Blog

America’s Superpower Panic Monday, August 12th, 2019

Long After Hiroshima Wednesday, August 7th, 2019

How do we honor victims? We can remember them and appreciate who they were. But there were too many of them, and too many unknown to us. So, we can remember a sample of them, examples of them. And we can honor the living survivors, get to know and appreciate them while they are still alive. We can..

Read Full Story »

Poor Wittle CNN Wednesday, July 31st, 2019

“So, Senator Sanders, do you think that someone who’s profited from the current so-called healthcare system, like John Delaney, is qualified to tell you not to change it?” is a different sort of question from “So, Congressman Delaney, won’t good Americans run screaming from Senator..

Read Full Story »

Top End Travels: The Tiwi Islands, the Catholic Church and King Joe of Melville Island Friday, July 26th, 2019

Lush mangroves, the spray of emerald water from the Timor Sea, the sense of the untainted: the journey to the Tiwi Islands, some 80 kilometres north of Darwin, was crudely advertised as one of the Things to Do in the Northern Territory. “Take the opportunity to have a truly fantastic day out...

Read Full Story »

Southeast Asia Was Hit By a Record-Breaking Disaster; It Was Called the United States Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

In my town in the United States — as is not especially unusual — we have big memorials in prominent public places marking some of the most catastrophically immoral actions of the past. Unfortunately, all five of these major monuments celebrate and glorify these past horrors, rather than..

Read Full Story »

U.S. Troops Back in Saudi Arabia: What Could Go Wrong? Sunday, July 21st, 2019

The First Gulf War back in 1990 was a big huge success. One of the things it accomplished was a major U.S. troop presence in Saudi Arabia. Muslims around the world were outraged. Bombs were repeatedly set off at Khobar Towers where troops were stationed. In 1998 Osama Bin Laden declared: “For..

Read Full Story »

Mike Gravel Should Be In the Debates Thursday, July 18th, 2019

I spoke with Senator Mike Gravel on Thursday and asked him whether it seemed fair to him to be excluded from Democratic Party Presidential Primary debates on the basis of his performance in polls that did not include his name among those whom people could say they supported. Of course, he said..

Read Full Story »

Is Tulsi Gabbard Qualified? Wednesday, July 17th, 2019

I want Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic Presidential debates because she speaks out against wars. She raises the topic unasked. She wants various wars ended or not launched. She wants impeachment made automatic for presidents who launch wars. What’s not to love? I also want Mike Gravel included..

Read Full Story »

Military Bill Amended for the Better: This Pig Has Really, Really Good Lipstick Sunday, July 14th, 2019

The latest U.S. House of Representatives version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which is beyond global in scope and not the least bit defensive, offended Donald Trump’s desire for limitless power and spending in dozens of ways detailed by the people he employs to write things longer..

Read Full Story »

The Obama Wars Wednesday, July 10th, 2019

By “the Obama wars” I don’t mean some overgrown infants on television screaming racist insults or pretending that opposing racism requires cheering for Obama. I mean: the widespread indiscriminate murder of human beings with missiles — many of them from robot airplanes — let loose to..

Read Full Story »

How – and How Not – to Restore Trust in Media Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019

In most industries, a quality product is easy to identify, thanks to markers like price, brand, and reviews. But in journalism, discerning quality is becoming increasingly complicated, not least because, in the digital age, trusted brands like the BBC or The New York Times, which can be expected to..

Read Full Story »

Patriotism Is Too Small For My Family

Ending bigotry has gone mainstream among the enlightened people of the developed world. Did you spot the acceptable bigotry in that sentence? We’re against racism, sexism, and more kinds of bigotry than I could ever list. But the 96 percent of humanity that’s not within the United States is..

Read Full Story »

The Fourth of July is for Making Fun of Canada Monday, July 1st, 2019

Yay! It’s the Fourth of July! Time to blow some fingers off with firecrackers and laugh at the poor dumb bastards up north who think they got a better deal than the Great American Colonists without having to kill anybody in a War of Independence. Don’t the Canadians know that Freedom Isn’t..

Read Full Story »

Meritocracy Mythologizing Friday, June 28th, 2019

You’d think a publisher with this many names could check for glaring errors in its books: “Currency, Crown Publishing Group, Penguin Random House LLC.” And you’d be right. So this isn’t an error. It’s a lie accepted as a desirable myth: “Today it’s widely accepted that meritocracy..

Read Full Story »

This Is Really Not a Drill Thursday, June 27th, 2019

On Wednesday, the first 10 of the 20 Democrats whom the corporate media is permitting into what they call debates were asked what the greatest threat to the United States is. A worthy and funny answer would have been “MSNBC.” Another worthy and funny answer would have been “Donald Trump,”..

Read Full Story »

Life in Prison Thursday, June 20th, 2019

If you’re free, if you’re not locked behind bars (and I do realize that this is true of a smaller percentage of people in the so-called Land of the Free than anywhere else on earth), be grateful. One thing you can do is get your hands on important new books. I recommend this one: The Meaning of..

Read Full Story »

What Survives Genocide? Tuesday, June 18th, 2019

Jeffrey Ostler’s Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas, tells a complex, honest, and nuanced story of what overall and in many particular parts fits the UN definition of and the popular conception of genocide. So, of course, it is..

Read Full Story »

War on Iran Stupidest Idea Yet Recorded in a Human Brain Monday, June 17th, 2019

Scientists not employed by ExxonMobil or named Neil DeGrasse Tyson have reached a universal consensus. Wanting the United States to attack Iran is the single stupidest idea yet recorded in a human brain. In the words of one, “It isn’t even close.” In a peer-reviewed report on a controlled..

Read Full Story »

It’s the Emoluments, Stupid. Impeach for Iran. Friday, June 14th, 2019

The constitutional ban on receiving gifts or benefits while in office from the U.S. government or state governments (domestic “emoluments” – Article II, Section 1) is absolute, not waivable by Congress, and not subject to proving any particular corrupting influence. President Trump’s lease..

Read Full Story »

Anyone who’d rather not be shot should read this book Monday, June 10th, 2019

Thom Hartmann has long written and spoken on the topic of guns in the United States, along with many other topics. Of those topics he’s dealt with that I know anything about, I have not always agreed with him on every detail, but on most I’ve found him highly informative and persuasive. His new..

Read Full Story »