Slow Democracy By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/slow-democracy Susan Clark and Woden Teachout’s new book, “Slow Democracy,” offers the civil equivalent to slow food. The goal of both is not slowness for its own sake, but quality, health, sustainability, and the pursuit of happiness. We all know that the federal government ignores [...]
Capt. Steve Truhlar, left; Lt. Thomas Shuler; Adm. Jody Beckenridge; and a Predator B aircraft in Palmdale, California, on December 7, 2009. (Photo: Ann Johansson / The New York Times) The Bomb and the Drone: The Grim Reaper Keeps Taking Its Toll Monday, 06 August 2012 00:00By Ed Kinane, Truthout | Op-Ed The lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [...]
Washington – The age of the drones has arrived. It’s not possible to uninvent these Orwellian devices, but we can – and must – restrain their use. As instruments of war, pilotless aircraft have already become essential. The Washington Post reported last year that more than 50 countries had [...]
When you declare yourself to be the police chief for the entire planet and those lapdogs you have cultivated come along for the ride, anything goes. As Chomsky pointed out in the book Manufacturing Consent and Alex Carey explained in his book Taking the [...]
One (Obscenely Profitable) Day In the Life of Big Oil by Abby Zimet Every hour this year, the five biggest oil companies have made $14,400,000 in profits, or more in one minute than what 96% of American households earn in one year. Each hour they also received over $270,000 in federal tax breaks, or $2.4 billion [...]
U.S. model for a future war fans tensions with China and inside Pentagon By Greg Jaffe, Thursday, August 2, 8:35 AM link http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-model-for-a-future-war-fans-tensions-with-china-and-inside-pentagon/2012/08/01/gJQAC6F8PX_print.html When President Obama called on the U.S. military to shift its focus to Asia earlier this year, Andrew Marshall, a 91-year-old futurist, had a vision of what to do. Marshall’s small office in the [...]
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.” Benito Mussolini “Fascism is capitalism plus murder.” - Upton Sinclair (AKA: Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. American Novelist and polemicist, 1878-1968) “… the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of [...]
Harry Truman and Memory of Mass Murder By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/harry-truman-and-memory-mass-murder Harry Truman spoke in the U.S. Senate on June 23, 1941: “If we see that Germany is winning,” he said, “we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let [...]
Did He Think We Wouldn’t Notice Dept: It’s heartening to see labor call the anti-union Romney on the blinding hypocrisy of his visit with Poland’s Lech Walesa. Romney was snubbed by Solidarity, which has supported Wisconsin labor struggles and declared it “did not invite him to visit Poland,” and blasted by the AFL-CIO for trying to ”walk the walk of a friend of working people… Romney remains an out-of-touch voice of, by and for the [...]
Escape From Economics By Paul Craig Roberts (about the author) opednews.com Cross-posted from Paul Craig Roberts Readers ask me from time to time to recommend a book from which they can learn about economics. The problem with reading a book to learn economics that is taught in the universities and practiced in Washington is that economics is now [...]
David Swanson: Man of Peace by Kelley B. Vlahos, July 31, 2012 Print This | Share This This is the second in a series of profiles and interviews Antiwar.com is conducting this summer with activists who have made it their life’s work to challenge the mighty bulwarks of the U.S. national security state. David Swanson If you haven’t [...]
Many conservative Americans have seen their livelihoods threatened by the very neoliberal economics their party seeks to extend, argues Gary Younge. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters The world as seen by Republicans, in a land of myth and amnesia US conservatives are increasingly keen to interpret their country’s woes primarily in terms of threats from abroad Gary [...]
The Drone and the Bomb By Ed Kinane http://warisacrime.org/content/drone-and-bomb The lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki belong always before us. The agony of those two cities must remain our dark beacon. Hiroshima/Nagasaki wasn’t so much about targets as about audiences. We – or rather, the very highest reaches of the US government [...]
REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL The universe and its expansion (Taken from CubaDebate) I respect all religions, although I do not share them. Human beings seek explanations for their existence, from the most ignorant to the wisest. Science is constantly seeking to explain the laws which govern the universe. At this very moment, they [...]
Olympic Goofs 101 and 102 by Abby Zimet It turns out those American uniforms made in China could have easily been made - cheaper, yet – on these fair shores. And that women athletes from Japan, Australia and doubtless elsewhere flyeconomy to the events, second-class, while their male counterparts - lower-ranked, yet – fly first class. Wow. Are we having [...]
Fighting the Vampire Within By Paul Balles “Murder is not an anomaly in war.” - Chris Hedges July 22, 2012 “Information Clearing House” – Early warriors massed on bloody battlefields with everything from sticks and screams to swords, bows and arrows, muskets and cannons. That scene remained both disgusting and ridiculous. The [...]
CIA The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit A federal investigation alleged Enrique Prado’s involvement in seven murders, yet he was in charge when America outsourced covert killing to a private company. It was one of the biggest secrets of the post-9/11 era: soon after the attacks, President Bush gave the CIA [...]
The National Security Complex and You Thursday, 19 July 2012 11:42By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch | News Analysis When my daughter was little and I read to her regularly, one illustrated book was a favorite of ours. In a series of scenes, it described frustrating incidents in the life of a young girl, each ending [...]
Assassination Nation Fifty Years of US Targeted ‘Kill Lists’: From the Phoenix Program to Predator Drones By Doug Noble “A broad-gauged program of targeted assassination has now displaced counterinsurgency as the prevailing expression of the American way of war.” –Andrew Bacevich [1] July 19, 2012 “Information Clearing House” – This spring the US drone [...]
Rudolf Rocker, his thoughts and analyses often feature on this site. Here is another one taken from his work “Nationalism and Culture“. At first it seemed that it might be simmarised. However, here is the full quote as it appears at pages 541-542. “Instead of taking to heart these precious lessons of [...]
Nationalism vs. Capitalism: Guess Which One Wins? Part I – Two Ideologies There are two very powerful, and fully internalized ideologies in today’s America: one is nationalism and the other is capitalism. Nationalism Pope John Paul II once remarked that “pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an [...]
It was January 15, 2004, and TomDispatch had only been in existence for a year when Chalmers Johnson, author of the prophetic book Blowback (published in 2000 and a bestseller after the 9/11 attacks), did a piece for this site entitled “America’s Empire of Bases.” He wrote then: “Due to [...]
Mexico‘s Carlos Slim, the world’s richest person according to Forbes magazine, is a full-fledged member of the transnational oligarchy. (Photo: Agência Brasil)This is the ninth article in the Truthout on the Mexican Border series looking at US immigration and Mexican border policies through a social justice lens. Mark Karlin, editor of BuzzFlash at Truthout, visited [...]
The pendulum swings & a new era has begun: Presbyterian church (USA) endorses boycott, splits on divestment by Anna Baltzer Jadaliyya 14 July 2012 There is a moment, just before a pendulum changes direction, when it is perfectly still. It is precisely that moment that marks the end of an old way and the beginning [...]
The Last War Crime Debuts At Cannes – But Censored In US. By Jeanine Molloff July 12, 2012 “Information Clearing House” – During this summer of Occupy and subsequent police brutality, the subject of torture is hotly denounced by protesters and conveniently ignored by candidates. Like that ostrich diving head first [...]
In a book written by Alex Carey and titled “Taking the Risk out of Democracy” there are many magnificent insights about just how the elites guard against anyone other than themselves controlling the system., socially, economically and politically. On the topic of war Carey says (at p 137) that”..modern wars [...]
Pepe Escobar Scott Horton Interviews Pepe Escobar Scott Horton, June 30, 2012 Print This | Share This | Comment Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider war (an attack [...]
Rebecca Solnit, One Big Continent of Pain Posted by Rebecca Solnit at 9:29am, July 10, 2012. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. [For TomDispatch Readers: Thanks to all of you who, in response to my pleadings, urged your friends, neighbors, relatives, and associates to sign up for TomDispatch over the last weeks. You are a major force [...]
There will be hell to pay for NATO’s Holy War By Pepe Escobar July 10, 2012 “Information Clearing House“ – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is running out of rhetorical ammunition in the US’s Holy War against Syria. Perhaps it’s the strain of launching a NATO war bypassing the UN [...]
Veterans For Peace Supports U.N. Committee in Questioning U.S. Recruitment, Killing of Children Leah Bolger, President of Veterans For Peace, applauded a United Nations Committee this week for raising concerns about the recruitment of children into the U.S. military, the U.S. killing of children in Afghanistan, the U.S. detention and torture of children labeled “combatants,” [...]
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Cultures that endure carve out a protected space for those who question and challenge national myths. Artists, writers, poets, activists, journalists, philosophers, dancers, musicians, actors, directors and renegades must be tolerated if a culture is to be pulled back from disaster. Members of this intellectual and artistic class, who are usually not [...]
‘Help someone or something on this planet. You’ll figure out how and you won’t regret it’ [EPA] [Note: No one invited me to give this graduation speech. It was concocted freely in the campus of my mind and it's meant for the rest of us in the class of 2012.] Class of 2012, greetings. It’s [...]
For years US Imperialism and machinations have led the planet closer and closer to chaos. The techniques used are simple and direct. First you start with some trumpeted concerns that a country is about to, or has or will become an asset to the forces of evil. In this case evil [...]
Noam Chomsky on the Occupy Movement Historian and philosopher Noam Chomsky talks to Gary Younge about the significance of the Occupy movement in the US and how it will affect the upcoming presidential election in November Director’s Cut (5:08): and Full Length version (17:04): both can be seen at link http://www.commondreams.org/video/2012/07/07 Related articles Chomsky: [...]
Explosion: The missile hit was recorded on camera, along with the pilot’s cheerful rendition of American Pie’ U.S. Helicopter Strike Blasts an Afghan Man to Pieces… As The Pilot Sings ‘Bye, Bye Miss American Pie’ By Daniel Bates link http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31780.htm July 06, 2012 —- It is the horrific moment an Afghan man is blown apart [...]
Ray McGovern : “Has The CIA Gone Rogue?” link http://911blogger.com/news/2012-07-06/ray-mcgovern-has-cia-gone-rogue submitted by Satyavira on fri, 07/06/2012 – 10:13am CIA Deep Politics Ray McGovern Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern speaking to the Deerfield Progressive Forum Related articles Link to an excellent interview with Ray McGovern former CIA analyst(ikners.com) Scott Horton Interviews Ray McGovern(ikners.com) Retired [...]
Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 9:51am, July 5, 2012. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: After a July 4th break, we’re back and wanted to thank all of you who urged your friends, neighbors, relatives, and associates to sign up for TomDispatch over the last two weeks. If you meant [...]
“What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose on the population a ‘philosophy of futility’ and ‘lack of purpose in life’ to ‘concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption’. Deluged [...]
Ed Herman on Global Finance Ed Herman Pt 3: We’ve been in a period in which the power of finance extends into politics more aggressively than it ever was, so it’s able to stymie any changes Watch full multipart Ed Herman on Global Finance Bio Edward Herman is an economist and [...]
Oh Say, Maybe We Can’t See: Another 4th of July By David Swanson http://davidswanson.org/node/3722 It’s just possible that the space of 236 years and a truckload of fireworks are obscuring our vision. It’s hard for us to see what should be obvious. Many nations — including Canada as the nearest example [...]
The seminal position as seen by Hume,” “Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. [...]
Scott Horton Interviews Pepe Escobar Scott Horton, June 30, 2012 Print This | Share This | Comment Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider [...]
O brother, where art thou? Become a Fan By Pepe Escobar (about the author) Become a Fan (18 fans) — Page 1 of 2 page(s)opednews.com Cross-posted from Asia Times The whole Arab world, and the whole world for that matter, was eager to know what the newly elected president of Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood (MB) cadre [...]
The standard lie that supports world wide murder and destruction is as appears in the title. If the elite are the cream and their henchmen/women are part of the upward spiral to the theft of what the workers have produced and own, where do you fit. The answer is nowhere. While the leeches fight over [...]
Gareth Porter on US Policy toward Iran and Iraq You are using our new video/audio player! I prefer flash (when possible) Give us feedback! While I still can, switch me back to the old player Gareth Porter believes a US attack on Iran is off but says the Israelis may still do it. [...]
Tomgram: Nan Levinson, Moral Injury and American War Posted by Nan Levinson at 9:31am, June 28, 2012. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: With today’s post, TomDispatch is closing until July 5th. By the way, I recently asked you to consider writing friends, colleagues, relatives -- whomever -- and urge them to go to the "subscribe" window at [...]
REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL The universe and its expansion (Taken from CubaDebate) I respect all religions, although I do not share them. Human beings seek explanations for their existence, from the most ignorant to the wisest. Science is constantly seeking to explain the laws which govern the universe. At this very moment, they [...]
Julian Assange Interviews Noam Chomsky & Tariq Ali The World Tomorrow Video By RT link http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31708.htm The revolts in the Middle East, and protests across the world are all stemming from a profound economic disparity and the feeling of being oppressed by their respective governments, Chomsky and Ali agree. “We [...]
Engelhardt, A Subprime Education in a Subprime World [Note for TomDispatch Readers: This website likes to graduate its readers each year. Sometimes we’ve offered actual graduation speeches by the likes of Howard Zinn (“Against Discouragement”), Rebecca Solnit (“Welcome to the Impossible World”), and Mark Danner (“Words in a Time of War”) [...]
The End Is Near By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/end-near Apocalypse has been given a bad name. The Seventh Day Adventists are still around. The Nike sneaker cult failed to open Heaven’s Gate. The new millennium brought us George W. Bush, not Jesus H. Christ. And everybody’s terrified of “drinking the Kool-Aid.” But our species is [...]
