 Palm Beach Post/New York Times Thomas Friedman: Democrats, here's the sure-fire way to defeat Donald Trump I disagree with 90%, putting words in Bernie’s mouth, but it IS interesting. Here are my Cabinet choices: my rivals. I want Klobuchar as VP. Her moderation will be greatly appreciated across America. I want Bloomberg for Treasury. Our plans for addressing income inequality are not that far apart; if we can blend them together it’ll reassure markets. I hit the ceiling with this one: Biden as secreta... 4  |
Iraqis rise up against 16 years of 'made in the USA' corruption
As Americans sat down to Thanksgiving dinner,
Iraqis were mourning
40 protesters killed
by police and soldiers on Thursday in Baghdad,
Najaf and Nasiriyah. Nearly 400 protesters have
been killed since hundreds of thousands of
people took to the streets at the beginning of
October. Human rights groups have described the
crisis in Iraq... 3 |
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Discusses US Policies Towards Venezuela
The UN Security Council held a meeting in New York yesterday at the initiative of the US to discuss the humanitarian situation in Venezuela. Russia’s position, whereby this is not the appropriate platform or format for discussing this topic, remains unchanged. We are not turning a blind eye to the challenging social, economic and humanitarian developments in Venezuela. Still, we do not see any threats to regional, let a... 1 |
 Democracy in the Americas: the U.S. Pot and the Venezuelan Kettle Trump found allies for his Venezuela escalation; the U.S. got governments to join the ”coalition of the willing” to perpetrate international war crime – including two with progressive reputations: Norway and Denmark. The more loathed the U.S. president, the more important allies become. On February 29, 2004, George W. Bush was happy to be supported by the governments of Canada and France whe... |
 A Chance to Repair America's Image Abroad Democrats can use their new power in the House to check the Trump administration’s recklessness. Democrats should send a message to the world that we stand by our democratic values. Congress can make its voice heard in reaffirming our commitments, funding for the State Department, pressing the administration to admit more refugees and providing support for independent civil society and media around the world. ... 4 |
Guglielmo Tell: Afghan Saur Revolution 1978: what it achieved, how it was crushed
To tell the
truth, I hesitated to link this post: on one hand it lays the chronology of the
events and explains honestly the conditions the Revolution faced, but on the
other, it shows an ideological bias (socialist and anti-Stalinist one) perhaps
more than other posts from this site analyzing situation in different countries
or episodes from History. I can't assure that all the information is 100%
accurate: Russian and... 1 |
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Climate Change and the Growing Risk of Nuclear War: An Agenda for Action
A one-day symposium brought to you by Pioneer Valley PSR, featuring Dr. Ira Helfand, Bill McKibben, and more. Hope my friends at Oped News in Western Mass and surrounding environs can attend this most needed symposium. It takes place Saturday, September 23rd at the Hadley Farms Meeting House. Would love to see you there.
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Guglielmo Tell: U.S. "Jihadi Express": Indonesia - Afghanistan - Syria - Philippines Andre Vltchek does it again - SUPERB! Here we have the History of Jihadism narrated through personal stories of a "freedom fighter" turned into a truth teller, Muslim professors who have been on the ground. Now they all share their memories and knowledge in a way that seems to be sweet, but at the same time thrilling that would make Alfred Hitchcock, Frederick Forsythe or David Lynch feel their blood boiling. Forget the ... 2 |
 Trump Dumps Pretension Of Altruism From U.S. Foreign Policy For decades the U.S. foreign policy elite and its presidents played the farce of an altruistic United States that acts for the global good and in the interest of humanity. That was always a lie. Wherever one takes a deeper look the U.S. acted solely in its (perceived) self interests. But the rhetoric helped to drag others along. Tributary governments could pretend they worked for the "universal good" when they in f... 1 |
 Foreign Affairs Magazine: "How Democracies Fall Apart" Populism is gaining ground. Around the world, economic hardship and growing unease with globalization, immigration, and the established elite have propelled such movements into power, leading to a groundswell of public support for parties and leaders viewed as capable of holding the forces of cultural and social change at bay. In Europe, populist parties dominate parliaments in Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, a... |
 US prepares for nuclear war... So...the US military is planning for nuclear war. This is a provocation, not a defensive plan. It forecloses peaceful outcomes if it is not cancelled. This is a move by traitorous neocons to make foreign policy. Here’s the beginning of the linked article.A pair of U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers dropped two 700-pound faux nuclear bombs in the middle of the Nevada desert within the past few days. Now the Pentagon wants t... 12 |
The cycle is not complete.
Will Hanning was convicted today, after "70 years?"?? The people who start the wars are never convicted. Isreali Jews and Zionists are not convicted of crimes worse than Hanning's. The wife of the "supposed" Orlando shooter faces arrest because she did not report him, but George Bush admits he lied about Iraq's WMD (causing a million Iraqi deaths) yet he is not charged??This World is so full of inequity and bullshit!
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 Bernie Sanders' Foreign Policy Judgment Is More Valuable Than Clinton's Experience Instead of criticizing Sanders’ “inexperience,” we should “be questioning why any of the candidates of either party are employing the same old foreign policy advisers—many of whom not only supported the Iraq war but every disastrous military intervention since,” argues Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, at The Guardian.There’s little differenc... 1 |
 The Covert Origins of ISIS The Islamic militant group ISIS [also known as ISIL], formerly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and recently rebranded as the so called "Islamic State", is the stuff of nightmares. They are ruthless, fanatical killers on a mission, and that mission is to wipe out anyone and everyone from any different religion or belief system and to impose Shari'ah law. The mass executions, beheadings and even crucifixions that they are ... 2 |
 Blue Angels air show: San Francisco's choice Fleet Week and the Blue Angels are as San Franciscan as Rice-A-Roni, the Powell Street cable car and the Ellis Act. So is the annual Columbus Day Parade, aka the Italian Heritage Day Parade, through North Beach as the Blue Angels tear up the sky overhead.San Francisco is, after all, as historian Grey Brechin pointed out, Imperial San Francisco. Few aside from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman and th... |
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New York Times: "Bill O'Reilly and Fox News: They're in It Together" Hours after the news broke that Brian Williams had misrepresented his account of a helicopter trip in Iraq, he issued an on-air apology. NBC News started an investigation, and within days had suspended Mr. Williams, calling his actions "wrong and completely inappropriate." When the magazine Mother Jones reported that Bill O'Reilly had engaged in self-aggrandizing rhetoric about his coverage of the Falklands war, he called o... 3 |
Huffington Post: Take O'Reilly Off the Air We now know that, according to the reporters who were with him at the time, some of Bill O'Reilly's war stories from Argentina don't appear to be true. We also know that at least one of Brian Williams' war stories wasn't true. Does it matter? Should it matter? From the point of view of a veteran of the war in Iraq, my answer is yes. But this has less to do with the military, and more with the integrity, hard work, and sacri... 6 |
Bill O'Reilly Has His Own Brian Williams Problem After NBC News suspended anchor Brian Williams for erroneously claiming that he was nearly shot down in a helicopter while covering the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly went on a tear. On his television show, the top-rated cable news anchor declared that the American press isn't "half as responsible as the men who forged the nation." He bemoaned the supposed culture of deception within the liberal media... 2 |
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"The Truth is Unspeakable": A Real American Sniper Unloads on "American Sniper" "In a macro sense, however, our invasion and occupation of Iraq was not a "kill them or they will kill us" scenario. History has borne that fact out, and that lack of context makes "American Sniper" a dangerous film. "Dangerous because kids will sign up for the military because of this movie. Dangerous because our leaders have plans for those kids. Some will kill. Some will be killed. Or worse. There is no narrative existin... |
Who's Side is the New York Times On? A headline in the New York Times yesterday stated as fact that "With the World Watching, Syria Amassed Nerve Gas". The lead paragraph asserted that "Syria's top leaders amassed one of the world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons with help from the Soviet Union and Iran, as well as Western European suppliers and even a handful of American companies, according to American diplomatic cables and declassified intelligence re... 2 |
The rise of Isis is the ultimate disaster for the US, Britain and their allies who invaded Iraq
Patrick Cockburn argues that ISIS' implosion and the demise of its new caliphate will not come as quickly as western politicians may hope. The group remains far stronger and more organized than the shambolic Iraqi military, which, being plagued by corruption and clearly under-equipped, is still unfit to face the threat posed by ISIS. 1 |
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Dear Tony Blair: all this bloodshed in the Middle East is yours - you own it
Kevin Carson attributes the recent dramatic upheaval in the Middle East, comprising, in particular, the war in Syria, ISIS' conquering in Iraq and the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood, to Blair and Bush's meddling in Iraq since 2003, arguing that such involvement destabilised the region and enabled ISIS and al Qaeda to flourish in the resulting power vacuum. 2 |
The ghosts of World War One still haunting Iraq and Palestine today The current situation in the Middle East cannot be understood without its historical context, Renee Parsons contends. Remembering the Sykes-Picot declaration, dividing Arab land into intentionally weak "little principalities... incapable of coordinating action against us [the British", and the infamous Balfour Declaration that permitted the establishment of Israel, Parsons argues that such hegemonies and imperialism still exis... |
Biotech's Attack on GMO Labeling in WA--Organic Brands Hide Behind Lobby Group California narrowly lost their ballot measure to label GM foods, due to the biotech industry and its organic companies' monetary donations to kill the initiative. Washington State faces similar tactics to defeat Initiative 522. The biotech industry is using a powerful shadow umbrella group; Grocery Manufacturers Association(GMA), which has recently scrubbed its membership list. Cornucopia Institute pulled together the infograp... |
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Who Owns Organic - Updated Infographic by Dr. Phil Howard
For anyone who's not familiar with Dr. Howard's work, he has been charting who owns organics since 2002, and his charts are featured on Cornucopia Institute's website. The shift to biotech companies' ownership has been dramatic - both of seeds and of actual food companies. This is an updated chart of the top 100 food processors in North America including acquisitions, mergers, and the like. Dr. Howard's website is linked; ther... |
Monsanto leaves farmers "enslaved in a new kind of serfdom'
Photo caption: AFP Photo / Alain Guilhot. 'First of all, let's take the songbook that Monsanto and other GMO companies are using. That GMO crops are the solution to world hunger. Fact is, there is absolutely no patent on GMO crop that increases harvest yield. Long term studies in the US and other countries show that after one or two slight gains in harvest yield -- if any at all - the actual yield per hectare or per acre begin... 1 |
Al-Qaeda unleashed against Syria and Irag with acceptance of the West
(Photo caption: AFP Photo / Daniel Leal-Olivas) 'The siege of Abu Ghraib started with nine bombs thrown at the entrance, and dozens of mortars, followed by a battle against the guards; a group of suicide bombers attacked the walls while another group of car bombers attacked the main entrance. And then the critical gambit, when a series of car bombs exploded all along the main road up to the bridge that links the prison to the... |
 Abu Ghraib Prison Break: Hundreds Of Detainees, Including Senior Al Qaeda Members, Escape Facility 'BAGHDAD/MOSUL, Iraq, July 22 (Reuters) - Hundreds of convicts, including senior members of al Qaeda, broke out of Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail as comrades launched a military-style assault to free them, authorities said on Monday. The deadly raid on the high-security jail happened as Sunni Muslim militants are gaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government that came to power after the U.S. invasion to ou... 1 |
America's Other Dark Legacy In Iraq
Iraq-Aftermath US-steered Corruption:
the U.S.-led CPA was deeply corrupt. Much of Iraq's revenues, from oil sales or other sources, went to contracts with U.S. companies. Of contracts for more than $5 million, 74 percent went to U.S. companies, with most of the remainder going to U.S. allies. Only 2 percent went to Iraqi companies. Over the course of the occupation, huge amounts of money simply disappeared. Kellogg, Brown, a... |
Highway of Death: 22 Years Later (What We're Up Against) Due to Iraq's acceptance of a cease-fire, and in compliance with UN Resolution 660, a division of Iaq's Republican Guard withdrew on Feb. 26-27, 1991 over 60 miles of Hwy 8 from Kuwait to Iraq. US planes trapped the defeated convoys by disabling vehicles in the front and the rear, then pounded the resultant traffic jams for hours. "It was like shooting fish in a barrel," said one US pilot. Paul Sullivan, an Operation Desert St... 6 |
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