Riyadh-based Yemen government in exile Thursday pulled out of the peace talks underway in Kuwait after Houthi militants and their allies formed a 10-member “supreme council” to run the war-torn nation. “The negotiations have completely ended,” said Abdallah al-Olaimi, a member of the exile government team to the talks. UN special envoy Ismail Ahmad Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who has been[Read More…]
“He [Bill Clinton] wanted people to know the real Hillary.” John Podesta, Jul 28, 2016 Moving beyond idea, beyond type, beyond cardboard cuts, was always going to be a central feature of the Democratic National Convention in 2016. With a US presidential election set to run between two largely unpopular characters, Hillary Clinton needed to show that she was a[Read More…]
The DNC emails released by WikiLeaks showed that the Democratic National Committee has been implementing a coordinated force to undermine Bernie Sanders’ campaign and also the media’s collusion with the DNC. It is now clear that the democratic presidential primary was rigged from the start. Just before the Democratic National convention kicked off, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced[Read More…]
Possibly I have spent too many years ‘abroad’, outside of North America and Europe. Perhaps I don’t feel ‘white’, or ‘Western’ anymore. Or who knows, maybe I never really felt too ‘Western’ anyway, thanks to my Russian and Chinese blood. That could help to explain why, when I listened to the acceptance speech delivered by Donald Trump at the Republican[Read More…]
Jablah, North Syria: “Don’t cry for us Syria” has recently become a motto/logo of sorts for many physically and psychologically brutalized youth around this ancient land. They are the youngsters who represent a new generation of Syrians, many of whom were born in this century. It is into their patriotic hands that the Syria’s Torch has been passed. Amid all[Read More…]
Here is a brief update on the activities of the US Peace Council delegation in Syria. I could spend many words and hours debunking every lie you have been told about Syria and Syrians in the last 5 years, a Sisyphean task in today’s environment. Instead I will share some of my perceptions of recent events based on my experiences[Read More…]
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, in August 2011, to April 2013, Islamic State and al-Nusra Front were a single organization that chose the banner of “Jabhat al Nusra.” Although, the current al-Nusra Front is led by Abu Mohammad al Jolani but he was appointed as the Emir of al-Nusra Front by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader[Read More…]
I was on the Floor of the Chicago Amphitheater for all 4 nights of the DNC Convention in 1968. Most of us were against the Vietnam War. In any event, the DNC did not subject us to the Massive Display of Militarism, Bloodshed, Violence and Warfare that we just saw. How low the Dems have sunk into the pit of[Read More…]
In March 2011, the Syrian ‘uprising’ against President Bashar Al-Assad gradually progressed into a full-scale rebellion. By July of the following year – Syria was officially considered in the throes of civil war. July, 2016 – Syria has been in a state of civil war since the last five years. Five long, bloody and barbaric years that altered the course[Read More…]
Few sights are sadder in international diplomacy than seeing an aging figure desperate for honours. In a desperate effort to net them, he scurries around, cultivating, prodding, wishing to be noted. Finally, such an honour is netted, in all likelihood just to shut that overly keen individual up. Such a figure is former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has[Read More…]
Erdoganism is a new terminology introduced by the opinion writers against President Tayyib Erdogan who has launched a cleansing operation in the civil and military bureaucracy in the aftermath of July 15 abortive coup blamed on the US-based pro-Israel cleric, Fatehullah Gulen who is described by Pape Escobar as a CIA asset. Tufail Ahmed, Director, of the Washington-based South Asia[Read More…]
I read a column recently, and it was imbued with hopeful thinking about America’s political establishment dealing with its constituents concerning the now increasing threat of nuclear catastrophe. The author said the piece was intended as “Drano” to clear the political pipes, but I am afraid that much as I sometimes enjoy the same author’s pieces, this one for me[Read More…]
What Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson have in common is they have failed to respond to this Media Inquiry emailed to their individual Press Offices on July 24, 26 and 27
Despite all of the serious flaws demonstrated by successive United States governments that this author has amply documented elsewhere during the past quarter century as a Professor of Law, the truth of the matter is that America is still the oldest Republic in the world today. “We the People of the United States” must fight to keep it that way! Podesta and the DNC did not!
America’s press cover the Trump campaign with barely concealed hostility toward it, and with an obsessive emphasis upon the candidate’s positions regarding Russia; they’re attacking Trump as being (wittingly or unwittingly) an agent of Russia — and portraying Russia as being America’s enemy. It’s not only Republican newsmedia that are apparently agreeing with the Republican Mitt Romney’s famous statement made[Read More…]
It is an indisputable fact that morale and ideology plays an important role in the battle; moreover, we also know that the Takfiri brand of most jihadists, these days, has directly been inspired by the puritanical Wahhabi-Salafi ideology of Saudi Arabia, but ideology alone is not sufficient to succeed in the battle. Looking at Islamic State’s spectacular gains in Syria[Read More…]
The Olympics remains a black hole of needless expenditure, sucking services into it with impending and merciless doom. Unused stadia, tracks left to moulder, services supposedly linked to urban renewal turned into dilapidated wonders. That is the Olympic legacy in its lingering aftermath. Another feature of the Olympics is the tendency to turn a city into a super security haven,[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…]
The signs are now clear and unmistakable: On July 25th, CNN headlined “Mike Pence to skip Koch brothers event” and reported that, “GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence will not attend the summer donor summit organized by Charles and David Koch, now unable to commit to an event after he was added to the ticket with Donald Trump. Pence, a Koch favorite, had originally[Read More…]
Inspired by the Hollywood thriller movie plot ‘The Rock’ the intelligence agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom fabricated evidence leading to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 which resulted in the sufferings of millions of people in the Middle East and deaths of many hundred soldiers of the United States, the United kingdom and of several other[Read More…]
On the first day of the Republican National Convention, while Republican delegates were arguing about voting rules, and the anti-Trump delegates were being put in their place, I was touring the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the California desert. An historic marker at the entrance to Manzanar reads, “May the injustices and humiliation suffered here as a result of hysteria,[Read More…]
For USA the major foreign policy challenge after the problem of terrorism is South China Sea where China has become quite assertive with open show of the intimidation to the neighbourng states and the world community at large particularly after The Hague Tribunal decision. USA has been placed in a very precarious and diplomatically sensitive position if it confronts the[Read More…]
Two aspects of Hillary Clinton’s response to the Bernie Sanders campaign have been notable in 2016. One has involved her attempts to “adjust” to his views to make tactical gains. (Mixed mutterings of scepticism, for instance, about the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership.) Of more interest is the undermining effort made by the Clinton camp, which has certainly veered well beyond Queensberry[Read More…]
Co-Written by Mateo Pimentel and Edward Martin “Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men?” – Shakespeare, The Life and Death of Julius Caesar “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” – Luke 23:31 The folks supporting[Read More…]
Cryptography can become our non-violent democratic weapon. It can be used as a shield for our collective dissent against institutional hierarchies. Elections have become a distraction to pull the wool over our eyes. Now networks of ordinary people, empowered by a deep obligation to one another, can fight against this two-horned beast that would have us all descend into a dystopia. Only a democracy freely claimed by all people can defeat the rise of demagoguery.
China is fuming. It hasobviously had enough, it is reaching the limit. For decades it tried to appease the West, to play by international laws, to be a good and responsible member of the international community. And for decades it never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, it sponsored no coups and attacked no foreign lands. Even its[Read More…]
The response of Malaysian government authorities to the civil suits filed by the US Department of Justice to seize more than US$ 1 billion (RM 4.02 billion) in assets allegedly linked to 1MDB has been a huge disappointment. Faced with suits that allege massive embezzlement of funds and one of the worst money laundering scams in history, Cabinet Ministers and[Read More…]
The idea of excluding a country wholesale brings with it dangers that decision makers may well not see. It eliminates specific, untainted talents who also deserve to be protected in international sport. It also violates that great presumption of innocence by pre-emptively judging the conduct of all athletes.
The Sharif rejected British imperialism’s bribes, threats and its colonial Zionist project in Palestine. By the mid-1920s Ibn Saud and the Wahhabis had invaded and occupied Hijaz. The Sharif of Mecca was deposed, exiled and thereafter the British and Saudis have been living happily ever after in war, occupation and venality.
“Some fell to the ground and their stomachs already expanded full, burst and organs fell out. Others had skin falling off them and others still were carrying limbs. And one in particular was carrying their eyeballs in their hand.” The above is an account by a Hiroshima survivor talking about the fate of her schoolmates. It was recently read out in[Read More…]
Often, the best works about public affairs don’t even get published at all — and the few that do get published, get iced by the ‘news’ media (regardless of their quality), and thus flop. And that’s the reality. In a dictatorship. Getting to the truth, and getting it published, can be dangerous to one’s career, if one’s country is a dictatorship, such as in the U.S.
Airstrikes by the American-led war coalition killed as many as 212 civilians in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday, according to estimates published Thursday by Al Jazeera. The original civilian death toll produced by the strikes was reported to be 56. The strikes, which were allegedly carried out with significant support from the French military, “pulverized entire families, including[Read More…]
Donald Trump formally accepted the nomination as the Republican Party candidate in the 2016 presidential elections Thursday night with a fascistic rant delivered before cheering delegates at the convention hall in Cleveland, Ohio. In contrast to most of his speeches, Trump’s remarks on Thursday closely followed a prepared script, eschewing his characteristic stream-of-consciousness rambling. However, this change in form did[Read More…]
What can decent people do? Decent people must (a) inform everyone they can, (b) urge and apply zero tolerance for racism and lying, and (c) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, politicians, parties, companies and corporations that are actively or passively complicit in racism and lying. Decent, anti-racist Australians will vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last.
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…]
Never doubt the ballistic factor of Laura Ingraham. Ingraham is never into facts, which tend to be the unwanted gate crashers of her party. What matters in that particular world view is sentiment, often tinged by viciousness. In so far as it matters, she is the great weapon that someone like Trump needs: intangible, but feeling; vicious but at heart[Read More…]
On July 20th, a Republican U.S. Senator lost his main financial backers for having urged Republicans to vote for Donald Trump instead of for Hillary Clinton. The Koch brothers speak with their words, which can’t be trusted, but they also speak with their money, their investments, which are always honest expressions of their actual beliefs and desires. This time, the Kochs spoke[Read More…]
Events in Turkey just become stranger with each passing day. We now have Middle Eastern and Persian sources, cited by Russian and German papers, that Russia’s security agencies overheard helicopter radio transmissions by the coup participants, and President Putin warned Erdogan about what was happening, likely saving his skin. If true, this would help explain the apparent ineptness of the[Read More…]
“There is a rich thesaurus of things I have said that have, one way or the other, I don’t know, that has been misconstrued.” Boris Johnson, Jul 19, 2016 It might have been seen as a form of expressive penal servitude. The UK Foreign Secretary’s position is usually one of the more prestigious ones. Even with Britain being a faded power,[Read More…]
On Wednesday, July 20, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey in order to hunt down all those deemed to be behind an attempted coup. The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organization involved in the coup attempt,” he told a press conference. Turkey has[Read More…]
I visited Iraq in 1999. At the time, there were no so-called ‘jihadis’ espousing the principles of ‘jihadism’, whatever the interpretation may be. On the outskirts of Baghdad was a military training camp, not for ‘al-Qaeda’, but for ‘Mojahedin-e-Khalq’, an Iranian militant exile group that worked, with foreign funding and arms, to overthrow the Iranian Republic. At the[Read More…]
A few weeks after the dawn of the third anniversary of the Gezi resistance (uprising), the popular non-violence movement spreads countrywide in 2013, and the people of Turkey have had an experience the “military coup”. Hundreds were dead, thousands were arrested and put behind bars. The leaders around the world rushed to condemn those conspirators behind the coup while enhancing[Read More…]
The term “mandate” has been sluicing through the Australian electoral system in its predictable wash-up. In that particular country, it never matters whether one wins by one vote or a hundred thousand: everyone has a “clear mandate” to do what they damn well wish they think they were encouraged to do. It is worth remembering that the Australian prime minister,[Read More…]
A practical solution for re-invigorating a moribund Democratic Party and renewing faith in a broken political system is to have Hillary Clinton release her delegates and open the convention floor
Clearly it is the easy availability of guns that is the cause of the firearms-related tragedies we have been observing throughout the United States__ the horrific mass murder of a whole cohort of the very young children in Newtown, Connecticut and the recentkilling of Dallas and Baton Rouge police officers while performing their lawful duties, though surpassing all previous tragedies, are only the continuation of the same pattern of violence.
Security states, heavily policed and run by surveillance gurus and juju men of the intelligence community, have more failings than meritorious attributes. If liberty is to succeed, then holes, sometimes gaping, will have to be permitted. Freedoms can be costly. Even any crude assessment of France’s state of emergency since November last year would suggest that such political states are[Read More…]
The unsuccessful coup in Turkey is a matter of great relief to the Turkish people and world at large. The coup has been widely condemned even the HDP party and the government of Iran have condemned the coup attempt. Why did the coup take place? There are domestic and regional factors behind it. President Erdogan in the recent time has[Read More…]
The just-released 28 pages of a 2002 congressional report into Saudi Arabia’s possible ties to the 9/11 hijackers have stirred speculation about the U.S. government’s continued relationship with the Gulf kingdom. Amnesty International criticized the White House’s statement that the pages, hidden from public view for 13 years, have not changed the government’s assessment that “there’s no evidence that the[Read More…]
I’ve been hibernating since I heard the news about the massacre in El Kharadah district in Baghdad. It is the district where my memories from childhood were, the district where I was raised and taught to be a good woman and be good to others. In Al Kharadah I had my first love, it’s there where my heart broke and I cherished[Read More…]
Normally, when the head of the FBI under one President says something like “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”, as the FBI reported regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails, that would be the end of the matter; but Clinton actually still isn’t off the prosecutorial hook of this criminal case, unless and until she becomes President herself. The decision as to whether[Read More…]
Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential nominee-to-be, has effectively ended his chances to become U.S. President, by his choice of the Mike Pence to be his Vice Presidential choice. Pence’s only articles about his vision for the nation and for the Republican Party were published at his campaign site “Mike Pence for Congress,” between 1991 and the year 2000, when he finally[Read More…]
India is going to host the 8th BRICS Summit in Goa on October 15-16, 2016 as part of India’s chairmanship of BRICS this year. BRICS is the acronyms of its member nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, all of which are fast growing developing economies. The formation came to existence in 2009 but South Africa was taken as[Read More…]
“A minority within the armed forces has unfortunately been unable to stomach Turkey’s unity.”- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jul 15, 2016 Any aspect of instability in the state of Turkey is going to be greeted with trepidation by those partners who bank on its security role between East and West. The European Union, that rattled club of members who fear the[Read More…]
A military coup attempt in Turkey on Friday night has left at least 60 people dead and hundreds injured. Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose whereabouts had been unknown for hours after the plotters claimed to have taken control of Tukey flew into Istanbul Ataturk Airport from an undisclosed location early Saturday and said that the coup was failing. Speaking[Read More…]
British politics has seen it before: a good deal of political bloodletting in a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan did so on July 13, 1962 in what became known as Britain’s own variant of the much cruder and bloodier German event of 1934. Similarly, the new Prime Minister Theresa May, was intent on going a bit deeper than[Read More…]
A lorry struck a crowd after Bastille Day celebrations in the southern French city of Nice, killing at least 80 people. About 50 people were injured, 18 of them critically. The driver was shot dead and guns and grenades were found inside the lorry. President Francois Hollande said the attack was of a “terrorist nature”. He said he was extending[Read More…]
The slimmest of hopes, which got extremely threadbare in the last month, was nursed that Bernie Sanders might have taken his support base and made it into a third movement. A US political scene so typified by the banking retainers, the counterfeit pioneers and fraudulent managers, could have done with a new force. Sanders, having watered and cultivated a genuine[Read More…]
A dubious website, the SITE Intelligence Group, has quoted Hamza bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden, as threatening revenge against the U.S. for assassinating his father. The SITE Intelligence Group referred to an audio message of Hamza posted online where he said: “We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to[Read More…]
Especially the foreign services and the military of any country are being paid like lawyers are standardly paid: they’re paid to make the case for their employer. They’re ‘mercenaries’ wielding words not (merely) arms, who become the more effective to the extent that they can deceive themselves to believe the propaganda (or, in the military case, the justifiability of their[Read More…]
Only half a year in power and it is apparent that Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, is essentially following Harper’s footsteps when dealing with Canada’s foreign policy – militarily, politically, and economically. The recent NATO meeting and Trudeau’s sojourns to Ukraine have indicated – that like Obama using “hope and change” to replicate Bush’s U.S. policies – that like Harper,[Read More…]
The decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague on the China- Philippines territorial dispute announced on the 12th of July 2016 may well emerge as a turning-point in the long-standing wrangles over islands in the South China Sea. China expectedly has rejected the decision. It has reaffirmed its claim of territorial sovereignty and maritime rights over almost[Read More…]
Facing what seems like an endless stream of news about racialized conflicts and violence, many people call for us to get beyond our history and find solutions for today, concrete actions we can take immediately, ways of expressing love right now to help us cope with the pain. This yearning is understandable, but it’s just as important that we grapple[Read More…]
It wouldn’t be strange for a contemporary 2D artist to imagineher sketchbook as a kind of immediate scientific laboratory, a site wherever repeated experiments and knowledge-building practices get drawn into existence. Moreover, the art that accumulates within the pages of the artist’s sketchbook would likely provide a unique description of her as an individual, especially aftera lifetime of drawing.[Read More…]
The unanimous award of Hague International Tribunal on the South China Sea arbitration is historical, overpowering and decisive in the sense that Chinese claim on the disputed sea area has been rejected by the International Tribunal while giving decision on the petition filed by The Republic of the Philippines against The People Republic of China. As was expected the Chinese[Read More…]
While the police have been dishing it out extensively for years to the black community, often with murderous effect, retaliation was bound to come. A movement scolded for being narky and lacking respect became a sounding board for some who felt that violence was merely logical, the last refuge for the desperate. This is hardly an excuse, but it constitutes some explanation. The motor of revenge tends to be a hungry, and not always rational one
VCNV organised a 150 mile peace walk between 28th May to 10th June, from downtown Chicago to Thomson Prison, a new supermax federal facility due to open next summer with 1,900 solitary confinement cells. The U.S. currently incarcerates 2.3 million people, that’s 10% of the population, or 25% of world prisoners. Nationally, Blacks and Latinos are 5 times more likely to be incarcerated than Whites, and[Read More…]
The EU is a precarious subject these days. Both backers and detractors are subject to harsh criticism, and those wanting to leave the EU are habitually considered populists or nationalists. However, this Europe, with its undeniable capitalist and neoliberal penchants, isn’t MY Europe, or at least not the Europe I once pictured it to be. That is why, as it[Read More…]
On Saturday, the second and final day of the NATO summit in Warsaw, NATO officials and heads of state approved a major military escalation in Eastern Europe and continuing deployments to Afghanistan. These initiatives, together with expanded NATO military cooperation with former Soviet republics, including Georgia and Ukraine, are all aimed at encircling and preparing for war against Russia. The[Read More…]
Police officers carry out random acts of legalized murder against poor people of color not because they are racist, although they may be, or even because they are rogue cops, but because impoverished urban communities have evolved into miniature police states. Police can stop citizens at will, question and arrest them without probable cause, kick down doors in the middle[Read More…]
When NATO was founded, that was done in the broader context of the U.S. Marshall Plan, and the entire U.S. operation to unify the developed Atlantic countries of North America and Europe, for a coming Cold War allegedly against communism, but actually against Russia — the core country not only in the U.S.S.R. but also in Eastern Europe (the areas that[Read More…]
As many observers around the world have pointed out, the United States is no longer a true democracy. It is an oligarchy. The US government ignores the safety, wishes and needs of the majority of its citizens, and instead makes decisions which will bring profit to enormous corporations, or satisfy the wishes of powerful lobbies. Governmental secrecy occurs in[Read More…]
The Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, still gets high marks at least in Europe, compared to the Republican candidate Donald Trump, demonized by corporate media because of his outlandish remarks about Muslims, women, the wall with Mexico, and other bizarre statements he had made. Despite Trump’s crude political opinions, he has many followers among predominantly white Americans. He portrays himself[Read More…]
What role the womb? Politically, it is exploited by the conservative creed as the indispensable mechanism for reproduction. To not add offspring to the ledger of life is not doing the good work of some sky god or inner instinctive voice. Not being able to do so somehow renders the political figure barren in a more than figurative sense. Such[Read More…]
Police fatally shot an African-American in the early hours of Saturday in Houston, Texas. The man, identified by media as Alva Braziel, was reportedly shot ten times after he pointed his gun at law enforcement. The shooting took place at about 12:40am on Cullen. According to the police, they spotted a man on the road with a revolver. When they[Read More…]
When the media and the cyber world of Indians are agog with reports and comments on the results of Britain’s referendum on quitting the European Union, we fail to notice the most pertinent point underlying the whole event. That is, the importance of a well mandated regional organisation. It is high time Asia had its regional organisation to secure a[Read More…]
In a powerful short novel by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, “No One Writes to the Colonel” (El coronel no tiene quien le escriba) set during the period of “La Violencia”, an old retired colonel struggles to survive, forgotten by the government which promised him a substantial pension some fifteen years earlier. The state is corrupt and brutal, and[Read More…]
In another example of outrageous British Establishment mendacity, the inexpert, Zionist-subverted, UK Iraq Inquiry, aka the Chilcot Inquiry, criticized intelligence failures re non-existent Iraqi WMD but whitewashed the US-, UK- and Australia-complicit, 1990-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust in which 4.6 million Iraqis died from violence (1.7 million) or from violently-imposed deprivation (2.9 million) by (a) suggesting that about 150,000[Read More…]
Five Dallas police officers were killed and six others were wounded by snipers on Thursday night during a demonstration protesting shootings by officers in Minnesota and Louisiana this week. The gunfire broke out around 8.45 pm on Thursday while hundreds of people were gathered to protest against fatal police shootings this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. The[Read More…]
The recent report produced by John Chilcot to look into UK role in US led invasion exposes the hollowness of such actions by allied forces. Some of the key highlights of the report are that a) UK chose to join the invasion before peaceful options had been exhausted; b) Blair deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein; c) There[Read More…]
The release of the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry, examining the feeble reasons for launching a war against a sovereign state in 2003, did not merely land former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the soup. It suggested that other leaders should keep him in drowning company. The most obvious culprit was the person who led it all, US President George W.[Read More…]
On June 27th, I reported Hillary Clinton’s having privately told GMO industry lobbyists, on 25 June 2014, that the federal government should subsidize GMO firms in order to enable them to buy “insurance against risk,” and that without such federal subsidies, “this [insurance] is going to be an increasing challenge” for the industry to afford. I also reported that,[Read More…]
With their government under the control of corporations and special interests, the People of the United States may think they have the right to vote, but, unfortunately, they do not. When the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written, the authors intentionally omitted this very significant detail. They failed to include the right to vote, and the error has[Read More…]
The Chilcot report that enquired into Britain’s decision to join US coalition that attacked Iraq which was released today finds that Britain decided to join the 2003 invasion of Iraq based on “flawed intelligence”. John Chilcot, the chair of the Iraq Inquiry said that the invasion went “badly wrong”. The 2.6 million-word Iraq Inquiry – which took seven years to[Read More…]
Clinton was spared, even if the FBI recommendation remains just that. It was a textbook outcome pointing to the failures of consistent approaches all too familiar to that of her husband. Yet again, this eel of history escapes the realms of legality with institutional dispensation.
FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday that his agency will not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server to handle government communications during her four years as secretary of state in the Obama administration. Comey read out a lengthy prepared statement that criticized Clinton and her staff in harsh terms, saying they had[Read More…]
Hung parliaments are deemed the bane of the Westminster System. It makes politicians sweat, policy makers work, and the broader system of representative government unusually representative. The latter part is particularly irksome for the majoritarians. Authoritarian tendencies are never far away from the politically elected. It is always easy to become hubristic when voters go your way, less so when[Read More…]
Today, with these words, I light a candle to remember the children who died in Sunday’s firestorm in Baghdad, the families who were obliterated, the individuals burned beyond recognition, the surviving friends and relatives looking for answers in the still-smoldering ruins and weeping in wave upon wave of inconsolable grief. My heart is with you, dear sisters and brothers. My hope is that others will light candles too and be moved to stand beside you and call in one invincible voice for an end to war in all its forms.
Japan’s Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal by the country’s Muslim community against nationwide surveillance of Muslim groups, mosques and even halal restaurants. This may not be surprising to America’s seven-million-strong Muslim community which has been under real and virtual surveillance since 9/11. After 15 years of broadly targeting the community and extensively monitoring its activities, the FBI declared[Read More…]
Anger over job losses and declining living conditions, combined with years of bitter political experiences with both Labor and Liberal-National Coalition governments, were the primary factors in the further collapse of support for the major parties in last Saturday’s Australian election. With 1.5 million postal votes still to be counted, some of which will not arrive until July 15, it[Read More…]
The month of Ramadan witnessed unspeakable carnage in three Muslim cities in three different countries. On 28 June 2016, 41 people, both locals and foreigners were killed in shootings and suicide bombings at the Istanbul Ataturk Airport. On 2nd July, 20 people taken hostage by militants in an upmarket restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh were shot andmurdered. On the 3rd of[Read More…]
On Monday the Jerusalem Magistrate indicted Israel Nuclear Whistle Blower Mordechai Vanunu for allegedly sharing classified information in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 television channel. Vanunu was also indicted because he moved into a different apartment [in the same building] without informing the police, and because he was caught meeting with two foreign nationals three years ago! Modechai Vanunu[Read More…]
The contemporary Arab world is fraught with formidable forces of diverse enemies – the self, the authoritarian rulers and foreign interventionists – the ex-colonial masters. Common sense stops at various levels to reflect on the real problems. Greed of power, sectarian hatred and missing sense of moral and intellectual visionary leadership to deal with the real problems of political[Read More…]
This is not an exclusive list, nor does it relate to charges that might possibly be made against Ms. Clinton on grounds other than the unquestionable and basic ground that she moved all of her State Department email operation to a private and non-secured computer outside the State Department, and then attempted to destroy the record of those emails. Here[Read More…]
Katherine Hoof Illinois—probably your average Hillary supporter. She published a letter to the editor in the Times the very day after Bernie’s piece and titled it“Dear Bernie Sanders: What You Didn’t Say”. In her letter, Ho claimed that“…[Bernie Sanders] needs to wake up to a modern reality in which globalization is both inevitable and beneficial, creating domestic jobs and raising millions worldwide out of poverty.”
This essay considers the etiology of Australian Fascism, an often latent disease during the past one hundred years, a means often used to attempt the solution, albeit temporary, of social problems. The narrative follows the 2004 seminal work by Dr. L. W. Britt on the subject of Fascism. The learned author listed fourteen characteristics of that movement; the present[Read More…]
Oh that poor old United Kingdom! Armies of political commentators based on all continents are now feverishly trying to define to what extent the Brits got fooled, or how severely they will soon get punished for their ‘bold move’. All over Europe, the neo-Nazis and other right-wingers are celebrating, while most of ‘liberals’ are panic-stricken, running around like a[Read More…]
In another attempt to kick the leader of the British Labour down and out, a campaign has been hatched with a now commonplace virulence. A report into anti-Semitism within Labour party circles authored by Shami Chakrabarti was to be released with little fanfare, filled with the pieties that come at a time when language is a matter of moral policing[Read More…]
Brexit (British exit from the European Union) would be a ferocious kidney-blow to the international aristocracy, the people (and their agents) who own controlling blocs of stock in international corporations, and who control politicians in every country (except Russia and perhaps China), and who especially control international organizations such as the executive body of the EU, which is the European Commission (or “EC”). The EC,[Read More…]
To any historian buff, it should be a known fact that Britain’s “special relationship” with Washington has been a tough one, subjected to periods of bruising and disagreement. States caught in a web of imperial domination can only be special to a certain extent. Despite this, the mythology of a special relationship between London and Washington continues to sound its[Read More…]
From the evidence that has surfaced so far, Omar Mateen, the mass murderer in Orlando, Florida, had no ties to any outside terrorist organization. Radicalized by propaganda on the internet, he was acting alone, driven by his hate and possibly fueled by his mental illness. His heinous crime was made possible by our gun ownership laws that allowed him[Read More…]
After months of anticipation, the United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union (EU). Although, the results were fairly close – 51.9% voted to ‘Leave’ vs. 48.1% elected to ‘Remain’ – the consequences of the decision will be far-reaching. Not only will the Brits negotiate their exit from the EU (thus, the term ‘Brexit’) within the next two years,[Read More…]
Fully 81 percent of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) supported Tuesday’s motion of no-confidence in leader Jeremy Corbyn. Just 40 Labour MPs voted against the motion, with 172 in favour. Thirteen did not vote at all and there were four spoilt ballots. The extraordinary scale of the right-wing coup, which had already seen Corbyn lose most of his shadow[Read More…]
At least 36 people were killed and 147 injured when suicide attackers opened fire and blew themselves up at Istanbul’s main airport on Tuesday night, in the latest in a string of terrorist attacks in Turkey. Shortly before 10 p.m. two gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at a security checkpoint outside Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and then detonated their explosives.[Read More…]
Turkey has announced to restore its diplomatic relations with Israel almost after six years gap. Turkish President Erdogan has also tendered an apology to Russia for the downing of a Russian SU-24 plane in last November, after which Russian President Putin had taken strong steps with respect to Turkey. Sanctions were put on Turkey causing a lot of harm to[Read More…]
The abortion right in the United States, given full force in Roe v Wade, has never been a plain sailing affair.[1] The language of rights is ever a prickly matter, marred by the undergrowth of burdensome reasoning and poor application. In a country where the foetus, less than quality of life, is holy, obstacles will always exist. The subject before[Read More…]
If Salvador Dali were around today he might have captured the mood of the nation best in a painting. But, you could simulate one for yourself by piecing together these wildly varying, discordant sentiments in your head: “Sheis an extremely ambitious liberal interventionist hawk….[and] was the leading figure behind the destruction of Libya…If Hillary Clinton gets into office, it means[Read More…]
Jeremy Corbyn, the grand hope of the Labour Party in Britain, is being politically assassinated. The process has been a gradual one, coming in the form of poison administered over a series of months and thinly veiled promises. But now, the issue has become even more violent. The anti-Corbyn clique is now brandishing its weapons in the open. The Brexit[Read More…]
Erdogan’s diploma-problem could turn out to have considerable global significance. If his diploma-problem fades away, then Turkey’s dictatorship will be established quite firmly, and Turkey’s Constitution will be empty verbiage, but Erdogan’s supporters will probably be even more passionate for him than they now are, because of their fears of the demons that he trumpets: Kurds, Shiites, etc. He’s an ordinary tyrant, in an extraordinary position, and thus is a tyrant with extraordinarily many foreign allies. That might pull him through.
The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy and the media.
In a previous report, I indicated “Why Hillary Clinton’s Paid Speeches Are Relevant”, but not what they contained. The present report indicates what they contained. One speech in particular will be cited and quoted from as an example here, to show the type of thing that all of her corporate speeches contained, which she doesn’t want the general public to know[Read More…]
By pushing austerity and commodification of public services, people are now more economically insecure with less wealth and lower incomes. The response of many is anger. Some protest austerity, others blame people of a different skin color, heritage or ethnicity. The surprise vote in the UK to leave the European Union is the latest, and perhaps the biggest, example of the blowback economic and political elites are getting for their actions.
There remains a conspicuous fear in the US Republic that civilization must be a centralising endeavour. Smaller states only matter if they are wedged into a series of agreements and arrangements with an overseeing hegemon. The hegemon dictates the measures to be taken, even if they may be cushioned by promises of good relations and a false sense of autonomy.
Twenty-four hour news networks are both terrible and worthy sites to gauge herd-like assumptions. A gaze at CNN over the coverage of the Brexit over the course of Friday suggested the dismay, growing into outrage that the infallible market had somehow failed to detect the Leave voters on its all divine radar.
According to the Syrian General who commanded the whole neutralization of the ISIS “Erase” project, and who generously gave these observer hours of his and his staff’s time, all of Palmyra and the close-in surrounding area are now cleansed of bobby-traps and are safe. The General proclaimed just this week that Palmyra and our cultural heritage sites here are ready and waiting to again receive foreign friends.
The exit EU referendum needs to be seen in the perspective of the use of EU as a political tool by US. The US has controlled the European continent by NATO; EU which was the result of intra continental economic forces after the Second World War has been now used by USA for its geostrategic gains, when EU ventured into Ukraine not to the liking of the Russia. EU after the vote needs to understand that its illogical arguments against Russian interests have weakened it in final way.
The Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliot was wishing to get voters out for the cause, circulating a message that, “There is a very real chance that voters in London and Scotland will vote to keep us in the EU today despite the heartlands of the country voting to leave.” The circulated email also sported a picture from a “leafy”[Read More…]
Far too many facts pertaining to the Orlando massacre by Omar Mateen raise serious questions about the ghastly killing of American citizens as a False Flag opertion of the FBI. The fact that the gory incident came within days days of the death of Mohammed Ali, whose passing away had re-awakened American and global interest in the Islam he lived[Read More…]
While the Brexit debate has become a matter of colliding blocs of speculators and crystal ball gazers, a glaring aspect has come to the fore. Virtually nothing has been said about the role played by human rights, Britain’s role in building it up and inspiration in the European Convention of Human Rights, or the issue about citizenship. In that sense,[Read More…]
Bernie Sanders, who has been for many months the presumptive thorn in the side of the now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, has the chance to sink with a trace. He began as one of the few independent Senators from his own chamber. He can go down blazing with impetuous, non-aligned fury, while doing what has been unthinkable in US politics for generations: create a third electoral force.
The number of people around the globe displaced by war, armed conflict and persecution at the end of 2015 was higher than ever before. A report titled Global Trends, published on World Refugee Day by the UNHCR, counted 65.3 million displaced persons, the first time it has surpassed 60 million since the collection of figures began in 1951. Compared to[Read More…]
Europe is about to faces a series of difficult decisions that will affect its future for years to come. The social contradictions of keeping an expanding globalized economy running, which at the same time disenfranchises millions of workers, are now too obvious to turn a blind eye to. Many efforts towards making a livable European community are in disarray, and most of the benefits accrue to the core EU states of Germany, the UK (for now), and France.
INTRODUCTION Today’s United States is a more realistic version of the type of society that George Orwell fictionally described in his allegorical novel 1984. Like in 1984, the American public don’t know that they’re merely the tools of some unseen aristocracy who manipulate them by fear of ‘the other’, some ‘enemy’ group — manipulate the public via the media,[Read More…]
The recent “lone wolf” attack at a gay night club in Orlando which saw 50 people being brutally killed has sent shock waves across the globe. The incident has rightly been condemned from politicians to ordinary people in no uncertain terms. However, the outpouring of condolence has seen a parallel political development that was quick to point fingers on how[Read More…]
93% of the people who are locked up in the U.S. in order to meet the minimum legal requirements for the number of people who must be locked up on possible violations of U.S. immigration laws, are locked in for-profit prisons, which are owned by corporations that heavily fund a few politicians, including Hillary Clinton. That 93% finding was published[Read More…]
(Rome) A bit of bit of real European history not in the books yet: in the 1960s and extending into the 1980s there was widespread concern, preoccupation and discontent in Germany, in Europe, unease and a sensation of insecurity. The Communist East appeared to many people as an ominous threat, though it is now common knowledge that it was[Read More…]
In the days following the horrific attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando – one of the worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history, which claimed the lives of 49 people (50 counting the shooter) and left over 50 wounded – evidence began to mount that the gunman likely possessed multiple motives. This evidence is not surprising in light of[Read More…]
Terrorists provide alibis for hungry security establishments in search of themselves. Their physical effect is always small relative to the psychic disturbances they cause. Know thyself, urges the Delphic maxim, but self-knowledge implies an acceptance of ignorance. Nothing doing when it comes to the issue of finding the elusive “lone wolf” terrorist, a creature that has become more irritant than[Read More…]
This news-report consists of a compilation of accounts that Crimeans have given to human rights groups or directly posted to the internet, regarding their experiences when the freely elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who had received 75% of the votes of Crimeans, was violently overthrown during January and February of 2014. On 20 February 2014, eight busloads of people[Read More…]
Those who still believe in the official story of 9/11, are more naive than children, who still believe in Sancta Claus and the Easter Bunny. After having penetrated deeply into the matter, as I have edited the forthcoming book by 9/11 expert Elias Davidsson on this topic, which is going to be published in Germany, I can only appeal to[Read More…]
“Russia and Poland are in top place in the hooligan chart. England has dropped down a long way.” Andrei Malosolov, Jun 15, 2016 It had gone into something of a hibernating state, but it is clear that the European Football Championship in France is being made an example of by that scourge of sport, the football hooligan. The modus operandi[Read More…]
A senior Iranian regime judiciary official has issued the final confirmation of the death penalty for three Ahwazi rights activists, with another four sentenced to between 25 and 35 years in prison, as well as exile. Gholam-Hossein Mohsen Eie’I, the First Deputy Head of the Iranian regime’s Judiciary, confirmed the sentences in an interview with the regime-affiliated Moj News[Read More…]
When the democratically elected President of Ukraine was violently overthrown in February 2014 and replaced by a rabidly anti-Russian regime, not only the residents in the areas of Ukraine that had voted heavily for him (Crimea having voted 75% for him, and Donbass having voted 90% for him) were terrified by what they viewed to be a bloodthirsty new regime,[Read More…]
There are some who would believe that collaboration at the pan-European level could facilitate a path to genuine economic decentralization. Others are convinced that those steps to localize can best be taken by first leaving the EU. Still others don’t favor either of these paths. We are not trying to tell UK readers how (or even whether) to vote; we are asking you to help us shed light on and bring sanity to this volatile situation. Whichever way you vote, please reject the glaringly stupid rhetoric in the media. Speak out, let your voice be heard for ecological and economic sanity, for a fundamental turnaround
Rational risk management is crucial for societal safety and successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis, and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk. However the anti-science, anti-environment, pro-fossil fuels Australian Coalition Government has utterly perverted this process in relation to the worsening climate emergency through spin, lying by commission, lying by omission and censorship. Critically, Coalition Government[Read More…]
Since 1983, Sharon Tennison has worked to develop ordinary citizens’ capacities to avert international crises, focusing on relations between the U.S. and Russia. Now, amid a rising crisis in relations between the U.S. and Russia, she has organized a delegation which assembled in Moscow yesterday for a two week visit. I joined the group yesterday, and happened to finish reading[Read More…]
On Tuesday, June 14th, NATO announced that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country. The preliminary[Read More…]
London: Much of Britain is recoiling in the wake of the death of Labour MP Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed on Thursday in broad daylight outside the public library in Birstall to the shouts of “Britain first!” It was the first killing of a serving MP since Ian Gow, whose life was taken by Irish Republicans in 1990.[Read More…]
The Dirty Campaign Underlying Ecuador’s “Free and Fair” Election 
The Myth of Peace in the Middle East: Deconstructing the Naturalization Narrative 
U.S. Joins Past Empires In Afghan Graveyard 
India should welcome the end of US occupation of Afghanistan 
Centre’s ordinance: A big blow to cinema 
Indian monsoons becoming more chaotic 
Hindi Cinema Has Not Properly Tapped the Potential of Social Thrillers 
Movements for Improving Internal Strengths, Integrity and Resilience of Rural Communities 
Killing Yemen 
Mohammad Azharuddin was simply the ultimate embodiment of cricketing poetry and grace 
Jean Swanson honoured for standing up for Indian farmers and opposing CAA 
Mumia Abu-Jamal is Scheduled for Open-Heart Surgery –Racism Remains the Greatest Medical Threat to Mumia’s Health 
Exiting Afghanistan: Biden Sets the Date 
As the US plans its Afghan troop withdrawal, what was it all for? 
US: Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean 
Facebook Evaluates Boosts Of Posts That Include Anti-Zionist Speech As Having A “low Quality Attribute” 
Recognition of Palestine is ‘Symbolic’ but also Critical: The Australian Case 
POEM to the EARTH 
Making Sense of a Viral Military 
The Hawks Who Want War With Iran Are Working Overtime 
Decentralisation in Food Security System Can Reduce Hunger and Malnutrition 
Without ‘Annihilation of Caste’, It is Not Possible to Establish an Egalitarian Society in India 
Kumbh Mela: A Super Spreader? 
Support the Struggle of the Farmers. It Is Our Struggle Too! – Part 3 
Mass shootings, racism, video games, Fox News, CNN, Washington DC and Americans’ opinions 
Denis Halliday: A Voice of Reason in an Insane World 
Kapos of the American Empire 
Whither India-Russia ties? 
Amader pet bhoro tomra khela koro(Fill our stomachs and you’ll play): Trying to make the ‘irrelevant’ relevant again 
Can Dacoit Films Convey A Message of Non-Violence? 
Jallianwala Bagh massacre victims remembered 
Wright shooting: 3rd day of riot: Curfew: Protesters across U.S. call for justice 
Ramsey Clark: One of the Greatest 
Language and people 
Villagers help leopard clamber out of well 
Ambedkar on Castes In India And Among Muslims 
Crystallisation of Democratic Forces on Every Front Ignites Flame of Resistance to Confront Neo-fascism in Punjab Slaughter Central 
Israel Rejects ICC Investigation: What Are the Possible Future Scenarios? 
Making Yemen Bleed 
When I founded Countercurrents.org in 2002, Disha Ravi who was arrested for sedition yesterday was a two-year-old toddler. In 2002, the CO2 level in the atmosphere was 370 ppm. Now it is 415 ppm. In just 19 years CO2 levels increased by just over 2ppm/year. The level of cumulative greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including Methane, Nitrous Oxide etc is[Read More…]
