ISRAEL V. IRAN: NEW YORK TIMES STARTS THE “GREAT WAR” JUST A TAD EARLY. (Common Dreams) The New York Times Magazine Magazine comes out with a lurid cover suggesting that this war is already underway and will escalate against the current source of an “existential fear” which seems always to drive Israeli foreign policy. A [...]
DRONES OVER BAGHDAD PROVOKE IRAQI OUTRAGE. (New York Times) The troops are gone but the big U.S. Embassy and other U.S. facilities in the city and country remain, and the State Department, in an obscure report on “diplomatic security,” reveals that it is maintaining a fleet of drone aircraft to provide surveillance only (they are [...]
A guest blog by Michael Parenti When I recently went to Alta Bates hospital for surgery, I discovered that legal procedures take precedence over medical ones. I had to sign intimidating statements about financial counseling, indemnity, patient responsibilities, consent to treatment, use of electronic technologies, and the like. One of these documents committed me to [...]
The federal government’s case against banks for duplicitous and potentially illegal mortgage practices may be reaching an unsatisfactory final settlement even as one of the largest perpetrators of foreclosure fraud takes outrageous steps to block further investigation into their actions at the height of the housing crisis. Tens of millions of homeowners remain “underwater,” owing [...]
THE BIG PROBLEM AROUND HERE IS THE BIG GOVERNMENT’S WASTEFUL SPENDING. THE OTHER BIG PROBLEM AROUND HERE IS THAT WE DON’T HAVE NEARLY ENOUGH SNOWPLOWS WHEN THE BIG SNOW STORMS HIT. (Tom Dispatch) Christian Parenti observes that, as effects of climate change produce ever more drastic effects with which only large governmental agencies (like FEMA) [...]
THE MORAL CAVALRY TO THE RESCUE: SOFT IMPERIALISM IN THE SOAPY WORLD OF AMERICAN VIEW OF OTHERS. (Counterpunch) Laura Agustin de-constructs the moral world of journalist Nicholas Kristof, one of many operators in a “rescue industry” not content to leave all the self-congratulatory opportunities to Oprah Winfrey. In the name of humanity (as in anti-prostitution [...]
STATE OF THE UNION? AWFULLY SHAKY. STATE OF GLOBAL CORPORATE PROFITS? NEVER BEEN BETTER. AND THERE LIES THE HEART OF AMERICA’S JOBS CRISIS… (Robert Reich) President Obama delivered his fourth State of the Union address to Congress last night, brimming with optimism and laying out another laundry list of proposals and wonderful plans that, as [...]
Swathed in comforting talking points and politically sharpened rhetoric, a seemingly innocuous report from President Obama’s “jobs panel” may be a troubling preview of the near future in Washington policymaking. It also underscores the likelihood that President plans on running his hotly contested reelection campaign and his presumptive second term as a committed centrist. One [...]
“THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF PURPOSIVE SOCIAL ACTION.” (Asia Times) This phrase, found in the work of sociologist Robert Merton, is invoked by Pepe Escobar in commenting on the situation of the current conflict between Iran and the West resulting from Iran’s alleged development of capacity for nuclear warfare. The European Union has just issued an [...]
US AND BRITISH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICIES: THE NEW BOSS IS LIKE THE LAST BOSS IS LIKE THE NEXT BOSS. (John Pilger) This is the essence of a new essay by British journalist John Pilgar. Moved by the death of a long-time protester of the Anglo-American decision in the 1960s to “clear” the Indian Ocean [...]
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