Things to consider—

Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields
  • Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby versus Prince Harry and his polo-playing American friends

    Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby versus Prince Harry and his polo-playing American friends

    By David Walsh, wsws.org “Prince Harry rounded off his hugely successful week-long tour of the U.S. today very much in his comfort zone – playing polo. … He was greeted by club founder Peter Brandt [sic] and his model wife, Stephanie Seymour. Brandt, 65, – whose wife is 44 – is an American industrialist and [...]

  • Should the US bomb Syria?

    Should the US bomb Syria?

    By Stephen Gowans, What’s Left There is no compelling evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the rebel forces which seek its overthrow, and for purely military reasons, it’s highly unlikely that they have been used. Simply put, the Syrian army can kill more rebels with missiles, tanks and heavy artillery, even [...]

  • A new film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    A new film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    By David Walsh, wsws.org Directed by Baz Luhrmann, co-written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald “It’s not all rubbish,” cried Amory passionately. “This is the first time in my life I’ve argued Socialism. It’s the only panacea I know. I’m restless. My whole generation is restless. I’m sick [...]

  • Obama’s New Appointments Prove that He Will Continue to Lick Wall Street’s Boots In His Second Term

    Obama’s New Appointments Prove that He Will Continue to Lick Wall Street’s Boots In His Second Term

    by WashingtonsBlog Puts Fox In Charge of the Henhouse … Again The party line is that Obama’s new pick for SEC boss – Mary Jo White – will be tough on Wall Street. For example, the Wall Street Journal writes: Obama Taps Ex-Prosecutor Mary Jo White, Portending Increased Policing of Wall Street In reality, this is putting the [...]

  • Pole dancing for the faint-hearted

    Let the Real Housewives try this for a change. Did you like this? Share it:

  • IRS Scandal Headlines: More Than Meets the Eye

    IRS Scandal Headlines: More Than Meets the Eye

    by Stephen Lendman More than targeting political enemies is involved. More on than below. The practice is longstanding. Republican and Democrat administrations use the IRS abusively.  During the Coolidge administration, Republican Senator James Couzens investigated the IRS’ predecessor – the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).  Did you like this? Share it:

  • Putin v. Obama et al

    Putin v. Obama et al

    by Stephen Lendman On May 16, the Wall Street Journal headlined “Russia Raises Stakes in Syria,” saying: Russia “sent a dozen or more warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Syria, a buildup that US and European officials see as a newly aggressive stance meant partly to warn the West and Israel not to intervene [...]

  • CBS media turd Scott Pelley pontificates about US journalism

    CBS media turd Scott Pelley pontificates about US journalism

    The Problem With Journalism? Scott Pelley Blames the Internet By Peter Hart, FAIR When big-time reporters decide to try their hands at media criticism, the results are usually disappointing–but they can also be quite revealing.  So when a video of CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley started to making the rounds, the headlines associated with it piqued my interest. Over [...]

Shamir Remembered–With Selective Amnesia

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, HISTORY, ISRAEL, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA  Comments Off
Jul 062012
 

by Steve Rendall, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

Palestine Police Force Wanted List for members of Lehi, a terrorist organization. Shamir is at the center.

In death, the U.S. media remembered the late Yitzhak Shamir as “a political hard-liner who served two terms as Israeli prime minster” (CNN, 6/30/12), “the hawkish Israeli leader who balked at the idea of trading occupied land for peace with the Palestinians” (MSNBC, 6/30/12) and “a man of iron will and simple tastes” (Washington Post, 6/30/12) who

prided himself on his hard-line views, his relentless determination to hang onto every square inch of what he considered the Land of Israel, and his championing of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, defying the demands of Israel’s most important ally, the United States. Continue reading »

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The Foie Gras controversy: why it matters

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANIMAL DEFENDERS, ANIMAL MARTYRDOM, ANNOTATED NEWS, ECOANIMAL, SAVING THE PLANET  2 Responses »
Jul 062012
 

By Patrice Greanville, Editor, TGP


Foie Gras: How it’s done. Courtesy of Sarah Edgar/Restaurant Business.

Download full graphic here: foieGrasHIW

Some readers have asked why we “waste” space on TGP defending ducks and geese…when there are so many urgent issues afflicting humans, the planet, and so on that need attention.

Such readers, am afraid, are missing the point, and their attitude is reminiscent of the famous “straw man argument” so frequently utilized by rightwingers, trolls, and corporate apologists to push back or shame leftists or anyone seeking to redress legitimate grievances. The assumption here, which seems so logical on the surface, is that there’s a scale of priorities in the universe of struggles against the status quo, and that concerning oneself with causes that, in the critic’s opinion, are of lesser value is questionable at best, and possibly a betrayal of the overall objectives of the struggle. Such attacks, mind you, usually originate with people who, while pelting activists for their supposed broken priority compass, do absolutely nothing to better this world in any way whatsoever. This, however,  is not a fact that per se should disqualify their complaint.  In truth, in a rational world, and following the most elementary rules of utilitarianism, we should pay attention to our priorities. We should always try to attend to the most urgent calamity afflicting the largest number of sentient creatures and inducing the most serious consequences.  Waging any kind of battle, any kind of struggle, without a sense of where the importance of each campaign element lies is to doom the enterprise to chaos. Continue reading »

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SUMMER READS & beyond: Is Berlin on your mind?

 BOOK NOTES, EU.Germany, FICTION  2 Responses »
Jul 062012
 

Shakespeare & Company, a venerable Parisian bookstore, has this to say about our senior editor and novelist Gaither Stewart’s ONCE IN BERLIN:

“Gaither Stewart has written a wonderful collection of stories that leaves an indelible mark in the back of the mind. Berlin is not only the setting of these stories but also one of the most important characters. There is an intelligent subtlety to how Berlin invades the collection. The city’s ties to the West and ties to the East are beautifully woven into the characters’ personalities. It is a fantastic collection and a great incite into a city that is unsure of itself.”

Sample this excerpt, the title story from Stewart’s collection ONCE IN BERLIN, and, if you will, tell us what you think.
—The Editors

Our bard in front of the bookstore. It’s been said that few capture the essence of Europe better than transplanted Americans.

ONCE IN BERLIN

By Gaither Stewart

Karl Friedrich Strack was standing on the upper level exit of the Benjamin Franklin Hospital holding a bunch of red roses. His father had just died. He lifted his eyes toward the late afternoon skies and dispassionately observed the flow of formations of soundless birds, masses of specks dotting the leaden late winter sky. They seemed to be passing over Pankow in the northern part of the city. Continue reading »

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California enacts nation’s first foie gras ban [updated]

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANIMAL DEFENDERS, ANIMAL MARTYRDOM, ANNOTATED NEWS, SAVING THE PLANET  3 Responses »
Jul 062012
 

When it comes to money or just about any whimsical reason, man’s cruelty toward helpless creatures is literally boundless. Fortunate that some decent human beings do hold the line against such gross insensitivity, yet this is a very thin, way overstretched line with relatively few resources. Its precariousness in the face of amply funded barbarism and repugnantly misallocated resources—wars, profiteering, unequal income distributions, etc.— is an eloquent commentary on the way humans manage their affairs.

U P D A T E D

By Patrice Greanville

CALIFORNIA gets a big “Bravo!” in this quarter for being the first state in the union to ban the force-feeding of animals in the production of food. We are certain not everyone will cheer. Addiction to some foods is hard to break, and besides not everyone, even among sincere animal defenders, is or will ever be a vegan.  But that’s the direction that humanity should take. Compassion is one of the noblest virtues and we violate it with banal abandon at our own peril.

YET, AS EXPECTED, THE OPPOSITION TO THIS BAN has been mobilizing. Read the update below by Katie Waldeck, and an excellent comment stream from the Care2 site devoted to animal questions. Continue reading »

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