absolutely terrible to all those with critical thinking capabilities.
First, though he fired his deputy chief of staff because she lied about her action as shown in an email wherein she …
by Walter Brasch / January 11th, 2014
With more than a foot of snow, sleet, and ice falling over much of the nation, the television news teams went into overdrive. This may be an accurate description of one of those minute-by-minute broadcasts.
“I’m Harry Hansom. Co-anchor Polly Prattle just called. Her car slid into a ditch about eight miles from the studio. Fortunately, she had her roller-blades, and is skating furiously to get here so she doesn’t lose a day’s pay. We begin our Team Weather Coverage with chief meteorologist Hugh Miditty.”
“Based upon detailed computer analysis and extensive satellite monitoring, available only through our exclusive Poplar Eye-Witless Weather …
Is Steve Forbes the last samurai?
by Bill Annett / January 11th, 2014
The thing I like about Steve Forbes (I call him Steve) is that he’s inherited a lot of money and, although he looks funny, he sure can pick winners. Along with the magazine that has borne his family’s name (or vice-versa) since 1917, he’s been a kingmaker as well as a prophet, despite the fact that, as Yogi Berra once put it, “predicting is difficult, especially about the future.” A marginally unsuccessful Presidential candidate himself, Steve knows all about Presidents and their problems. Why, just recently he pointed out in an editorial that Obamacare will have its come-uppance in November …
by Clinton Kirby / January 11th, 2014
Scott Sorensen is an artist, activist, and master of alternative accommodations currently living in Jackson, Mississippi. He lives in a tent in a friend’s backyard (he was there first) and has been there for two years and counting. He paints, smokes, paints, sleeps, works with Occupy Jackson, bemoans the oppressive heat (in all senses of that word), sells paintings, works on his tent, works on other assorted projects, climbs trees, and goes to town. He doesn’t have a mortgage, he doesn’t pay rent, doesn’t have 9 to 5. Doesn’t have a car payment. No utilities. It should be …
by James Petras / January 10th, 2014
Saudi Arabia has all the vices and none of the virtues of an oil rich state like Venezuela. The country is governed by a family dictatorship which tolerates no opposition and severely punishes human rights advocates and political dissidents. Hundreds of billions in oil revenues are controlled by the royal despotism and fuel speculative investments the world over. The ruling elite relies on the purchase of Western arms and US military bases for protection. The wealth of productive nations is syphoned to enrich the conspicuous consumption of the Saudi ruling family. The ruling elite finances the most fanatical, retrograde, …
by Gareth Porter / January 10th, 2014
Washington (IPS) — Criticism in the memoirs of former secretary of defence Robert M. Gates of President Barack Obama’s lack of commitment to the Afghan War strategy of his administration has generated a Washington debate about whether Obama was sufficiently supportive of the war. But the Gates account omits two crucial historical facts necessary to understanding the issue. The first is that Obama agreed to the escalation only under strong pressure from his top national security officials and with very explicit reservations. The second is that Gen. David Petraeus reneged on his previous commitment to support Obama’s 2009 decision that troop …
by Ralph Nader / January 10th, 2014
You’ve heard the refrain “we live in the information age.” We have fingertip access to the Internet, providing us with massive amounts of information. There are no longer any excuses for us to say we don’t have the information; it is there, but up to us to act on the information.
The above is all true but very incomplete. Information technology (IT), now the supplier of millions of jobs, does not have its own value-based imperative. The power structure is very selective about what this technology can access so as to keep the power in its concentrating corporate and governmental hands.
For …
by William Boardman / January 10th, 2014
The bomb will not start a chain reaction in the water, converting it all to gas and letting all the ships on all the oceans drop down to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water run down the hole. It will not destroy gravity. I am not an atomic playboy.
– Vice Admiral William P. Blandy, Bikini bomb test commander, July 25, 1946
When the military scientists of an advanced technological nation deliberately explode their largest nuclear bomb (and 66 others) over Pacific islands and use the opportunities to study the …
by Alfredo Lopez / January 10th, 2014
On this website, we’ve speculated that one outcome of the flood of NSA-centered revelations has been to desensitize U.S. citizens and diminish outrage at what is actually revealed. We are becoming conditioned to the horror story that is the National Security Administration.
Right before Christmas, we got another dose of breath-taking outrageousness through the reporting of a group of journalists courtesy of the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel. The report profiles the work of a powerful unit of technological thugs called the Tailored Access Operations unit or TAO — either an unfortunate coincidence in naming or a reflection of …
by Ben Norton / January 10th, 2014
Is Facebook flirting with fascism? The question might prove difficult to answer with a resounding “yes or no,” but, to those who have been keeping track of its recent censorship practices, the answer appears to lean heavily toward the affirmative.
Yesterday, on 9 January 2014, after over five years of operation, popular Facebook page Anarchist Memes was permanently taken down by Facebook. With approximately 90,000 likes and hundreds of comments each day, Anarchist Memes established itself as one of the radical left’s most prominent Facebook pages. It posted feminist, anti-racist, pro-LGBT*QA, and anti-capitalist content numerous times a day. For years, the …
by Binoy Kampmark / January 10th, 2014
President Barack Obama has never been a creature to avoid contradiction. Some would call it hypocrisy, but the more generous might simply consider it the extensive ability to juggle two difficult and even contradictory aims at once. For a person who aggressively campaigned against the existence of the Guantanamo Bay facilities, he firstly staggered then endorsed its retention. For a person keen to chide President George W. Bush for infractions against the liberties of US citizens, Obama has been happy to take the shredder to an assortment of them (surveillance and extra-judicial killings come to mind).
Then, there is …
