ERIC LONDON—The Times and the New Yorker have transformed themselves into gossip mills, catering to the emotionally driven and backward mood for vengeance that has taken root among the supporters of identity politics in the upper-middle class. The Times’ sensational campaign has increased subscriptions and substantially boosted the company’s stock value.
READ ON
The Crisis Is Only In Its Beginning Stages
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS—The best chance of preventing the oncoming war is Russian-Chinese-Iranian unity and a defeat for American arms in a regional context not worth the Washington psychopaths launching of nuclear weapons. Until Washington is effectively resisted, Washington’s European vassals, the UN Security Council and the OPCW will stand with Washington. Once Washington experiences a defeat, NATO will dissolve and with this dissolution Washington’s ability to threaten other countries will lose its cover and evaporate.
READ ON
Missile Attack on Syria Is a Salute to “Russiagate” Enthusiasts, Whether They Like It or Not
NORMAN SOLOMON—Politicians, pundits and activists who’ve routinely denounced President Trump as a tool of Vladimir Putin can now mull over a major indicator of their cumulative impacts. The U.S.-led missile attack on Syria before dawn Saturday is the latest benchmark for gauging the effects of continually baiting Trump as a puppet of Russia’s president.
READ ON
Political Dynamite: Poor People’s Campaign and the Movement for a People’s Party
PATRICK WALKER—My prediction is that the forces of political revolt will eventually coalesce, resulting in the real resistance movement an extremist Trump presidency should have awakened; whether they’ll do so in time to ward off nuclear or climate catastrophe is anybody’s guess. But the elements of real, fruitful revolt (not Democrats’ largely symbolic McResistance) are now in place, and my modest task here is simply to raise consciousness about the “dynamite” political potential of fusing those elements.
READ ON
Freedom Rider: Syria and Press Propaganda
MARGARET KIMBERLEY—The lies which allowed the United States, France and Britain to attack Syria are presented without contradiction. The people with knowledge and expertise who can counter these narratives are disappeared from access to newspapers or television stations. The close relationship between the deep state, the corporate media, and the establishment elite at home and abroad continues without hindrance.
READ ON
Near Deadly Political Gas Attack On Americans
FRANK SCOTT—This fetid gas emanating from England’s governmental toilet was quickly taken up by America’s own reality TV government, thus raising the intellectual stench to that of an international moral sewer. If only the UK and USA had to pay the price of this foulness that might be another point for the quote’s analysis, but when the western toilet overflows, the world becomes inundated with the mental excrement and polluting waste of a more dangerous kind than the usual outcome of minority private profit at majority public loss.
READ ON
How the Guardian newspaper fulfills George Orwell’s prediction of ‘Newspeak’
What will it take to bring America to live according to its own self image?
READ ON
Bombing of Syria exposes pro-war politics of France’s New Anti-capitalist Party
KUMARAN IRA—The NPA’s (NEW ANTICAPITALIST PARTY OF FRANCE) criticisms of the military strikes are hypocritical; they are aimed at protecting the NPA from the anger of French workers, 70 percent of whom are hostile to the bombing of Syria, according to various online polls. And the organizations to which the NPA is seeking to tie French rail workers and university students striking against Macron’s austerity policies make no effort to conceal their enthusiasm for the military aggression of Macron, Trump and May in Syria.
READ ON
Ask yourselves: Are we the bad guys?
R. LESNOIX—It is generally posed as a rhetorical question as it’s so obvious it requires no further deliberation. That is a mistake though. It’s a very serious question. It needs exploring because it goes to the root of why good men are capable of doing, or supporting, great evil. So let’s explore it. Why didn’t the Germans consider themselves to be the bad guys?
READ ON
On Contact: The Destruction of an Independent Press with Mark Crispin Miller
NYU professor Mark Crispin Miller discusses the vanishing of an independent media with Chris Hedges in this issue of On Contact.
READ ON
REALITY CHECK: IDF—THE MOST MORAL ARMY IN THE WORLD. REALLY?
JEFF BARAK—Over the past three weekends, more than 30 unarmed Palestinians have been shot dead by IDF snipers for demonstrating on the Palestinian side of the border between Israel and Gaza, including Yasser Murtaja, who was clearly wearing a flak jacket identifying him as a journalist when shot. Another 300 or more Palestinians have been wounded by live fire in these demonstrations.
READ ON
‘Israel’s nightmare? Mass nonviolent protest on the Gaza border’
MERON RAPAPORT—According to Shikaki, the Great Return March is strengthening the ties between Gaza and the West Bank after years of disconnect. But as long as the split between Hamas and Fatah exists, it will be difficult for Palestinians to take advantage of this moment for reconciliation. Shikaki does not foresee similar “return marches” taking place in the West Bank, where the number of refugees living is relatively smaller, and due to the lack of trust in Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas. “According to my polls, three-fourths of Palestinians do not trust Abbas and Fatah,” he says.
READ ON
Trump’s secret diplomacy with North Korea
PETER SYMONDS—Having strong-armed China into dramatically tightening the economic noose around its ally, Trump may well be calculating that he might be able to “flip” North Korea, transforming it from a US foe to an ally in Washington’s confrontation with China and Russia. In the rivalry for imperialist dominance in North East Asia, the Korean Peninsula, which borders both Russia and China, has always been critical strategically. The US-led Korean War of 1950–53, which cost millions of lives, was fought for domination of Korea. It was regarded in Washington as the precursor to a wider war against China, whose entry into the conflict dashed US hopes.
READ ON