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During 20 years of reporting on Israel and Palestine, I learned first-hand that Israel’s version of events around the deaths of Palestinians or foreigners can never be trusted
by Jonathan Cook / May 13th, 2022
The execution of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli soldier in the Palestinian city of Jenin, along with Israel‘s immediate efforts to muddy the waters about who was responsible and the feeble expressions of concern from western capitals, brought memories flooding back from 20 years of reporting from the region.
Unlike Abu Akleh, I found myself far less often on the front lines in the occupied territories. I was not a war correspondent, and when I ended up close to the action it was invariably by accident – such as when, also …
by Binoy Kampmark / May 11th, 2022
Always looking, and sounding, a touch unhinged, the beetroot-coloured Barnaby Joyce, leader of the Australian Nationals and, for a time now, deputy prime minister, has made a splash. With the federal elections being held on May 18, he does not have much time to commit mischief and befuddle the political vultures. But the National Press Club gave him a chance to make some trouble, a task accomplished with some success.
At stages during his address, it seemed that trouble had followed Joyce. There was sniffing and sniffling. Then a nosebleed, brief intermission and tissues. The Twitterati thought this ominous; …
by Ramzy Baroud / May 10th, 2022
Like typical analyses offered by western intelligences when trying to assess risks or understand major political phenomena in the Middle East, Israeli intelligence is equally short-sighted. It insists on analyzing the attitudes and body language of individuals instead of focusing on the behavior of collectives. This is the case today as Israel is desperately trying to understand the changing political dynamics in Palestine.
Following the Israeli war on Gaza in May 2021, the Israeli military prepared a ‘personality profile’ of Gaza-based Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. Though Hamas, and Sinwar, were important political actors in the events that took place …
metaverse, global brain, social impact, your digital self
by Paul Haeder / May 10th, 2022
You can go through life with a thousand epigrams or deep quotes that you might come back to over two, four, six decades. Then, the disrupters pop up, those techno fascists, the tinkers and culture blasters.
These sociopaths who get the limelight then become part of a new set of epigrams, but not grand ones, but totally emblematic of a new normal of Triple Speak, Capitalism Porn, and the Stiff Arm to the Coders and their Masters.
It’s sad, really. Here, quality ones of very different and varied origins:
Timothy 6:10 “The love of money is a root of all …
by Ajamu Baraka / May 10th, 2022
Rev. William Barber (Photo: Getty Images)
The demands for justice at home and abroad must not be sacrificed on the altar of what is called pragmatism. The false choices presented by liberalism can undermine the movement altogether.
Rev. William Barber, an indisputable champion of the poor and a consistent voice demanding an end to poverty, may have made a serious moral and ethical error that effectively placed him outside of the “Kingian” framework that informed Dr. King’s work especially during the last year of his life.
In an attempt to make a …
by Shawgi Tell / May 10th, 2022
Below is more data on the continually failing economy and how it is hurting millions across the U.S.
It can be seen from the different parts in this series, as well as other articles on the same topic, that there is a dire situation confronting millions of people centuries after the scientific and technical revolution made it possible to easily meet the needs of all.
To be sure, the economy is working mainly for a handful of people and …
by Peter Koenig / May 10th, 2022
This was my presentation at a Chongyang Institute’s organized international webinar on 6 May 2022 on the topic of “Seeking Peace and Promoting Development”. The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies is a think tank attached to the Renmin University of Beijing.
*****
In today’s world of regional conflicts, technological upgrading, epidemic stalemate and system reform, Peace is Priority Number One for an international sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development.
The present most infamous conflict is the Ukraine – Russia war, China could play an important role as moderator as proposed on several occasions by President Xi Jinping. It might …
by Alejandra Garcia / May 10th, 2022
Rescue workers continue to comb through the rubble for signs of life (Photo: Bill Hackwell)
Havana — It is Mother’s Day in Cuba, but in Havana there is no music or merriment as usually happens on this date. The city has been in mourning since Friday, when a massive explosion shook the Saratoga Hotel, in Old Havana, collapsing part of its facade and spreading terror among neighbors in the surrounding communities.
The images of the catastrophe hurt: the smoke, the destruction, the fear. The whole city is in shock and follows …
by Mickey Z. / May 10th, 2022
So, I posted the above meme on my personal Facebook page with this silly caption: “Business idea: Woke yoga school called Reverse Warrior. (They’re gonna need a whole lot of flexibility to keep contorting themselves in and out of all these poses.)”
Obvious comedy, all around…right? Not in The Land of the Free™.
For my heinous transgressions, I got this notice:
My crime, you wonder?
Where exactly is the “false information”? That I’m not really gonna open …
by Binoy Kampmark / May 9th, 2022
As with previous breakaway religions thrilled by the prospect of the new, breakaway sporting competitions offer a chance to reassess doctrine, administration, and philosophies. It has happened in football, cricket, and rugby, often controversially, and almost always indignantly. The attempt to create a rival competition is now taking place in a sport famously described as the spoiling of a good walk.
The LIV Golf Invitational Series is set to run from June to October and promises to be an extravaganza played on three continents. The chief executive of the enterprise is the man of the eternal tan, golfer turned businessman Greg …
by Robert Hunziker / May 9th, 2022
The planet is wheezing, coughing and sputtering because of vicious attacks by worldwide droughts aided and abetted by global warming at only 1.2C above baseline. Some major metropolises are rationing water.
What’ll happen at 1.5C?
It’s not as if droughts are not a normal feature of the climate system. They are, but the problem nowadays is highlighted by reports from NASA and NOAA stating that earth is trapping nearly twice as much heat is it did in 2005 described as an “unprecedented increase amid the climate crisis.” This trend is described as “quite alarming.”
The planet trapping heat at double the rate of …
by Gustavo A Maranges and Bill Hackwell / May 9th, 2022
Dona Concepcion Primary School Classroom. (Photo: Bill Hackwell)
For any Havana resident, the Paseo del Prado is part of his or her identity. Walking along this immense avenue and enjoying the architecture and cultural diversity of this area is a pleasure that many of us enjoy, while for others, it is so common that it becomes barely imperceptible. However, walking around this place will never be the same again because one of the most emblematic images of Havana was the scene of a real tragedy.
Shortly before 11 a.m. yesterday the area was …
by Eric Zuesse / May 8th, 2022
This is a commentary upon N.Y. Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s statement on May 6 that Ukraine’s Government is and ought to be the U.S. Government’s agent in its war against Russia, not representing the interests of the Ukrainian people in it. He introduced the statement by noting that Ukraine is a bad country,
a country marbled with corruption. That doesn’t mean we should not be helping it. I am glad we are. I insist we do. But my sense is that the Biden team is walking much more of a tightrope with Zelensky than it would appear
…
by Binoy Kampmark / May 7th, 2022
Children should not pay for the sins of their parents. But in some cases, a healthy suspicion of the offspring is needed, notably when it comes to profiting off ill-gotten gains. It is certainly needed in the case of Filipino politician and presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, who stands to win on May 9.
Bongbong’s father was the notorious strongman Ferdinand Marcos, his mother, the avaricious, shoe-crazed Imelda. Elected president in 1965, Ferdinand Marcos indulged in murder, torture and looting. He thrived on the terrain of violent, corrupt oligarchic politics, characterised by a telling remark from the dejected Sergio …
by Ellen Brown / May 6th, 2022
We have a serious debt problem, but solutions such as the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” are not the future we want. It’s time to think outside the box for some new solutions.
In ancient Mesopotamia, it was called a Jubilee. When debts at interest grew too high to be repaid, the slate was wiped clean. Debts were forgiven, the debtors’ prisons were opened, and the serfs returned to work their plots of land. This could be done because the king was the representative of the gods who were said to own the land, and thus was the creditor to whom …
Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, and the Climate Apocalypse
by Media Lens / May 6th, 2022
Humanity’s great Achilles’ heel, the flaw that may well determine our fate, was summed up in a couple of lines in the classic Simon & Garfunkel song, ‘The Boxer’:
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.
Women, too! Erich Fromm discussed this remarkable phenomenon of ‘selective inattention’: man’s capacity for ‘not observing what he does not want to observe; hence, that he may be sincere in denying a knowledge which he would have, if he wanted only to have it’. (Fromm, Beyond the Chains …
by Ralph Nader / May 6th, 2022
It is not often that one speech urging the creation of a national public interest law firm, driven by seasoned trial lawyers, would move from words to deeds, from oratory to action.
That is just what happened following my address in June 1980 to the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association. I spoke of a gap in trial practice which needed to be filled. There was a pressing need to bring cases against the many corporate abuses, which included non-enforcement of regulatory laws. Without the prospect of a contingent fee after a successful outcome, trial lawyers were unlikely to take on these uncertain …
by Vijay Prashad / May 5th, 2022
Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq), Sabra and Shatila Massacre, 1982–83.
Two important reports were released last month, neither getting the kind of attention they deserve. On 4 April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group III report was published, evoking a strong reaction from the United Nations’ Secretary General António Guterres. The report, he said, ‘is a litany of broken climate promises. It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us …
by Allen Forrest / May 5th, 2022
by Binoy Kampmark / May 5th, 2022
The US Supreme Court Chief Justice was furious. For the first time in history, the raw judicial process of one of the most powerful, and opaque arms of government, had been exposed via media – at least in preliminary form. It resembled, in no negligible way, the publication by WikiLeaks of various drafts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the forerunner to the current Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The subject matter was positively incendiary: the potential overturning and judicial eradication of Roe v Wade, a 1973 decision which has generated a literature both for and against its …
by Ramzy Baroud / May 4th, 2022
Palestinians are justifiably worried that the mandate granted to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, might be coming to an end. UNRWA’s mission, which has been in effect since 1949, has done more than provide urgent aid and support to millions of refugees. It was also a political platform that protected and preserved the rights of several generations of Palestinians.
Though UNRWA was not established as a political or legal platform, per se, the context of its mandate was largely political, since Palestinians became refugees as a result of military and political events – the ethnic cleansing …
According to UN torture expert, the UK and US have colluded to publicly destroy the WikiLeaks founder – and deter others from exposing their crimes
by Jonathan Cook / May 4th, 2022
The British home secretary, Priti Patel, will decide this month whether Julian Assange is to be extradited to the United States, where he faces a sentence of up to 175 years – served most likely in strict, 24-hour isolation in a US super-max jail.
He has already spent three years in similarly harsh conditions in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison.
The 18 charges laid against Assange in the US relate to the publication by WikiLeaks in 2010 of leaked official documents, many of them showing that the US and UK were …
A Way of Circumventing US Sanctions?
by Press TV / May 4th, 2022
PressTV Interview with Peter Koenig
Iran and Venezuela are poised to enter a new era to fight US sanctions. Their cooperation in Hydrocarbons – production as well as trade – may help them gradually detach from western sanctions.
An idea brought forward in this interview is their joint exit from the dollar-dominated trade economy, by selling their petrol and gas in one or more other currencies than the US-dollar or even the Euro. Ideally, they may want to join the Russian move of selling gas for rubles instead of US dollars.
This brilliant Russian initiative, of course, has been a major “explosion” in …
by Binoy Kampmark / May 3rd, 2022
For years, the Australian wind farm has been reviled as ugly, noisy and unendearing by a certain number of prominent figures. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott pathologized them, calling wind turbines the “dark satanic mills of the modern era”, being not merely aesthetically problematic but damaging to health.
The latter view has been rejected by the National Health and Medical Research Council, which found “no consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects in humans” though it accepted at the time “that further high quality research on the possible health effects of wind farms is required.” Literature …
by Robert Hunziker / May 3rd, 2022
America’s western metropolises are thriving in the midst of the fiercest drought in over 1,000 years.
Not all climate change/global warming news is negative. Positive pushback to global warming is real and happening right under our collective noses.
Still, climate scientists wring their hands in despair over the failure of the corporate-controlled world to come to grips with climate change’s biggest bugaboo, which is too much fossil fuel emitting too much CO2 creating too much warmth that eventually brings on excessive heat. Ergo! Ecosystems fail! Droughts accelerate!
For decades now, scientists have been warning about the danger of too much fossil fuel causing …
by Michael K. Smith / May 3rd, 2022
Rural workers of the early 20th century caught their sleep in boxcars and meals in the open air. Lured by labor agents’ promises of steady work, they drifted broke and hungry from camp to camp, huddling beneath tents and hastily built shacks, strangers to plumbing and doctors, but all too familiar with illness, accidents, and back-breaking extraction in the mines.Wages, low as they were, rarely even reached their hands. Company managers advanced credit for food, shelter and tools at vastly inflated prices, then submitted workers a bill after they had toiled for months in life-threatening conditions. The longer they worked, …
by Colin Todhunter / May 2nd, 2022
There is a terrifying prospect that in excess of a quarter of a billion more people will fall into extreme levels of poverty in 2022 alone. Without immediate radical action, we could be witnessing the most profound collapse of humanity into extreme poverty and suffering in memory.
That is according to Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher.
She adds this scenario is made more sickening given that trillions of dollars have been captured by a tiny group of powerful men who have no interest in interrupting this trajectory.
In its January 2021 report ‘The Inequality Virus’, Oxfam stated that the wealth of the world’s …
by Binoy Kampmark / May 2nd, 2022
He has been seen, not always accurately, as the more moderate in an otherwise conservative Liberal Party, which has governed Australia since 2013 in an at times troubled alliance with the Nationals. He has served as party deputy to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and proudly promotes his role as the country’s treasurer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Josh Frydenberg is nervous. There is also reason to suggest that he might even be panicking. The electorate he represents – that of Kooyong – is not quite so warm towards the sitting member as it has been in the past. The sitting MP …
by Ramzy Baroud / May 2nd, 2022
While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria, due to their heavy reliance on Russian energy sources.
The horrific scenario, however, awaits countries in the Global South which, unlike Germany, will not be able to eventually substitute Russian raw material from elsewhere. Countries like Tunisia, Sri Lanka and Ghana and numerous others, are facing serious food …
by Bill Willers / May 1st, 2022
The tools of psychology are dangerous in the hands of the wrong men. Modern educational methods can be applied in therapy to streamline man’s brain and change his opinions so that his thinking conforms with certain ideological systems.
— Joost A. M. Meerloo, The Rape Of The Mind, 1956.
Since the declaration of the Covid-19 Pandemic in March, 2020, the phenomenon of “mass formation psychosis”, essentially hypnosis at population level, has become a major subject for discussion, due largely to interviews of psychiatrist …
