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Supreme Court Has Ruled: Nobody Has an Earned Right to Social Security Benefits

Most Americans have probably never heard of the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Flemming v. Nestor.  It is one of several important facts about Social Security that are unknown to the public.  The essence of the ruling is that nobody has an “earned right” to Social Security benefits, no matter how much money they have paid into the program.

The court upheld the denial of benefits to Nestor even though he had contributed to the program for 19 years and was receiving benefits.  In it’s ruling, the Court established the principle that entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a “contractual …

Make Gotham Great Again!

Fear and suspicion of undocumented immigrants has lead to a showdown of sorts.  The issue is a polarizing one, with some showing compassion and welcoming the alien merely seeking refuge from hostilities aboard.  Others, however, see this as a threat to employment, welfare, security and overall stability of the homeland.

None have taken a stronger stance than Billionaire mogul and business tycoon Bruce Wayne of Gotham City, waging a war of aggression against one such alien from Krypton.  In a recent press conference, Wayne said the following: “When Krypton sends its people, they’re not sending their best.  They’re sending men of …

War and Incitement: The Acquittal of Vojislav Šešelj

[H]istory is past politics, and politics is present history.

— Edward A. Freeman (November 18, 1880)

When the tormented history of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is written, the eyebrows of legal authorities will be raised in assortments of confusion. Soon after the Radovan Karadžić verdict, the harshest dished out by the ICTY, the firebrand and frequent patriotic buffoon Vojislav Šešelj of the Serbian Radical Party found himself acquitted. It had taken some 13 years for the Chamber to reach that conclusion, a lengthy circus of delay, obstruction and challenge.

Šešelj, labouring with the effects of cancer, neither cared, nor …

Is Star Trek’s Utopia Achievable?

Trekonomics

All fans of science fiction are familiar with Star Trek. It is an iconic science fiction show that has bequeathed the public with five TV series, one animated series, and a number of films over five decades. The storyline of Star Trek, however, spans three centuries. What makes Star Trek particularly attractive for many viewers is its progressivism. Star Trek depicts a future where the scourges of sickness, racism, poverty, and war have been eradicated on Earth and throughout much of the Federation, an inter-planetary alliance of which the Earth is a founding …

As Saudi and Allies Bombard Yemen US Clocks up $33 Billion Arms Sales in Eleven Months

Sometimes even to the most towering cynic, American hypocrisy is more than breathtaking.

As they lambast their latest “despot”, Syria’s President al-Assad — a man so popular in his country and the region that the US Embassy in Damascu had, by the end of 2006, devised a plan to oust him — arms sales to countries where human rights are not even a glimmer on the horizon have for the US (and UK) become an eye watering bonanza.

The latest jaw dropper, as Saudi Arabia continues to bombard Yemen with US and UK armaments dropped by US and UK-made aircraft, is …

Neoliberal Asphyxiation

Neoliberalism sucks the air out of the middle class, and it suffocates politicians.

It likely makes no difference who wins the November elections because the course of neoliberalism is already powerfully set in place, and it sets the course for America, not politicians; they simply follow orders. This reality, in turn, serves to anticipate disruption of the American capitalistic system. It is very likely doomed to utter failure by caving in under its own vibrations, its callousness, its self-indulgence, its narcissistic tendencies with a high probability that a major disruption of the neoliberal capitalist state is dead ahead.

By definition, a capitalistic …

Citizen, You Are Not Working Hard Enough

Citizen, you are not adequately serving your society.

Citizen, you should feel shame for your selfish desire for free time, pleasure, and the pursuit of happiness.

Citizen, you should be thankful and happy around us. We have given you a job and allowed you to live on this planet. We have given you the amazing exciting opportunity to pay for resources that have been stolen and immorally cordoned of by us so that we may profiteer off your existence. You should be grateful we have chosen you as a worthy candidate for employ.

Citizen, you should not complain about not having enough. If …

New Veteran-led Campaign Challenges Islamophobia

Violence against American Muslims is growing faster than at any time since 9/11, with assaults on Muslim individuals and their places of worship having tripled since the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks. A New York Times article published last December cites several examples, which include shootings and vandalism. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), last year set a record for the highest number of incidents targeting U.S. Mosques. As a result of this violence, Muslims across the country, including women and children, have conveyed to the public that they genuinely fear for their safety and …

Kunduz Killers Go Free

On the night of October 3, 2015, a United States Air Force AC-130 gunship repeatedly attacked a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Forty-two people were killed and dozens wounded. The US military plane had conducted five strafing runs over the course of more than an hour despite MSF pleas to Afghan, US and Nato officials to call off the attack.
The remains of a bed frame in a room on eastern wing of the main Outpatient Department building.
As we reported at …

We Are in The Armpit of the Gangrenous Syphilitic Monster

Money changers, Judas, the perversion of lending (sic) and renting (sic) Two of Five

It’s a dangerous sign – the consumer crank sold from birth to grave, tied to the perverted narrations of elites and college grads and these under bites we call the creative class. Californians and Big Apple sucks, and for the majority of the tools of lobotomizing and propaganda coming from these distorted humans on Broadway, in Hollywood, in those fake academic circles, the movies and fluff and sickness of this mob crack orgy, well, here we are, sold a bill of goods called weekend leisure and fractured thinking. These film schools and directors from the upper class of nepotism incorporated, …

What Tumeremo Massacre?

If the Boliviarian government has its way, one of the largest massacres of Venezuelan civilians in recent history will soon be swept under the rug, along with all the other disasters of the country. Indeed, the impending electrical blackout of the country—the shutting down of the Guri Dam’s hydroelectric system which provides some 60% of the nation’s energy is just days away—is only matched by the news blackout of the country’s catastrophic problems. Journalists and other media workers on March 30, 2016 protested all over Venezuela against censorship and the closing of independent daily newspapers. They point out …

Intifada for Dummies

Why a Popular Uprising Is Yet to Take Off

Whether history moves in a straight or cyclical line, it matters little. The uncontested fact is that it is in constant motion. Thus, the current situation in Palestine is particularly frustrating to a generation that has grown up after the Oslo Peace Accord because they have been brought up within a strange historical phenomenon: where the earth below their feet keeps shrinking and when time stands still.

The nature of the current uprising in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is a testament to that claim. Previous uprisings were massive in their mobilization, clear in their message and decisive in their …

Remembering the Irish Easter Uprising of 1916 against the British Empire?

The Art of Obfuscation

It has been one hundred years since the heroic Easter uprising of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) and the ICA (Irish Citizen Army) against the might of the British Empire in 1916. The planning of the 2016 commemoration was thrust into the hands of the conservative Fine Gael/Labour government who would have been at least a bit uneasy about the potential for increasing the political support base for the more politically radical Sinn Féin. However, the problem of artistic representation of the events was at least partially resolved by the well-worn techniques used by successive conservative Irish …

Canada: Why aren’t Conditions of Life for First Peoples a National Emergency?

May of 2012, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter, visited his first NATO country, Canada. He found Canada’s poor generally deprived of adequate nutrition (“People are simply too poor to eat decently”). He found the Aboriginal peoples at risk.

In October, 2013, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous rights, James Anaya, visited Canada and found Canada’s Aboriginal peoples “in crisis.” 20% lived in unfit housing. There was an alarming suicide rate. There were high rates of violence against women. And high rates of incarceration. Discriminatory funding disparities. Lack of adequate funding. …

The Problems with the Karadžić Verdict

The uneven distribution of justice is the bane of any system that purports to be fair. The problems are made even more problematic when it comes to the issue of war crimes trials conducted by international tribunals.

Last Thursday, Radovan Karadžić, the Bosnian Serb leader of Republika Srpska during the Yugoslavian Civil Wars of the early 1990s, was convicted on all but one of 11 charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison. These comprised two counts of genocide; five counts of crimes against humanity, and four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war.

What impressed the Chamber was …

Standing in the Bread Line at The American Dream Circus

More than two millennium ago, back when The Roman Empire ruled a hefty portion of the world, one of its citizen poets coined the phrase “panem et circenses”, or “bread and circuses”.  What Juvenal was referring to was the manner in which the local yokels were distracted and controlled by those in power.  It was simple.  Just make sure the poor bastards had three square meals daily, coupled with a dazzling array of entertainment.  By that point in history, it had already been proven time and again that the average human cares about nothing more than having a full tummy, a few thrills, and an occasional good laugh.  Feed ’em, entertain ’em, …

“Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite”: Abandoned for Forced Asylum

Calais – This month, French authorities (supported and funded by the UK government to the current balance of £62 million) have been demolishing the ‘Jungle,’ a toxic wasteland on the edge of Calais. Formerly a landfill site, 4 km² it is now populated by approximately 5,000 refugees who have been pushed there over the past year. A remarkable community of 15 nationalities adhering to various faiths comprises the Jungle. Residents have formed a network of shops and restaurants which, along with hamams and barber shops contribute to a micro-economy within the encampment.  Community infrastructure now includes schools, mosques, churches and …

Voter Suppression in Maricopa County

If you don’t already know what’s going on in Arizona, and in Maricopa County in particular, you’re bound to hear more about the voter suppression that took place last week, on March 22, during the state’s presidential primaries. The local papers promptly reported that the county provided just one polling place per every 21,000 voters. Indeed, we suffered greatly in Maricopa due to the decrease in polling sites—down from 200 in 2012, to only 60 sites last week. Passing a downtown polling place, I spotted a line that seemed at least 100 people long. They wrapped the corner well after …

Real America, an Endangering and Endangered Ruination

A Ruination

Real America is not the window dressing of a nation posed by her government or by the corporate dominated mass media. Behind that pose is an endangering and endangered “ruination.”

If you follow unbiased accounts of current events and conditions, you know I am not exaggerating. For decades I have been keeping tabs on Real America’s conditions and her actions at home and away and they are appalling. To summarize them I compiled and reported elsewhere a list of what I call “sadtistics.” They amount …

Iraq Invasion: Anniversary of The Biggest Terrorist Attack in Modern History?

Since terrorism’s tragedy is again in the news, it is timely to revisit perhaps one of the biggest acts of terrorism in modern history — the illegal invasion and destruction, ongoing, of Iraq.

March 20th marked the thirteenth anniversary of an action resulting in the equivalent of a Paris, Brussels, London July 7th, 2005, often multiple times daily in Iraq ever since. As for  September 11th, 2001, there has frequently been that death toll and heartbreak every several weeks, also ongoing.

America and Britain have arguably engaged in and generated the legacy of one of the longest recorded attacks of terrorism since …