Cruelties of the Queen’s Reign

Brett Wilkins

September 9, 2022

As millions of Britons and admirers the world over mourned Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday, others — especially in nations formerly colonized by the British Empire — voiced reminders of the “horrendous cruelties” perpetrated against them during the monarch’s reign.

“We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa’s history,” declared Julius Malema, head of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party in South Africa.

“Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952, reigning for 70 years as a head of an institution built up, sustained, and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world,” he continued.

Carbon-Fueled Capitalism

Vijay Prashad

September 8, 2022

In advance of the next U.N. climate change gathering, which takes place in Egypt in November, Vijay Prashad outlines how governments can live up to their “common but differentiated responsibilities” to stave off catastrophe.

Sanctions are Destructive, Illegitimate, and Totally Bipartisan

 Jacob Batinga

September 1, 2022

What right does the United States have to starve civilians to achieve political goals? Despite its obvious importance, this question is largely absent from mainstream discourse. Through economic sanctions, or economic warfare, the U.S. can unilaterally collapse economies and generate famine in foreign countries. The civilian death toll from sanctions is often equal to—and sometimes greater than—the toll from conventional warfare. Yet on both sides of the aisle, it is taken for granted that we have the “right” to impose destitution on civilian populations in order to advance our interests.

How the West Brought War to Ukraine

David Gordon

September 7, 2022

Review of How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How US and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe, by Benjamin Abelow, Siland Press

The Ukraine war has generated great controversy, but of one point there can be no doubt, and Benjamin Abelow, a physician with a longstanding interest in public affairs, has properly emphasized this in his brief and excellent book. The policy of the United States toward the war, and more generally toward the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin, has been one of direct confrontation rather than peaceful accommodation. It is hardly a surprise that supporters of a noninterventionist policy have criticized the United Sates for this, but a number of those in the foreign policy “establishment” have done so as well, and Abelow has been able to secure the endorsement of some of these for his book. Jack Matlock Jr., for example, the last American ambassador to the Soviet Union, writes that the book is a “brilliant, remarkably concise explanation of the danger that U.S. and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] military involvement in Ukraine has created.”

Who Benefits From US Government Claims That The UFO Threat Is Increasing ‘Exponentially’?

 Caitlin Johnstone

September 5, 2022

A US senate report which is an addendum to the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 has people talking due to the surprising statements it includes about the US government’s current position on UFOs.

I mean Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

I mean Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena.

US LABOR DAY: 5 Unsung Films About Workers

Peter Dreier

September 2, 2022

Unions are more popular now than at any time since 1965, and the U.S. is in the midst of a new upsurge of union organizing. Is a Hollywood drama about angry Starbucks baristas or frustrated Amazon warehouse workers far behind?

White House Asks Congress for $14 Billion To Fund Its War Against Russia

 Kyle Anzalone

September 2, 2022

It would bring the total funds authorized for the war in Ukraine to $67 billion if approved

The Joe Biden administration requested another massive infusion of cash for its war against Russia. The latest short-term spending proposal seeks nearly $14 billion for weapons and economic assistance for Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine six months ago, the US has sent Kiev tens of billions in weapons and direct economic assistance.

Remembering the Sabra Shatila Massacre, Forty Years Later

 Dr. Swee Ang and Ellen Siegel

September 2, 2022

Forty years ago, during the week of September 12, we were working in a Palestine Red Crescent Society facility, Gaza Hospital, in Sabra Shatila camp in West Beirut. As health care workers, we were trying to heal the wounds and repair the mutilated and destroyed bodies of those injured by Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. We had been working there following the evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), mediated by US Middle East envoy Philip Habib. Crucial to the evacuation agreement was the protection of the civilians left behind after the evacuation of the PLO, and Israel’s undertaking not to invade and occupy Beirut. With the guarantee of protection by the multinational peace keeping force, thousands of displaced civilian war victims returned to Sabra Shatila to rebuild their homes and lives.

Mikhail Gorbachev: The contradictory Legacy of Soviet Leader who attempted ‘Revolution from Above

Ronald Suny

September 1, 2022

Mikhail Gorbachev was a contradictory figure; his legacy, complex. Hailed in the West as a democrat and liberator of his people – which he genuinely was – he increasingly became despised by many within Russia for destroying the Soviet Union and dismantling a great power.

Either way, he was consequential. Indeed, his death at 91, announced by state media in Russia on Aug. 30, 2022, comes as the ripples of the transformation he helped engineer continue to be felt. The invasion of Ukraine is, in part, an attempt to reverse the loss of status felt in post-Cold War Russia by the disintegration of the Soviet Union that occurred under Gorbachev – something Vladimir Putin views as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century.” In a sense, the unraveling of the Soviet Union that began 30 years ago is still going on now, in the bloody war in Ukraine.

Biden comes out Swinging against Trumpian, MAGA GOP as Authoritarian, Violent

Juan Cole

September 2, 2022

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden came out swinging in Philadelphia in a rare Thursday evening prime time address, denouncing the “MAGA Republican Party” of Donald Trump while praising what he termed “mainstream” conservative Republicans. MAGA is the acronym for “Make America Great Again,” the fascist slogan that disgraced former president Donald Trump deployed to denounce immigrants, Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, and political liberals. The broadside identified an opponent in the Democratic Party’s attempt to remain in control of two of the three branches of government in November, and sought to divide Republicans by putting their MAGA members beyond the pale.

If Only We’d Listened: Mikhail Gorbachev

Ted Snider

September 1, 2022

When Western history sings its own song, it tells the tale of triumph over the Soviet Union bringing the Cold War to an end. But that is never what happened, and the events went the other way around.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who passed away on August 30, was a visionary who first negotiated the end of the Cold War and then piloted the nearly bloodless internal closing of the Soviet Union.

شرکت سهامی خاصّ "آمریکا"

شرکت سهامی خاصّ آمریکا بزرگترین شرکت دنیاست. نه تنها این بزرگترین کمپانی در دنیاست، بلکه از هیچ سازمان جهانی‌ به این عظمت نگاهداری، و از رقابت مصون نگاه داشته نمی‌شود. این شرکت حدود ده هزار سهامدار در کره عرض دارد، و تحت محافظت بزرگترین ارتش دنیاست. با توجه به ۸۰۰ پایگاه نظامی در هفتاد کشور، کسی‌ جرات نگاه چپ کردن به این شرکت را ندارد. البته ارتش‌های دیگری در دنیا وجود دارند که سعی‌ رقابت با این شرکت را دارند، مانند روسیه و چین، ولی‌ این رقبا به هیچ روی ظرفیت رقابت آزاد با این ابر قدرت را ندارند. البته آمریکا با طرح‌ها و برنامه‌های مشخصی‌ در جهت تضعیف این رقبا سعی‌ در این داشته است که آنها را نیز زیر سیطره خود بکشد، هر آینه این درصد احتمال یک جنگ تمام عیار را بیشتر می‌کند. یکی‌ از راه‌هائی که آمریکا برای زیر سیطره قرار دادن این دو رقیب در پیش گرفته است، از طریق تسلط بر یاران پیشین این دو، مانند عراق، سومالی، سودان، لیبی‌، سوریه، و در آینده ایران، می‌باشد. برنامه‌ریزی توجیهی‌ برای این عملیات آنچنان دقیق و هوشمندانه انجام گرفته که دلایل حمله و نابودی این کشور‌ها به راحتی‌ مورد قبول مردم آمریکا قرار گرفته است.ا

Former Israeli Officials Urge Israel to Prepare Military Action Against Iran

Dave DeCamp

August 29, 2022

Ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen said that Israel carried out 'countless operations' against Iran when he headed the spy agency

Former Israeli intelligence and military officials have urged Israel to prepare for military action against Iran as Washington and Tehran are negotiating a revival of the nuclear deal, The Palestine Chronicle reported on Monday.

Thoughts on Industrial Policy

Dean Baker

August 30, 2022 

There is much confusion surrounding the concept of industrial policy, starting at the definitional level. If we think of industrial policy as a set of policies designed to favor certain industries, then we are always doing industrial policy.

The Scourge of Fascist Politics and the Rise of White Nationalism from Orbán to DeSantis

Henry Giroux

August 26, 2022

The Orbánization of Fascist Politics

The malicious passions of fascism are with us once again, evident in the emergence of diverse regimes of predatory repression and exclusion that increasingly legitimate their hatred of democracy through appeals to a notion of illiberal democracy—a project that calls for the elimination of freedom, dissent, and justice as essential elements of political life, if not democracy itself. Of particular importance is the growing attraction of nationalist Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, to conservatives in the United States. Orbán’s popularity is due to his disdain of democracy and his use of political power to implement a range of reactionary policies, especially his belief that “there is a liberal plot to dilute the white populations of the US and European countries through immigration.” Expressing a notion of white replacement embraced by much of the Republican Party leadership, he has argued that “the western world was ‘committing suicide’ though immigration,” and has declared: “I see the great European population exchange as a suicidal attempt to replace the lack of European, Christian children with adults from other civilizations — migrants.” Orbán’s notion of the nation is critical of the principles of freedom and equality because they lead “inevitably to greater immigration and equality between races” and are at odds with a notion of the nation that defines itself assertively through the logic of white supremacy and racial purity. Orbán made this point clear in a July 22, 2022 speech. As Shaun Walker and Flora Garamvolgyi reported in The Guardian, Orbán stated: “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were ‘no longer nations.’” Zsuzsa Hegendus, a long time Orbán advisor, resigned in response to Orbán’s mixed race comments stating that his remarks were comparable to “a pure Nazi text worthy of Goebbels.”

What Did the West Promise Russia on NATO Expansion?

Ted Snider

August 23, 2022

In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained, "What happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them. But I will allow myself to remind this audience what was said. I would like to quote the speech of NATO General Secretary Mr. Woerner in Brussels on 17 May 1990. He said at the time that: ‘The fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.’ Where are those guarantees?"

It’s Gross To Live Under The US Empire And Spend Your Time Criticizing Russia And China

 Caitlin Johnstone

August 26, 2022

The other day an Australian journalist was giving me a hard time for not criticizing Russia and China the way I go after the US empire, calling me “morally bankrupt” for not criticizing all governments equally. He said the ethical thing to do would be to criticize the US, but also criticize the governments the US doesn’t like for balance.

I had a look at this fellow’s work online and did indeed see articles sharply criticizing China and Russia, as well as much weaker governments like Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the Taliban.

But guess what government I didn’t see in his crosshairs?

Ukraine and Russia: A Dangerous Tale of Two Speeches

Ted Snider

August 26, 2022

On August 22, in response to the question, "Under what conditions is Russia ready to resort to the use of nuclear weapons," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov cited the "Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the field of nuclear deterrence.” He said that Russia "hypothetically" could allow the use of nuclear weapons if there is "aggression using conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened." He then translated that policy: "In other words, the use of nuclear weapons by Russia is possible only in response to an attack – for self-defense in emergency circumstances."

U.N. Faces Record Humanitarian Aid Shortfall — but Not for Ukrainians

Farnaz Fassihi

August 22, 2022

Soaring needs and wealthy countries’ focus on Ukraine have left aid agencies with too little money to address the world’s other crises, forcing them to cut programs.

Camps for Syrian refugees in northern Iraq have cut access to clean water, sanitation and electricity. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, many people forced from their homes face life without shelter or basic tools like fishing or farming gear. In South Sudan, there will be no secondary school this fall for some refugee children.

Cultivate A Habit Of Small Acts Of Sedition

Caitlin Johnstone

August 24, 2022

It is not easy being someone who cares about the world and opposes the status quo. It’s a series of disheartening failures and crushing disappointments amid an endless deluge of information saying that everything is getting worse and worse.

The environment keeps degrading. Ruling power structures keep getting more and more controlling. Capitalism gets more and more imbalanced and exploitative. World powers get closer and closer to a mass military confrontation of unspeakable horror.

And what do we get when we try to oppose these things? Letdown after letdown. Politicians we support lose their elections, often after brazen interference from the very power structures we’d hoped they’d oppose. Political organizing breaks down in sectarian infighting. Activist leaders get caught up in sex scandals. Agendas we helped push for fizzle into impotence. Power wins time after time.