Latest articles
by Edward Curtin / November 23rd, 2023
What is the truth, and where did it go?
Ask Oswald and Ruby, they oughta know
“Shut your mouth,” said the wise old owl
Business is business, and it’s a murder most foul
Don’t worry, Mr. President
Help’s on the way
Your brothers are coming, there’ll be hell to pay
Brothers? What brothers? What’s this about hell?
Tell them, “We’re waiting, keep coming”
We’ll get them as well
— Bob Dylan, Murder Most Foul
*****
Why President Kennedy was publicly murdered by the CIA sixty years ago has never been more important. …
by Binoy Kampmark / November 23rd, 2023
It resembles a chronology of desperation, shifting narratives, and schoolboy howlers. From the outset, the mass lethality of Israeli strikes against Gaza and the collective punishment of its populace needed some justification, however tenuous. If it could be shown, convincingly, that Hamas and its allies had militarised such civilian infrastructure as hospitals, they would become fair game for vengeful air strikes and military assault. Thus, could Israel’s soldiers demonstrate, not merely the animal savagery of Hamas, one indifferent to humanity and suffering, but the virtue of Israel’s own military objectives. The forces of pallid light would again prevail against swarthy …
Voluntary and involuntary psychic insulation
by T.P. Wilkinson / November 23rd, 2023
At least as one response to the perceived failures of the French Revolution, some of what became the Romantic movements in the 19th century turned away from social interaction, especially collective activity, and toward individual isolation. Such a reaction was not peculiar to this period. In fact, withdrawal from social contact was an established niche strategy throughout Latin Christendom. There were two broad views in the Church as to how sin was to be encountered. One was collective labour. The other was solitary penitence.
Solitude for the Romantic movements emerged as a …
by Ralph Nader / November 23rd, 2023
“It should never have happened,” an elderly Holocaust survivor of a Nazi death camp told the New York Times. He was referring to the colossal failure on October 7, of Israel’s touted high-tech military and intelligence operations that opened the door to Hamas’ attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians. In many parliamentary countries, the government ministers who are responsible for this kind of failure would have immediately been forced to resign. Not so with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ministers.
Instead, Netanyahu’s coalition of extremists, who know that the Israeli people are enraged about their government’s failure to defend the border, has unleashed a …
by Allen Forrest / November 23rd, 2023
by Kathy Kelly / November 23rd, 2023
Negev Nuclear Research Center photographed by a U.S.
reconnaissance satellite in 1968 Declassified Public Domain
It’s one thing to burrow beneath the ground, digging to construct a tunnel for refuge, a passage of goods, or to store weapons during a time of war. It’s quite another to use one hand, as a small child, to try and dig your way out of the rubble that has collapsed upon you.
Professor Mustafa Abu Sway, a professor based in Jerusalem, spoke sadly of the reality in Gaza where, he said, “one child …
by Binoy Kampmark / November 22nd, 2023
The fossil fuel lobby has had a busy year on the eco-camouflage front. Earlier this year, interest started to rumble and rage against the stranding of humpback whales on the east coast of the United States. Suddenly, opponents of wind turbine technology – and renewable technology more broadly – had identified an invaluable, if tenuous nexus: a link between whale mortality and offshore wind farms.
One true enthusiast for the proposition proved to be Donald Trump. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina in September, for example, the Republican presidential contender suggested that these “windmills” were driving whales “crazy”, inflicting …
by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin / November 22nd, 2023
Woman hugging tree video
*****
Painting by Sliman Mansour
I hugged the olive tree. It was precious to me, so I hugged it. I felt like I was hugging my child. I’d raised the tree like my child. They attacked around 500 trees filled with olives. Each tree could have filled two sacks of olives. They destroyed my olive tree, but I grew them back. I tended them and they came back even better than before. Settlers will never be able to take …
by Paul Tritschler / November 22nd, 2023
Reflections on the psychological, moral and political implications of what we eat, and on prospects for non-violent social change.
Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.
— Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste, Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme, (Penguin Books, 1994): p.13.
Getting back into fasting after a break is difficult. In the past, I would fast for two days in every week, but occasionally challenged myself to extend that by a day or two, maybe three, until one day — evidently one day too many — I collapsed like a device unplugged and cracked my head on the sink …
by Allen Forrest / November 22nd, 2023
by Roger Stoll / November 22nd, 2023
The holocaust now visited on Palestine by US-Israel is unique in many ways. Rates of killing and maiming exceed those of previous Israeli assaults on Gaza, the perpetrators announce their genocidal intent with unusual frankness, and Western media and official apologists are especially shameless.
But in a world under centuries of West European domination, this particular intentional genocide/mass-death event ought to seem familiar. These mass killings have always been necessary for the global system to function, providing land for settlement, cultivation and resource extraction, labor for hyper-exploitation, and geopolitical power.
In the “long 16th century” (~1450 to ~1650) the capitalist world system …
Will Joe Manchin become the next U.S. president?
by Dan Lieberman / November 22nd, 2023
The divisive America of today longs for the time when the country united in one mission and selected a leader it could trust to accomplish the mission. The year is 1940 and the New York Times estimates that incumbent president, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. (FDR), a non-declared and drafted candidate for the Democratic Party (D) nomination, will have 691.5 delegates before the convention, well ahead of his two rivals, Vice-President John Garner’s 69.5 delegates and Postmaster General James Farley’s 38.5.delegates. At the convention, FDR wins the nomination on the first ballot by near acclamation.
Before the Republican (GOP) convention, …
by Sayed Hasan / November 22nd, 2023
Since he was elected Hezbollah Secretary General in 1992, following Israel’s assassination of his predecessor and mentor Sayed Abbas Mousawi, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah has achieved a very special status in the history of Arab & Muslim leaders. As Norman Finkelstein put it, “Nasrallah is the only political leader in the world from whom you learn in the speeches. He is a teacher. He is among the shrewdest and most serious political observers in the world today. Israeli leaders carefully scrutinize Nasrallah’s every word.” And denouncing the relentless censorship suffered by my translation …
by Darrell Jackson / November 22nd, 2023
I am a Black man in prison, and I want to talk about trauma. I want us all to be able to talk about trauma.
I’m here because when I was a teenager and young man, I made many bad life choices involving drugs and violence. Living with the consequences of my actions is not always easy, but I keep moving forward toward redemption. As I have struggled to understand those choices, I also have realized I must go further back in my life, long before I committed a crime, if I want to heal myself.
When I was a child, I …
by Ted Glick / November 21st, 2023
Standing on a corner,
alone,
in the early morning
half-dark, half-light,
You, waiting for
the commuter bus
to take you to
the Big Apple,
Me, on one of my
3/4 times a week
long distance bike rides,
approaching you,
30-20-10 feet away,
And our eyes meet,
followed a second or two later
by a smile,
an involuntary acknowledgement,
you to me
and vice-versa,
that though we
don’t know each other
and may never see
each other again,
Today, this morning,
for literally one second,
we felt the warmth,
the quiet joy,
the reassurance
of human connection.
I wrote this poem in 2016. I was reminded of it by something which happened yesterday morning.
I’ve been sick for a week and a half, needing to stay home and concentrate on trying …
Israel is openly carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Yet, just as happened with the first Nakba in 1948, Israel’s lies and deceptions dominate the West’s media and political narrative
by Jonathan Cook / November 21st, 2023
History is repeating itself – and every politician and establishment journalist is pretending they cannot see what is staring them in the face. There is a collective and wilful refusal to join the dots in Gaza, even when they point in one direction only.
There has been a consistent pattern to Israel’s behaviour since its creation 75 years ago – just as there has been a consistent pattern to the “see no evil, hear no evil” response of western powers.
In 1948, in events the Palestinians call their “Nakba”, or Catastrophe, 80 percent of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their lands …
Freedom’s Greatest Hour of Danger Is Now
by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead / November 21st, 2023
We are approaching critical mass, the point at which all hell breaks loose.
The government is pushing us ever closer to a constitutional crisis.
What makes the outlook so much bleaker is the utter ignorance of the American people—and those who represent them—about their freedoms, history, and how the government is supposed to operate.
As Morris Berman points out in his book Dark Ages America, “70 percent of American adults cannot name their senators or congressmen; more than half don’t know the actual number of senators, and nearly a quarter cannot name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment. Sixty-three percent …
by Allen Forrest / November 21st, 2023
Belief is a choice that is antithetical to critical thinking.
News on China No. 172
by Dongsheng News / November 21st, 2023
by E.R. Bills / November 20th, 2023
His June 18, 1996 obituary in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is short and succinct:
Lawrence M. Peters, 78, a retired Allied Mills employee, was found dead Friday [June 13] in Teague. Funeral: 11 a.m. today at Avant A.M.E. Church in Teague. Burial: Fairfield. Mr. Peters retired in 1982.
It’s not much of a lede, but it’s where we should start.
Lawrence M. Peters died on June 13, 1996, and his obit ran on June 18. No picture. No next of kin listed. No mention of his loved ones.
Most of the obits around it have pictures of the deceased, several lines about the lives …
by Bruce Lerro / November 20th, 2023
Summary of Part I
In Part I of my article, we began by distinguishing the social self from two forms of identity that are often confused with it: temperament and personality. The focus of part one is to show how very social (or even socialist) was the work of social psychologist George Herbert Mead. We discussed in detail the thirteen building blocks necessary for creating the social self. This self must construct both an objective and subjective identity. From here even by the age of eight the child must learn to navigate routine, …
by Allen Forrest / November 20th, 2023
by Yves Engler / November 20th, 2023
“Justin Trudeau is and always has been an antisemite”, according to Canada’s former ambassador to Israel. While Vivian Bercovici has staked out an extreme position, other commentators have expressed some variation of this perspective since the PM expressed opposition to killing of babies.
In a statement in which he repeatedly condemned Hamas and failed to explicitly call for a ceasefire, Trudeau told the press “we’re hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who’ve lost their parents. The world is witnessing this — the killing of women and children, of babies. …
by Visualizing Palestine / November 20th, 2023
A glimpse into apartheid.
by Binoy Kampmark / November 19th, 2023
They can be a serious lot in New Zealand. They got upset at – forgive this author such reference – the use of a rule in cricket back in February 1981 which led to expressions of misty anger from the Prime Minister of the day, Robert Muldoon. While permissible within the laws of cricket, sides are generally not meant to bowl underarm. This, Greg Chappell’s Australians did. “I thought it most appropriate that the Australian team was dressed in yellow,” Muldoon fumed.
Recently, mild tempers were stirred by what could be regarded as a form of ballot interference, this time …
by Robert Hunziker / November 18th, 2023
$200 trillion is needed to stop global warming.
— Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Buckle up, fireworks will be going off in a couple weeks in the pristine complex known as Dubai. World leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, and fossil fuel producers will clash over the outlook for climate change and the impact of global warming, or should it be called global heating? Already, there are signs of tension, as explained in a recent BBC News headline: “Deep Divisions Ahead of Crucial UN Climate Talks” d/d October 31, 2023.
The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more …
by Binoy Kampmark / November 18th, 2023
The unpardonable, outrageous trial of Australian whistleblower David McBride was a brief affair. On November 13, it did not take long for the brutal power of the Commonwealth to become evident. McBride, having disclosed material that formed the Australian public about alleged war crimes by special forces in Afghanistan, was going to be made an example of.
McBride served as a major in the British army before becoming a lawyer for the Australian Defence Force, serving two tours in Afghanistan over 2011 and 2013. During that time, he gathered material about the culture and operations of Australia’s special forces that would …
by Lorraine Caputo / November 18th, 2023
The rain has been almost constant these early months of 1996. Great storms from the US have arrived even to here, the Caribbean coast of Honduras, thousands of kilometers to the south. At times in Tela, the run-off courses thigh-deep.
And every day, it seems, some piece of news about those Northern-owned Fruit Companies has flooded the papers. A banana war has begun between them and the European Community. Accusations and denials gust through the pages of El Tiempo and La Prensa.
In February, I read in La Prensa of some campesinos who have taken over lands of the Tela RR Co. …
by Visualizing Palestine / November 18th, 2023
The ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza has been described as the deadliest period for journalists. 53% of all journalists killed by Israel between 2000-2023 were killed during Israel’s current assault on Gaza. Journalists in Gaza are finding it more difficult to report Israeli atrocities due to prolonged periods of communication blackouts. With 48 media facilities in Gaza hit or destroyed, Israel is committing a genocide under a complete media blackout.
by Visualizing Palestine / November 17th, 2023
Before the genocide, Palestinians in Gaza struggled to access clean water, with 97% of Gaza’s freshwater resources contaminated due to the Israeli blockade and repeated bombardments. Many families in poverty were forced to spend a third or more of their income to purchase water from unregulated sources, with the hopes that it is safe. Now, this already dire situation is exponentially worse.
