Edward Van Halen (EVH) was my favorite guitarist of all-time. As a disciple of what is now called “classic rock,” it’s disconcerting for me to be living through this current time period when the guitar is not a major factor in popular music. After all, I can still play note-for-note air guitar to all of EVH’s solos. The following collection[Read More…]
Reminder: The U.S. military that fought against fascist white supremacy (“Antifa,” if you will) during the Second World War was segregated. *** Army Chief of Staff General George S. Marshall bellowed during the “good” war: “Quit catering to the negroes’ desire for a proportionate share of combat units. Put them where they will best serve the war effort.” This usually meant[Read More…]
What if I were to tell you about a virtually ignored state of emergency, a lethal pandemic of which the exact numbers will never be fully known? I’m pretty sure you’d have a few guesses as to what I mean… but I’m also pretty sure those guesses would be inaccurate. *** There are some very predictable reactions whenever a person of color is[Read More…]
“I could not count the times during the average day when something would come up that I needed to tell him. This impulse did not end with his death. What ended was the possibility of response.” (Joan Didion) From their initial pairing in 1927, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made up one of the 20th century’s most beloved comedy duos. Upon[Read More…]
“At my lowest points, the unsettling realization came to me that given the ferocity and rapidity of change with this virus, a further plunge could mean that I might not survive. Indeed, I felt so close to total suffocation that there seemed little room for further decline. I was determined to fight my way through this, but at the same[Read More…]
![By DonkeyHotey (Stormy Daniels - Caricature) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Stormy-photo1-200x150.jpg "The public perception of Stormy Daniels, “porn stars” and “hookers.” 12")
“The reasons a woman only has to make one porn film to be a ‘porn star’ are similar to the reasons a man has only to sign on the dotted government line to be a ‘war hero’. The ‘war hero’ and ‘porn star’ are calculated lies told by exploiters to keep expendable flesh walking through their doors.” (Samantha Berg) I’ve[Read More…]
For my entire adult life, I’ve tried to help homeless people. For years, I wrote for Street News — a once-popular advocacy newspaper mostly produced and sold by homeless people in New York City. I’ve spoken at rallies in support of homeless people from coast to coast. Mostly, I never left my house without a pocket full of change to give out[Read More…]
Here’s how “awareness” works in 2017: Something happens. We post about. Until something else happens. We revel in the likes, shares, or comments. Or we wallow in self-doubt about the lack of likes, shares, or comments. Meanwhile, “stuff” keeps happening. For example: The rich get richer. The eco-system moves one hour closer to complete collapse. Patriarchy and white supremacy grow[Read More…]
By the time Manuel Noriega died on May 29, 2017, the “ousted dictator” or “Panamanian strongman” had long since taken up residency in the proverbial dustbin of history. He hadn’t been useful or “trending” for decades and was thus relegated to virtual invisibility. Even those who vaguely remembered him may have already presumed him dead — a pre-Internet relic without a[Read More…]
I hadn’t seen J. in more than a week and that was concerning. It always worries me when one of my “regulars” vanishes. Often, this situation has resulted in me eventually encountering them and getting updates about illnesses, hospital visits, and/or surgeries. Whenyour mission is offering food, clothes, supplies, and more to New York City’s homeless women, you quickly learn[Read More…]
On May 28, 2016, a gorilla named Harambe was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo. A small child had fallen into the primate’s enclosure and… well, you know the rest. “As I watched the sort of public outrage and mourning rarely afforded murdered women, it was the final straw,” explains Dawn Wilcox, a registered nurse for 22 years. Wilcox is no “expert,”[Read More…]
Not too long ago, while leaving the gym, I overheard a conversation about the best female tennis players of all-time. As I walked home, I pondered my own list and came up with five women with whom we’re on a first name basis: Serena, Steffi, Martina, Chrissie, and Venus. When considering who might be next, I suddenly remembered Monica Seles.[Read More…]
![By Charles Steinhacker [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/pornography-200x150.jpg "The Dworkin-MacKinnon Anti-Pornography Civil Rights Ordinance 23")
The Dworkin-MacKinnon Ordinance — originally written in 1983 by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon — was an amendment to a civil rights law. It stands as a mostly ignored template for creating law-based change within the system. Rather than taking the traditional “obscenity” angle, the Dworkin-MacKinnon Ordinance proposed that: Pornography is a violation of women’s civil rights Woman harmed by[Read More…]
I. I recognized a familiar sound I’d just finished working with a personal training client near Central Park before hopping on a downtown R train. Over my shoulder was a canvas bag holding five “FOR packs.” Each of these packs contained food and supplies for homeless women on the streets of Manhattan. FOR is the moniker I bestowed upon this[Read More…]
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” – Stephen Jay Gould Re-read that Gould quote. Read it aloud, in fact. Breaking news: It’s not a level playing field. More accurate analogy: An enormous jigsaw puzzle with[Read More…]
“It seemed that there was a need for a book that laid out the problem of patriarchy in plain language.” (Robert Jensen) While we’ve never met in person, Robert Jensen and I have known each other (in that internet kind of way) for decades. We have friends in common, often wrote on similar topics for the same websites, and even[Read More…]
![By Willy Stöwer, died on 31st May 1931 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Titanic-200x150.jpg "3 Ways To Recognize An Emergency In 2017 29")
Let’s say you were strolling down the street when you spied a small child who had drifted away from his family. As motor vehicles streamed by at illegal speeds, the lad was getting perilously close to the curb. What would you do? Conjure up a potentially viral tweet Fastidiously apply for a permit to stage a rescue Become the change[Read More…]
I’ve spent more time in gyms than I can even begin to calculate. I can now recognize how this choice instilled in me a skewed and unhealthy body perception and heavily reinforced my masculine conditioning. However, there were also powerful positive life lessons to be learned within those mirrored walls. Here are a few: Lesson #1: Let the results (or[Read More…]
A woman I know (white, middle-aged, let’s call her D) recently told me about a Muslim family that lives on her block in Queens, New York. One of the family’s daughters (about 11 years old) has recently begun wearing a hijab so I sent D a link about the rapid rise in post-election hate crimes. The next time D saw[Read More…]
As you all know, I tried the “activism” thing. I really tried. But now, I’m ready to focus my energies on two things desperately needed in the Trump Era: cultivating serious resistance and providing support for the most vulnerable. I also want to do something specifically for the largest oppressed group on earth: females. With those last two goals in[Read More…]
My first book was an alternative history of World War II called Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of the “Good War.” The jam-packed release party took place in July 2000 at the old Brecht Forum. I gave a kick-ass (if I say so myself) one-hour presentation — without notes. Afterwards, during the Q&A, I was asked what I would’ve[Read More…]
Recently, I was tagged on Facebook to participate in something called the “80s Music Challenge.” I excitedly agreed but such social media shenanigans did not come without an ugly lesson. You see, when I contemplated which songs to post, I encountered many that contained horribly insensitive and misogynistic lyrics — by performers like Public Enemy, Van Halen, Beastie Boys, Ice[Read More…]
I wasn’t supposed to be born. After my mother gave birth to my sister, the doctors told her she’d never have another child. They couldn’t say exactly why (she was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis) but they were pretty damn certain… in that unique way doctors tend to be pretty damn certain. Wisely, my mother ignored such white coat condescension and[Read More…]
So, I recently told you all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s positive assessment of Mussolini and how FDR was the architect of U.S. prison camps. There’s much more but even with such stellar authoritarian credentials, there’s also strong evidence that home-grown fascists may have openly explored the option of anti-FDR coup in 1934. That year, the DuPonts and the Morgans tried[Read More…]
Preface: This is not an article. This is a desperate plea to evolve. During the many, many talks and lectures I gave between 2008 and 2013, I’d often provide a healthy (read: jolting) dose of reality (read: gloom and doom) that would typically bring the proceedings to a palpable pause. That would be my cue to ask: So, who’s ready[Read More…]
Over the years, I’ve written a fair amount of autobiographical pieces but it’s only recently that I’ve begun to re-explore some of these episodes from a more critical, radical perspective. With that in mind, to follow is yet another revised memoir-of-sorts. Even though I grew up in a “tough” neighborhood and trained myself in hand-to-hand combat, I’ve never been eager[Read More…]
When news of Elie Wiesel’s death broke on July 2, the predictable paeans and plaudits flowed. President Barack Obama, for example, called his fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner “the conscience of the world.” As for me, I instead reflected back to July 4, 2004, when Parade Magazine to hired Wiesel to pen a little something for Independence (sic) Day[Read More…]
Forget GDP growth, it’s sustainable wellbeing we need to aim for 
Supremes Declare War on Wetlands 
Kings Coronation, Victory Day Parade and Perverse Values 
A critical approach to the exploration of Identity & Violence: An attempt by the young researchers of EDRU 
Delay in Census enumeration, unreliable death registration and fake Aadhaar cards adversely impact integrity of elections, leads to misuse of public funds 
Special Significance of the Next Decade in Human History, and a Campaign Linked to This 
Prophets of Doom: Kissinger and the ‘Intellectual’ Decline of the West 
“Free Trade” as Revealed in the China-United States Paradigm 
Memorialize USA Lies About Each Mistaken Undeclared War Americans Remembered Today Gave Their Lives 
Tipu Sultan: Fallacies and Facts around the Historical Figure in India 
The intertwined history of caste and census in India 
A Tale of Two Indias 
Dismantle the structures of sexual violence, NOT the protesters’ tent! 
CDRO condemns the manhandling of the protesting wrestlers 
From Deathly Silence to Violence: The journey of Wrestlers struggling for Justice 
Workers Protests break out in China 
Now I Am Ravana’s Head 
Noam Chomsky on Why This Is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History 
HAK Birthdays: Henry Kissinger Turns 100 
Brotherhood and Friendship in a time of War- Reflections on The Mercenary, by Jeffrey E. Stern 
Weaknesses of the National Security Strategy 2022 – Part 8: The NSS falsely claims that Russia and Putin have malicious goals and spurn negotiation 
What role did trade unions play in the struggle for independence in Kenya? 
The plight of Meitei Pangals or Manipur Muslims remains unheard 
A Timely Warning on Avoiding the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that Deserves Wide Attention 
Tinsel Gods 
Kirti Kisan Union conducts massive rally in Moga on issue of Canal Water 
The Importance of Convenient Payment Options in Enhancing Travel Experiences 
Book Review – A Reader on Financial Inclusion 
Nuclear Turns Fashionable 
Taiwan’s Quest to Upgrade Its Battle Readiness Continues to Evolve 
Trade Unions in Kenya and Britain in a Changing World 
Why Phalke Award Has Eluded Classic Hindi Cinema Heroines 
Modi in Australia: Down Under Bliss for Hindutva 
Both Blocs Behind Iron Curtain? 
Demand for scrapping of iron fortified rice distribution in India’s public food schemes intensifies 
Government destroying public spaces rather than protecting them 
Dalit agricultural labour organisations stage protests in Punjab 
The Influence of Higher Wages and Better Job Opportunities on Migration from Small Towns to Big Cities or Other Regions New Parliament building- Appearance Vs Substance 
International body slams Media Repression in Kashmir During G-20 Event 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
