Monday, April 4, 2022
The Maternity Hospital Mystery   SHARE The news stories out of Ukraine have been horrifying, and grisly. The media’s endless stream of atrocities are enough to induce high blood pressure, insomnia, panic attacks. But the bombing of a maternity ward takes the cake for pure evil. For some, it induces a bloodlust for Putin. For others, there is a heart full of pity and a desire to send aid to the victims. Some are shunning the news because it’s too grim—or because they have lost trust in the media, or both. But there is a smaller group that often finds independent investigative journalism more credible than the MSM. I am one of them. If a piece offers new information, shows old information in a new light, or makes a compelling argument, I like to share it so that others can gauge its merit. The following article shows the story of the maternity ward bombing in Mariupol in a new light.

(1 comments)        Thursday, May 28, 2020
Global Crisis Spurs Global Activism   SHARE A virtual tsunami of change, including Covid-19, global warming, economic collapse, and war-mongering among nuclear armed nations is rapidly sweeping the old world away. Can we homo sapiens, having failed to mitigate or prevent these oncoming catastrophes, possibly affect in any meaningful way the shape of the next world to come? Feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and depression are widespread. But “Hope”, as defined by Vaclav Havel, ”...is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good....”  There are those among us who are motivated by that kind of hope. Norman Stockwell has granted permission to publish his article, originally  appearing on Progressive.org, in which he introduces us to a powerful “manifesto for change.”  

(3 comments)        Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Nearly 200 Groups in Canada Vow to Fight for Covid-19 Recovery That Puts Human and Ecological Health First   SHARE "The choices we make now about how to recover from this pandemic will shape not only our health and economic future, but also the future of human life on this planet." So says Canadian Labour Congress president Hassan Yussuff. A new alliance of nearly 200 groups in Canada are building a movement for a Just Recovery for All that will put our planet and its people first (corporations are not people in Canada). Global warming, the imminent threat of nuclear war, and the ravenous Covid-19 have brought the earth and all of its inhabitants hurtling rapidly toward a precipice beyond which there is no return. I am thrilled to read about the brave efforts of our Canadian neighbors to build an expansive and perhaps even universal movement to stop this runaway train before it carries us over the edge. In light of their passion, their diligence, and their commitment I believe some readers might want to join them and lend support to this vital effort. To learn more, see https://justrecoveryforall.ca/ 

(3 comments)        Monday, September 17, 2018
'I Thought He Might Inadvertently Kill Me'   SHARE The previously anonymous accuser of Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, now provides a detailed public account in the Washington Post of Kavanaugh’s attempt to forcibly rape her. Christine Blasey Ford, now a university professor, provides corroborative evidence in support of her claims. She says she decided to go public because she wanted to be the one to tell her own story rather than risk having someone else tell it.

       Friday, September 7, 2018
Enablers, Usurpers, Heros or All of the Above?   SHARE                    By Juan Cole                SecretsThe plot sickens with anonymous revelations spilling forth from the White House into the New York Times. The author (or authors) of Thursday's mysterious oped report that the President has gone off the rails and is rumbling like a volcano about to explode. That much we knew. But the mystery author goes on to assert that Captain Queeg is so dangerous to the country that a clandestine White House cabal is all that prevents him from acting on his most dangerous impulses. But other more important questions remain to be answered. Are these insiders acting for the good of the country, like Little Hans with his finger in the dyke? Or should they be viewed as enablers, who take credit for policy wins that progressives can only decry?

(4 comments)        Thursday, August 9, 2018
Nicaragua: Coup Attempt Instigated by U.S. Appears to lose Steam   SHARE  As protestors attempt to oust Ortega, with a little help from their American friends, violent conflicts with the police are subsiding and the coup seems to be losing steam. Protests that were started three months ago by university students who were angry about the president's plan to reduce social security benefits, quickly escalated into demands that Ortega step down. But protestors are becoming disillusioned, as they begin to see through the disinformation and propaganda disseminated by the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, other U.S. supported NGOs, and the international media. Observing at first hand the chaos and suffering that has ensued, many Nicaraguans who originally supported regime change, are withdrawing their support for the coup.

       Friday, August 3, 2018
Protests in Nicaragua? Ortega's Actions are Mischaracterized in the Media   SHARE               The mainstream media consistently portray the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, as a bloodthirsty tyrant whose policies are hurting the elderly and the poor. The protesters, who are neither elderly nor poor, but college students working with the country's wealthiest families and agencies of the U.S., are providing the impetus for a broad movement to oust him. But the situation in Nicaragua is far more complex than the media's simplistic, black and white characterization. This article presents facts and a level of nuanced complexity that the New York Times and the Washington Post are apparently unable (unwilling?) to handle.

(1 comments)        Saturday, July 14, 2018
American Media are Clueless about Regime Change for Nicaragua   SHARE The U.S. media are peddling disinformation again. This time the right-wing American neocons are targeting Nicaragua for "regime change," and once again the media are falling in line. Daniel Ortega is falsely portrayed as a brutal dictator impoverishing the country and violently suppressing peaceful student demonstrations. But in truth, the student protestors are being indoctrinated, supported, and trained by the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, and other tax-payer supported NGOs, whose mission is to spread democracy around the world, just as they did in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine and elsewhere. And Ortega has long been anathema to the powerful families known as the oligarchs. False stories are spread to whip up anger and righteous indignation against Ortega.

(1 comments)        Tuesday, July 10, 2018
The Suffering of Central Americans is New to Us?   SHARE s It seems that U.S. pundits and politicians just discovered Washington’s decisions to harm Central American families. For the New York Times, “separating families…is something new and malicious,” reflecting Trump’s “heartlessness” and violating “fundamental American values.” “This, apparently, is how you turn off the idea of America,” Alex Wagner (The Atlantic) added. The Los Angeles Times thinks “the administration’s cold-hearted approach to enforcement has crossed the line into abject inhumanity,” departing– so we’re to believe– from past practice.

(5 comments)        Monday, July 9, 2018
The National Endowment for Democracy Instigates Regime Change   SHARE At a recent Congressional hearing, the National Endowment for Democracy, a taxpayer-funded organization, explained that its mission is to spread democracy around the world. Under questioning, its spokesmen revealed the ways they are currently working toward the overthrow of Nicaragua's President Ortega. They named other countries in their long range sites, including China and North Korea. The men testified that they hope Congress will continue to fund their work as they have done for the past several decades. This testimony elicited pushback from a few members, but it also received fulsome praise from others. While this information may be shocking to some readers, the mainstream media apparently have not found it important enough to warrant coverage. 

       Thursday, July 5, 2018
Lord Mayor of Sheffield, UK, Announces that Trump is Persona non Grata   SHARE  "In this current climate of politics where fear and hate is widespread, the last thing we need is a world leader like Donald J Trump being a spurting cesspit of hate, stoking divisions betweencommunities while scapegoating minorities," declared Sheffield's Lord Mayor Magid Magid

(2 comments)        Saturday, June 2, 2018
U.S. Blames Hamas for Massacre of Palestinians and Vetoes UN Rebuke of Israel   SHARE On Friday, the U.S. alone vetoed a U.N. Security Council measure denouncing Israel's massacre of peaceful Palestinian demonstrators. According to Ambassador Haley, Hamas is to blame for Israel's recent killing of at least 122 civilians, including women and children. There were no Israeli injuries. 

       Sunday, August 5, 2007
America 2000-2006   SHARE This is an epic poem about the legendary anti-hero, George W. Bush: his ascension to power, his foreign exploits, his domestic achievements, and his profound impact on his country and the world.