I feel a kinship with Bradley Manning. In all likelihood a few weeks from now a military judge will sentence him to serve several decades in prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. My parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were convicted of violating the same act and executed just over 60 years ago when I was six years old. But that’s only the beginning of my sense of connection with him. The prosecutors, and now the judge, have labeled Manning’s actions espionage, theft and several other unsavory terms. Stripped of the pejorative legal expressions, however, what Manning really did, …
Two sterling insights from Obama neighbor, noted writer, and good friend, Francis-Noël Thomas, capture the disaster that is the modern American presidency:
1) Whatever a president doesn’t know on election, he won’t learn in office. However willing, what newcomer has the time or attention to master key leadership gaps? Consider the expertise to negotiate effectively with Congress, let alone grasp counter-insurgency theories, the culture of the intelligence agencies, the Federal Reserve System, or multi-faceted energy or health care industries. Command demands know-how and practice.
2) Today’s voters cannot evaluate a candidate’s all-important qualifications.Blitzed by the media, the electorate often mistakes resume …
Racialized working-class communities and individuals and Indigenous peoples in North America know the daily reality of police violence and containment. We do not need the intervention of civil liberties organizations, critical criminology courses or the exposure of police violence at a G20 Summit to become conscious of the fact that when the police serve and protect, we are not included within that protective cloak.
Based on our experience of colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalist exploitation, we are quite aware of the fact that the police serve and protect the …
Critical Thinking Skills – Like a Good Wine Takes Time
First: The same old, published recently in the Oregonian, the big newspaper in Portland and around the state which is going to four-days-a-week in October, as a cost-cutting and reorganizing thing. You know, since these millionaires and great economists can’t get it past their gold-filled teeth that we, a, need public journalism and investigative journalism supported, and, b, we need true public education.
“A three-year college degree would provide value and savings: Guest opinion”
August 09, 2013 at 5:00 AM,
By Bill Manning
The three-sided triangle is the strongest geometric format in today’s architectural design …
The Nobel Peace Prize is for the person who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Obviously the committee that awards the peace prize erred miserably when it presented the prize to Barack Obama. Obama has been anything but a peacemonger. Since Obama never received the award for any peace-related actions on his part, it is widely assumed that the committee awarded the prize based on projections of what Obama would do (if otherwise, then the committee …
The final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on field trials of genetically modified crops is packed with revelations on what is wrong with institutional governance and regulation in India when it comes to GMOs (genetically-modified organisms). The report’s release late last month came days before biotech giant Monsanto decided not to submit any further applications for GMOs to the European Union; a decision forced by non-acceptance on scientific grounds and rejection by civil society.
Remarkable consensus
The TEC Final Report (FR) is the fourth official report which exposes the lack of integrity, independence and scientific expertise in assessing …
Why do American children study Karl Marx, the villain we love to hate, in school? Yet Henry George, whose views on land and tax reform gave rise to the Progressive and Populist movements of the 1900s, is totally absent from US history books. During the 1890s George, author of the 1879 bestseller Progress and Poverty, was the third most famous American, after Mark Twain and Thomas Edison. In 1896 he outpolled Teddy Roosevelt and was nearly elected mayor of New York.
In Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem Against Henry George(2007), University of California economist Mason Gaffneyargues thatGeorge and his Land Value Tax pose a far …
Over the past couple of years, the nation’s media have trumpeted the fact that global warming has slowed during the past 15 years, for example, “A Cooling Consensus,” by W.W. Houston, The Economist, June 20th, 2013. (However, within the article, The Economist editorially states that some people affirm “that the urgent necessity of acting to retard warming has not abated, as does Brad Plumer of the Washington Post, as does this newspaper”).
There is no doubt that the planet is continuing to heat, but it has been heating less than scientists predicted, and scientists readily admit that no one ever expected …
On July 16, 2013, Goldman Sachs, the fifth largest US bank by assets announced its second quarter profits doubled the previous year to $1.93 billion. J.P. Morgan, the largest bank made $6.1 billion in the second quarter, up 32% over the year before and expects to make $25 billion in profits in 2013. Wells Fargo, the fourth largest bank, reaped $5.27 billion, up 20%. Citigroup’s profits topped $4.18 billion, up 42% over the previous year.
The ruling elite, the financial CEOs pay is soaring: John …
(this christian nation — and some of its jews; but not muslims cause they’re communist — brought to you by desert nomads from outer space, who augured our future in seventeen organic lentils that clung to Essau’s beard –you can look it up: read your Koran, your Talmud, your No One Here Get Out Alive: Pilgrims in UFOs; Cowboys in Stutz Bearcats: sorry red injun man, sorry black negro man, sorry yellow asian man, sorry women and children first in line, fists full of soap, tossed overboard: the Ship of State can’t help you now. Apparent …
As we enter week five of the hunger strike over 400 prisoners in seven prisons are still refusing to eat. This is the longest hunger strike in California’s history and is provoking a predictably savage response from prison authorities. Prisoners are being denied medical attention, prisoners accused of being reps are put in Administrative Segregation to further isolate them, many are being denied their mail. The tragic death of hunger striker Billy Sell, who had been asking for medical care for several days prior to his death, reveals the cruel and inhumane nature of the prison authorities who appear indifferent …
August 9, 1974 is one of my favorite days in history. On that day, Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency of the United States. He only did so because he knew he was facing certain impeachment and a probable conviction on at least some of the charges he was facing. The look of despair obvious on his face during his last speech from the White House was enough to make anyone who had opposed his rule almost believe that there was such a thing as earthly justice. Of course, Nixon never had to answer for his …
Any sound that Watson made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it… There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment…You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
— George Orwell, 1984
There’s no denying Mr. Orwell was a visionary before his time. However, if George was with us today, he would surely cringe (even in darkness) and blush three shades of red if …
Royal Dutch Shell, which owns or leasesabout 900,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale, had a great idea.
It wanted to frack the Ukraine. But, there was opposition. So, Royal Dutch Shell decided to create a junket for some of the Ukrainians opposed to fracking to show them just how wonderful fracking is.
They were going to bring the Ukrainians to northeastern Pennsylvania, and give them an all-expenses-paid four-day tour. The tour was to begin at the end of July. Other shale gas corporations have created press junkets, where they lay out a nice day or two of activities, complete with handouts, …
Daily Newspapers a Thing of the Past Back to the Future
I knew I was a fool in 1975 when I was majoring in journalism at the University of Arizona, actually one of the country’s better undergraduate and master’s programs in journalism. A fool because even then, almost forty years ago, the writing was on the walls, or, in the headlines, or next to the obituaries — daily newspapers, independent ones, and cities with at least two competing dailies, and communities with a slew of weeklies and bi-monthlies and alternative presses, well, those days were numbered.
If you’re gonna blow up yourself and god knows how many others with a car bomb, play it safe and buy American. Chances are, the car will breakdown before you reach the target area. Or if you happen to be an American yourself, chances are you bought it on credit, fell behind on the payments, and the repo-man will snatch the vehicle from under your eyes, bomb, hostages and all. Hey, it ain’t rocket science…
A report from CNN’s Jake Tapper has reintroduced “Benghazi-Gate” to the US media spotlight. The report claims that “dozens” of CIA operatives were on the ground in Benghazi on the night of the attack, and the CIA is going to great lengths to suppress details of them and their whereabouts being released. The report alleges that the CIA is engaged in “unprecedented” attempts to stifle employee leaks, and “intimidation” to keep the secrets of Benghazi hidden, allegedly going as far as changing the names of CIA operatives and “dispersing” them around the country.
Today, the principle of sharing is increasingly being discussed as a solution to the manifold social, economic and political problems of humanity. There are many people and organisations that now talk about the importance of sharing as a way forward for society in terms of reducing consumption, conserving resources, preventing wastage or addressing poverty. And one notable recent development is a conversation on sharing in relation to food. This may concern the sharing of food through a charity, the salvaging of surplus produce from farms or supermarkets, the free distribution of food at some event or gathering, or even the …
The ‘modern father’ of Singapore Lew Kuan Yew, who is also the father of the current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, launched his latest book One Man’s View of the World recently. In this forthright and frank book, Lee gave his views on major powers and regions of the world, often with scathing remarks about Singapore’s neighbors and past Chinese leaders. What’s more, this book has been endorsed by former US Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz.
The book is full of interviews made by Lee’s editorial team. They were defensive of his past actions and policies, yet very …
In Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus on 7 August, 18 civilians were blown to bits. Among the dead were children. The Russian government condemned the crime against humanity. The crime was hardly even reported in the Western press, not to mention the silence of Western governments who are supplying the terrorists with arms. Perhaps the babies murdered in the attack were supporters of Bashar al-Assad and were therefore guilty.
Meanwhile in the “land of human rights”, Parisians sipped coffee reading France’s “journal sérieux”Le monde. The French daily published a story from an organization internationally recognized for its role in defending …
While President Obama continues his economic speaking tour, walkouts at fast-food restaurants rippled across cities nationwide last week, calling attention to the nation’s growing wealth gap. At the franchise stores of McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King and KFC and other grease-slinging corporations, thousands of people protested the low wages dished out by the biggest names in the industry and raised a common demand: $15 an hour and the right to unionize.
“We are all going through the same thing,” said Naquasia LeGrand, who works at a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Brooklyn and has emerged as one of the most outspoken …
A recent study looking at how social mobility varies across US cities found that the poor are less likely to rise the socio-economic ladder the more residents are geographically segregated. In other words, the further apart different social classes live the more entrenched inequality becomes.
The Equality of Opportunity Project study shows that relatively compact cities such as San Francisco, New York and Boston have greater social mobility than their more sprawling counterparts Memphis, Detroit and Atlanta. In relatively transit and pedestrian oriented San Francisco, for instance, someone born into the poorest fifth of income distribution has an 11 per cent chance of reaching the top …
America’s ruling elites – and those of the Western world more generally – are comfortable dealing with ruthless tyrants and dictators all over the world, partly because they’ve just had more practice with it than dealing with ‘democratic’ governments in so-called ‘Third World’ nations. This is especially true when it comes to the Arab world, where the West has only ever dealt with dictatorships, and often by arming them and supporting them to repress their own populations, and in return, they support US and Western geopolitical, strategic and economic interests in the region. America’s relationship with Egypt …
IPS — Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman based his 2006 warrant for the arrest of top Iranian officials in the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 on the claims of representatives of the armed Iranian opposition Mujahedin E Khalq (MEK), the full text of the document reveals.
The central piece of evidence cited in Nisman’s original 900-page arrest warrant against seven senior Iranian leaders is an alleged Aug. 14, 1993 meeting of top Iranian leaders, including both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and then president Hashemi Rafsanjani, at which Nisman claims the official decision was made to go …
In “Revolutionary Egypt” Parts 1, 2, and 3, BJ Sabri detailed the background to the “revolutions” in Egypt. Now Sabri discusses what the outcome will be for Egypt.
KP: The revolutionary events are still unfolding. Whether it becomes a fully-fledged revolution or not remains to be seen. The US refuses to acknowledge a military coup has happened. The Egyptian military is using lethal violence against the Muslim Brotherhood. ElBaradei deplored the violence, but he didn’t resign. What does this indicate about ElBaradei and also about the military? How should progressivist revolutionaries respond? Should the intervention of the military …
It sounds like a plumbing deficiency with a moral purpose: one leaks at times because one just has to. The condition is biological, innate. The suggestion in the case of politics is that a party that specialises about this will be formidable, and, in the scheme of things, unprecedented.
In an interview with the Australian network SBS, Julian Assange promised that his role in parliament would be one of cheeky uplift and exposure. The skirts on the political establishment are going to be lifted, baring all. Australian politicians will be given an open cheque to leak. Leak with secure channels via …
With a daily circulation of approximately 17,000, the traditionally right-wing Antelope Valley Press has proudly served the Palmdale high desert community (about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles) since its founding, way back in 1915. The AVP is the largest selling daily newspaper in the Valley.
But on August 1, AVP management informed its copy desk employees that their workload would be reduced to a maximum of 39 hours …
Film critique of “The Act of Killing,” directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
by Rita Valencia / August 7th, 2013
The death squad captain swaggers out of his local bar still humming ‘My Way’, while his victims rot in the river and the cleaning ladies toil through the night mopping up the blood. Subtract the victims and the stench, the toil and the blood from the scenario: the killing and the killer remain. Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing recasts the Indonesian mass killings of the mid 1960’s as a personal narrative told in lush dramatic reenactments conceived and directed, ostensibly, by the perpetrators. It’s a film that quotes Bollywood gleefully. It also may seem to owe much to …
We Have The Basics Of A Police State – How Much Farther Should We Go?
by William Boardman / August 7th, 2013
Two Senators Keep Security State Debate In A Narrow Frame
With much of the country aware of the extent of government spying on and lying to American citizens, there is now a limited public discussion of what kind of country we want ours to be. The limits of that discussion are illustrated by recent public utterances of two Democratic Senators, Diane Feinstein of California and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
For more that two years, Sen. Wyden has been warning that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been operating outside the law for more than seven years. His warnings have been limited …
