Search results for: american empire

Jesus, Evangelicals, and American Empire

image above: thenile.com.au WN: “Empire” by nature is gargantuan evil. There is none known to history that has not been such. Most American Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics amongst other religious instinctively oppose thinking the United States is precisely such an Empire. Billy Graham and a host of lesser religious routinely prayed for Empire victory […]

Empire or Humanity?

By Howard Zinn Posted on August 15, 2021 image above from the Movie Poster: The Fall of the American Empire WN: A character in the movie highlighted says: “That’s what destroyed the United States: money.” Now greed, fear and power—these three–remain for every empire known to humanity. But the greatest of these is Greed. And […]

Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire

SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. The website is dedicated to: The Gospel as Counter-Narrative to Empire.     More on Empire below. PLEASE NOTE: the Sitemap. There is also a list of all Book Reviews separately, and alongside each post. You may search the Blog too. Please consider […]

An American Kingdom

By Stephanie McCrummen July 11, 2021 photo above: Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth. (Dylan Hollingsworth for The Washington Post) WN: Oh dear! Oh dear! As my good Jesuit-trained friend Gerry Ayotte says, drawing on Tradition back to the Fathers and Mothers of the Church, God speaks loudest in the silence. In the fully choreographed […]

Empire Politician:

The new president’s paper trail reveals a man who has often betrayed his own bedrock principles. Jeremy Scahill April 28 2021 WN: The article highlighted pulls no punches in underscoring Biden’s war-hawk and pro-police brutality policies over a lifetime as a politician. He–as anyone–still may change! But not his brutal record, as laid out in […]

The American Abyss

A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next. By Timothy Snyder Jan. 9, 2021 photo above (screenshot): The police forced the crowd out of the Capitol building after facing off in the Rotunda, Jan. 6, 3:40 p.m.Credit…Ashley Gilbertson/VII, for The New York Times WN: This is brilliant–and scary!–analysis. […]

Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity.

Jesus Was a Victim of Empire. Acknowledging This Should Transform Christianity. By Christine Mungai, Truthout Part of the Series: Religion’s Role in the Struggle for Justice December 16, 2020 photo above: howafrica.com WN: This is the central theme of this website! A significant portion of what follows is from the previous highlighted part. There is […]

Donald Trump: An American Tragedy for the U.S. and the Entire World

By Prof Rodrigue Tremblay Global Research, October 24, 2019 “If this [U.S.] government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful […]

The Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and American Exceptionalism

Posted on July 21, 2015 by christian hegemony Challenging Christian Hegemony Practical tools for recognizing and resisting Christian dominance WN: Every time I read an essay so well presented as that highlighted below (and so beyond tragic!), as a committed follower of Jesus, I know that I don’t have to wear the blame, but I […]

Empire’s Religion: Arundhati Roy Confronts the Tyranny of the Free Market

Published on Thursday, September 15, 2016 by Common Dreams by Jake Johnson photo above: ‘Whether she is writing of Kashmir or of the Palestinians, of American foreign policy or of terror in the Middle East, of environmental degradation or of the threat posed by nuclear proliferation, [author and activist Arundhati] Roy,’ writes Johnson,  ‘maintains a […]

Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

September 26, 2014 by CHARLES R. LARSON WN: There is someone of my acquaintance who rails against the US Black community for its violence of Black on Black, while almost completely downplaying police violence against Blacks. He also rails against them for their poverty: they just are not enterprising, and therefore deserve their state, end […]

Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018

At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]

The Great Sumas Lake Heist: A Guilty Little Secret in Plain Sight

Sumas Lake until a century ago covered about 10% of the Fraser Valley’s fertile farmland. Then it was ‘disappeared.’ Whatever happened? And what to do about it? NOTE: There are several footnotes that add related material to the article, that for some may be of interest. NOTE 2:It was exactly a year ago that the […]

Focus On: Mapping Militarism 2020

by David Swanson May 6, 2020 WN: The article highlighted below represents a brilliant and multiplex presentation of the worldwide realities of the premier world blight of militarism. One could call it the Ultimate Virus, the Unremitting Pandemic–that few even recognize for the Monstrous World Nightmare it is. The other day I was forwarded an […]

The Mumbai Bombs, July 2006

July 12, 2006 Dear Editor: Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter MacKay predictably was the pot that called the kettle black in (otherwise legitimately) condemning the bombing horror in Mumbai this week. Last July Prime Minister Tony Blair likewise as hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote […]

Reflections on “Drone Strikes and Torture Will Cause Big Blowback”

November 5, 2021 by Brian Cloughley photo above: AK Rockefeller – CC BY 2.0 WN: It is ominous to read at the end of the highlighted article: Although the long-term consequences are measureless, there is no doubt that “explosive events” will blow back for a long time to come. The military-industrial complex has been manufacturing […]

Interaction With “The CIA: 70 Years of Organized Crime”

September 22, 2017 by Douglas Valentine – Lars Schall photo above by Tom Thai | CC BY 2.0 WN: Welcome to America the Beautiful. As kids, my brothers and I loved the highlighted song, as sung by George Beverly Shea–who performed in front of more people than any other singer in history. We played it […]

Legacy of Shame:

October 19, 2021 by Kenn Orphan photo above: Photograph Source: Reagan White House Photographs – Public Domain WN: Saint Augustine recounts this story of Empire: The king asked the fellow, “What is your idea, in infesting the sea?” And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, “the same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because […]

Engelhardt, A Hellfire World

By Tom Engelhardt photo above: ‘THEY ARE ALL DEAD’: Harrowing leaked footage shows US drone strikes in Afghanistan as pilot admits killing two civilians & child by mistake; Imogen Braddick WN: What can one say? God damn the monstrous capacity of the West (of course elsewhere too!) to cold-bloodedly commit mass murder via drone strike […]

9/11 was a test:

Essay by Carlos Lozada Illustration above: by Patrik Svensson Sept. 3, 2021 [pullquote]. . . the official response to 9/11 unleashed some of its worst qualities: deception, brutality, arrogance, ignorance, delusion, overreach and carelessness.[/pullquote]WN: Below are excerpts from an outstanding essay by a Pulitzer Prizer winner for criticism in 2019. But the last lines, though […]

Bomber Biden Sends in B-52 Bombers in a Tantrum over Taliban Advance

August 12, 2021 by Dave Lindorff photo above: AC-130 Spectre gunship rains random death from the sky in the name of America (US Air Force photo) WN: So much for “Mr. Nice Guy Biden”–who is just one more of a long line of Presidential mass murderers. The West fawns over his repeated–indeed admirable–rising above personal […]

Alfred McCoy, How Washington Lost the Ultimate Drug War

May 6, 2021 By Alfred McCoy photo above: Afghan War Kills 3 Children a Day: Report | Common Dreams News WN: The folly and futility of American Empire Wars know no bounds. This applies to Canada too and the West in general–all bundled together by greed, fear, will to domination, xenophobia, and arrogant incompetence. Democracy?–not […]

Joe Biden’s War Powers:

Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill April 28 2021 Recording: Go to website and listen to Joe Biden’s War Powers 2021-04-28·36 min. Transcript excerpts below. illustration above: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism by Joel Andreas. WN: In the end, Joe Biden’s devout Catholicism, his profound empathy from personal tragedy, his commitment to the welfare […]

There Is No Christian Case for Trump

January 30, 2020 Peter Wehner Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC photo above: President Trump speaking to evangelical supporters in Miami, Florida on January 3, 2020.Eva Marie Uzcategui / Reuters WN: There are multiple reasons for critiquing “Christian” behaviour in America. Especially egregious is white Evangelical embrace of Trump. In this […]

The Unraveling of America

by Wade Davis August 6, 2020 Wade Davis holds the Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. His award-winning books include “Into the Silence” and “The Wayfinders.” His new book, “Magdalena: River of Dreams,” is published by Knopf. WN: This is an exceptional article! There is however a […]

Life Under the Bomb Means a Life of Resistance

Published on Thursday, August 06, 2020 by Common Dreams by Rev. John Dear photo above: “Our message over the years has been simple and urgent: Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They don’t make us safer; they don’t provide jobs; they don’t make us more secure—these are age-old lies. Instead they bankrupt us, economically and […]

Saying Goodbye to Sam

Oct 28, 2019 Opinion | TD originals sketch above: Mr. Fish / Truthdig Chris Hedges Columnist Chris Hedges is a Truthdig columnist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, a professor in the college degree program offered to New Jersey state prisoners by Rutgers… And so much more! WN: Chris Hedges is […]

Why Did Bush Go to War in Iraq? The Answer Is More Sinister Than You Think

Why Did Bush Go to War in Iraq? The Answer Is More Sinister Than You Think No, it wasn’t because of WMDs, democracy or Iraqi oil. Published on Wednesday, March 20, 2019 by Ahsan I Butt Al-Jazeera English photo above: (From left) Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush, and Vice President Dick […]

Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism

Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism March 15, 2019 by Ben Debney drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair WN: There is much on “savage capitalism” on this website. This expression likely references Rudyard Kipling’s famous line “The savage wars of peace” from his classic pro-American Empire poem: “The White Man’s Burden: The United States […]

Trump’s Massive Corruption Exposé

Trump’s Massive Corruption Exposé WN: The sooner the All-In-One Ultimate Ugly American, Planet Enemy Number One and Supreme Narcissist is off the World Stage, the more safely we can all breathe again… Not that the brutal American Empire will fall because of Trump’s exiting Stage Alt-Right. But it’s for the moment a good start…   […]

The Kavanaugh Hearings

The Kavanaugh Hearings by John Graham WN: This is very wise commentary — thanks to one of my nieces for sending it our way. Of course, the issue is far greater: ultimate American Empire privilege in a world designed and brutally buttressed to be its oyster. No one in the American political system is exempt, […]

Obama’s Imperial Presidency

September 14, 2018 by Carl Boggs photo above: The U.S. Army | CC BY 2.0 WN: It is astounding that Obama (no less Hillary Clinton) was through and through a warmonger on a grand scale exceeding both Bushes, and far more so far than Trump. This is laid out in the article below. Obama is […]

Reckoning With John McCain

Respecting the best of McCain requires grappling with the rest of McCain. By Timothy Patrick McCarthy Twitter August 27, 2018 photo above: John McCain in 2007. (Dennis Van Tine / MediaPunch / IPX) WN: In my view, the article highlighted below is a respectful, balanced assessment of Senator McCain, when seen through the lenses of […]

Millennial Evangelicals Diverge from Their Parents’ Beliefs

The separation of families at the border, climate change, and various progressive causes have galvanized young Christians. By Eliza Griswold August 27, 2018 WN: I have a white Canadian Evangelical friend who expresses being fed up with white Evangelical-bashing — in particular towards white Evangelicals south of the border1. I argue on the contrary that […]

Trump is now dangerous – that makes his mental health a matter of public interest

Bandy Lee This world authority in psychiatry, consulted by US politicians, argues that the president’s mental fitness deserves scrutiny Sun 7 Jan 2018 00.05 GMT Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 18.35 GMT WN: Today in Rwanda, we discussed why many African leaders have destroyed home and people over whom they rule(d).  When traits such as […]

The Last Temptation

How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory Michael Gerson April 2018 Issue Politics WN: This is a greatly informed, wise and even hopeful assessment of what has happened to white Evangelicals in America since their embrace of Trump (81% voted for […]

The Last Real Evangelical: Evangelist Billy Graham

Feb 23, 2018 photo above: Evangelist Billy Graham speaks in Dallas at the 1974 Southern Baptist Convention. (AP) by Mel White / MelWhite.org1 WN: On the day of Billy Graham’s death (February 21, 2018), I posted a critical commentary on Graham. Today I post a positive reflection by Mel White, who counted Graham as a […]

Billy Graham and the Gospel of Fear

February 21, 2018 byCecil Bothwell Photo above by Richard Bromley | CC BY 2.0 [NOTE: For a differing view with my reflection on it, please also see my February 23, 2018 post about Billy Graham.] WN: Billy Graham’s passing (February 21, 2018) will occasion countless eulogies the world over; he will be touted as the […]

Kipling, the ‘White Man’s Burden,’ and U.S. Imperialism

by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney (Nov 01, 2003) photo above: The Moro Massacre (March 9, 1906): Phillipines – emblematic of the real meaning of “the white man’s burden” WN: The “white man’s burden” has ever been the white man’s horror, or the white man’s alibi, or the white man’s curse, or the […]

1,516 mass shootings in 1,735 days: America’s gun crisis – in one chart

Monday 2 October 2017 19.09 BST WN: In the introductory essay to my website, I write: ***************************************************************** Nuclear strategist Albert Wohlstetter described this longstanding [American] policy as a “delicate balance of terror (ibid, p. 27).” In short, any number of nuclear war planners in Washington contemplated striking 295 Soviet cities, with an estimated death toll total of […]

Exploring the Shadows of America’s Security State

Or How I Learned Not to Love Big Brother By Alfred W. McCoy [This piece has been adapted and expanded from the introduction to Alfred W. McCoy’s new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.] WN: A family member once quipped about the United States that she would […]

The Demolition of U.S. Global Power

Donald Trump’s Road to Debacle in the Greater Middle East  Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Trumping the Empire Posted by Alfred McCoy at 4:23pm, July 16, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. By Alfred W. McCoy excerpts: Trump’s Demolition Job Despite the obvious differences in their economic circumstances, there remain some telling resonances between Britain’s postwar politics and America’s troubles today. […]

Worried About Those Global Cyber Attacks? They Were Started by Washington

Worried About Those Global Cyber Attacks? They Were Started by Washington The notorious US spy agencies invented this monster, first with the Stuxnet virus against Iran—but then they lost control over it. By William Greider JUNE 30, 2017 WN: Of course, the United States has never been the “peacekeeper that upholds the world’s higher values”, as […]

The Gospel Counter-Narrative

WN On April 4, 2017, our pastor, Rob Brown, at Eden Mennonite Church in Chilliwack BC preached a great sermon about the Counter-Narrative in the Gospel stories, including the Ultimate Counter-Narrative: The Resurrection. I asked Rob for permission to upload the audio recording (you do not have to sign up for DropBox!) of the sermon (mp3 […]

Obama: a Hollow Man Filled With Ruling Class Ideas

Obama: a Hollow Man Filled With Ruling Class Ideas JUNE 2, 2017 by PAUL STREET WN: The review below of the recent massive biography of Barack Obama is scathing with reference to Obama’s supreme narcissism (matching Trump’s one could argue, though not in constant bombast). Paul Street powerfully demonstrates how Obama, in a long line […]

America’s Iran Hysteria

The Irrationality of Iran Vilification By Danny Sjursen Posted by Danny Sjursen at 7:46am, May 30, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. WN: It is now almost in every geopolitical instance a truism that if the United States says “black” the reality is the inverse – or significantly other. Such is the case in the article highlighted below. America’s view […]

Getting Through U.S. Immigration – Spoof

WN: This brief spoof captures something tragically larger about American Empire. [su_video url=”http://waynenorthey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/USA-spoof.mp4″]

The Banality of War

WN: Below is the first footnote of an essay for a possible chapter in an upcoming book slated for fall publication, Hellrazed, edited by Kevin Miller, of Hellbound? (the documentary) fame. I look at the issues of war and hell together from a Christian perspective. I periodically update the essay, then upload the revised version […]

Constantine in Canada – Ron Dart – with Vancouver letter re: Franklin Graham

February 27, 2017 Constantine in Canada: The Conservative Evangelicals Ron S. Dart WN: Years ago, I wrote an editorial in The Mennonite, a U.S.-based periodical, about evangelism being carried out – without the Gospel.  The Editor later informed me that he had never received so many angry Letters to the Editor attacking my article in his […]

We Are All Deplorables

Posted on Nov 20, 2016 By Chris Hedges an excerpt: Those cast aside by the neoliberal order have an economic identity that both the liberal class and the right wing are unwilling to acknowledge. This economic identity is one the white underclass shares with other discarded people, including the undocumented workers and the people of color demonized by the carnival […]

An Open Letter to Michelle Obama, October 13, 2016

 WN: A friend reminded me, in response to that below, that none of us in the first world is untainted vis à vis violence. And with that taintedness is a bending at least towards hypocrisy and Pharisaism – which my friend also reminded me about. So with that mea culpa, please read on.: Dear […]

The London Bombs, July 2005

By Wayne Northey July 9, 2005 Dear Editor: Prime Minister Tony Blair hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote to the major powers that aerial bombing of civilians had “profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity” and was “inhuman barbarism.” He later as disingenuously referred to the December 7, 1941 […]

Mr. Harper, But Emperor Bush Has Nothing on At All!!!

By Wayne Northey Stephen Harper is a scary man. He is at best sycophant, at worst dupe, of the confidence racket called American Foreign Policy. There is a growing collection of articles on my computer about American Empire and “Emperor” George W. Bush. The assortment exceeds to the point of crescendo journalist Serge Schmemann’s agonizing […]

Blowback

The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Chalmers Johnson, New York: Henry Holt, 2000, 268 pp. It is the human condition that one shoots the messenger when the message is unliked. When links between smoking and cancer were first published in newspapers, subscriptions by smokers were cancelled to the newspapers! This phenomenon is ubiquitous. Prophets […]

Book Reviews List

SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. A Farewell To Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Gospel of Peace –Brian Zahnd Against The Death Penalty: Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment –Gardner C. Hanks A Gentler God: Breaking Free of the Almighty in the Company of the Human Jesus […]

Re-issuing: How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God

by Brendan O’Connor August 8, 2017 WN: I decided to republish this article of seven years ago. The supreme haughty superiority of Christians who just know all the massive, irrefutable science about human-caused climate change — as the massive scientific support for the Darwinian theory of evolution — are all a big hoax, “because the […]

Easter Song and Reflections on the Resurrection

***NOTE: Please check out the footnotes for additional, more detailed commentary. Also, there are poetry and songs in the final footnote; and four additional songs below that.*** Please also see two great sermons, one on Good Friday, the other on Easter Sunday, by my colleague Randy Klassen: both in the context of criminal/restorative justice. Easter […]

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. In an interview with Religion […]

Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking

WN: The host was the affable lawyer Gerry Palmer, quite well-known in Abbotsford for his work with numerous non-profit organizations, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of the Fraser Valley. Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking Philosopher’s Café: Legal Grounds Coffee House, Abbotsford, April […]

Thoughts on: “White People Explain Racism to Me”

By Elie Mystal Twitter November 15, 2021 photo above: (Fizkes / Shutterstock) WN: We Whites, lacking the lifelong experiences described in the article highlighted below, just don’t begin to get it. Anymore than a victim of serious and violent crime knows no one but others similarly harmed really get it. The next best, which is […]

On A letter from Hell

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist photo above: pxhere.com WN: It is interesting that the photo chosen for the article highlighted below (not shown above) is along the lines of what Larry Dixon wrote (The Other Side of the Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ teaching on hell 1 in apparent approval of an instance of […]

Josh McDowell steps back from ministry after controversial remarks on black families

By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter September 23, 2021 photo above: Josh McDowell speaks at Talbot Chapel at Biola University in California on January 21, 2020. | YouTube/Biola University WN: Meanwhile, 82 years and 150 books in, Christian “intellectual” McDowell has finally learned something about Black History in America? Thank God we’re never too old […]

This entire country is haunted

By Alicia Elliott July 12, 2021 photo above: The Mohawk Institute Residential School, referred to by former students as ‘the Mush Hole’ (Photograph by Alex Jacobs-Blum) WN: This statement from the article highlighted below haunts me: These acts were done on behalf of every non-Indigenous family who proudly calls themselves Canadians, because this is what […]

“The Apocalypse Has Begun”:

by David Cayley January 2, 2016 WN: This is a highly instructive essay. There is much on my website about David Cayley’s writings. Please see as well his masterful and massive book on Ivan Illich: Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. excerpts: Ivan Illich, Christ and Anti-Christ, René Girard  This article was written for The Palgrave […]

Opinion: It’s ‘The Code’ of the NHL, and it has no cure for stupid

Opinion by Ken Dryden May 27, 2021 photo above: Toronto center John Tavares is taken from the ice on a stretcher on May 20 after being injured during Game 1 of the Maple Leafs’ first-round playoff series against Montreal. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)  Ken Dryden, a former goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens and […]

I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry

WN: This review is from THE AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM Review: “I Was a Catholic Zionist“–An Eloquent Exploration of Judaism’s Moral and Ethical Tradition and Zionism’s Departure From It by Allan C. Brownfeld Issues Winter 2019 I Was a Catholic Zionist: A Biblical Challenge to Tribalism and Idolatry By Ted Schmidt 430 pages, $28.00 (information […]

Why Canada’s special forces ‘shadow army’ is still fighting ISIS

By Adnan R. Khan May 11, 2021 photo above: Spec Ops Magazine WN: In short, Canada’s Special Operations Regiment (CSOR), are a bunch of trained hitmen. There is no declared war Canada is in1. Testimonials are ubiquitous that intelligence gathered by CSOR and others by its very nature is often faulty, frequently manipulated, at best […]

Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre Rescinded

Mark Walker April 23, 2021 photo above: Kristina Barker for The New York Times WN: This kind of story can be repeated ubiquitously in European worldwide Empire/colonization history over many centuries. One post of many is:  The Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and American Exceptionalism. Related posts may be pursued there. “Moving on” as beneficiaries […]

How Trump Unleashed a Domestic Terrorism Movement—

“He tells them what to do. He tells them why they’re angry.” Mark Follman March+April 2021 Issue photo above: Nate Gowdy WN: Trump continues to inspire hatred and acts of violence worldwide. His is the height of White Grievance Politics–and so tragic for the millions of victims who fall prey to such xenophobia. A rewording […]

The fight to unionize Amazon is the most important labor story of this century

John W. Miller March 25, 2021 photo above: Screenshot, America: The Jesuit Review WN: Amazon/Jeff Bezos is possibly America’s most virulent symbol of full-bore sellout to Unadulterated Greed. Go for it, unions! excerpts: The campaign by Amazon workers to unionize in Alabama, with a vote that concludes on March 29, marks a new age in […]

The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America

Of the extraordinarily valuable and informative works for which Mr. Valentine is responsible, his latest, CIA As Organized Crime, may prove to be the best choice as an introduction to the dark realm of America’s hidden corruptions and their consequences at home and around the world. This new volume begins with the unlikely but irrevocable framework by which Mr. Valentine’s path led to unprecedented access to key Agency personnel whose witting participation is summarized by the chapter title: “How William Colby Gave Me the Keys to the CIA Kingdom.”

By illuminating CIA programs and systems of surveillance, control, and assassination utilized against the civilian population of South Vietnam, we are presented with parallels with operations and practices at work today in America’s seemingly perpetual war against terror.

Cornel West: The Whiteness of Harvard and Wall Street Is “Jim Crow, New Style”

By George Yancy, Truthout Published March 5, 2021 photo above: yankeewikis.com WN: I first became involved with men in prison in 1974, at a time the first prison I visited (Oakalla Prison, Burnaby BC, Canada) still operated under a military regimen with many ex-military hired as guards; with an ex-air force serviceman as chaplain who […]

Houses of hate:

Dangerous, racist and falling apart. By nearly every metric, the nation’s penal system is not just failing, it’s making things worse. By Justin Ling February 28, 2021 photo above: Medium security range at Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba (Correctional Services Canada/Flickr) WN: The article highlighted does not sugar-coat the reality: Canadian prisons (and […]

Technology of Death:

March 26, 2020 by Ramzy Baroud photo above: Sgt. Paul L. Anstine III, U.S. Marine Corps – Public Domain WN: Israel is a brutal Empire, only less so than the U.S in one respect: scale. excerpts: The Middle East region, battered by wars and adjoining humanitarian crises that have left millions of people stateless, hungry […]

On Some Bad House Manager Language

February 12, 2021 by Paul Street photo above: Backbone Campaign – CC BY 2. WN: The highlighted article is a succinct dismantling of any notion that the United States is a democracy. We Canadians and other democracies are plagued by some of the same issues. But the so-claimed “oldest democracy” was never intended to be, […]

Reckoning with the Toxicity of Christian Nationalism

By Bill Berkowitz February 8, 2021 WN: The article highlighted below is very disturbing for followers of the one Mark Lewis Taylor dubs The Executed God (book review here, with the subtitle: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America). I stand in perpetual amazement at how the New Testament Jesus is read to be […]

Killing Nora: The Real Reason Trump Should Have Been Impeached

January 22, 2021 by Nicky Reid cartoon: too true! WN: What is true of the Criminal Justice System is also “too true” in general of our living “normal lives” in the West. And it extends: to us in the West aware enough of what being in league/lockstep with Western powers (Five Eyes, NATO, NORAD etc., […]

The Man Card

WN: Please see this new and powerful video–free until November 3! It tells America’s story of the past half century through White Male Identity Politics. Canadian-born Liz Plank in her fall 2019 book (before the pandemic!), For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity states baldly: Although the news often focuses […]

Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act

Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act July 22, 2020 Bats With Napalm Vests and Other Great American Innovations by David Swanson WN: This is horrible! Unconscionable! Despicable! Exponentially Hypocritical! . . . and whatever other superlative expletives can be thrown at U.S. planning, developing, experimenting, and deploying […]

Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act

Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act July 22, 2020 Bats With Napalm Vests and Other Great American Innovations by David Swanson WN: This is horrible! Unconscionable! Despicable! Exponentially Hypocritical! . . . and whatever other superlative expletives can be thrown at U.S. planning, developing, experimenting, and deploying […]

An Open Letter To Joe Biden

Dear Mr. Biden. If I might be so bold, I wonder about connecting some dots at this incredible kairos moment of U.S. and world history. I was moved by your empathetic videoed message to the Floyd family during the funeral service in Houston. You have deeply suffered multiple losses as this article sensitively points out: […]

Itching for a brawl

To interpret the latest round of US-Iran tension, here is some history you need to know by Ken Sehested WN: This site provides thoughtful, informed, and pointed commentary on the sins of (American) Empire. The masthead reads: Daily Manna The eye sees what it brings the power to see. — Thomas Carlyle At the intersection […]

Crises in Iraq and Haiti Expose the Failure of Militarized Neoliberalism

It should be no surprise that the new governments installed by all these U.S. wars and coups are among the most corrupt regimes on earth.  Published on Thursday, October 10, 2019 by Common Dreams by Medea Benjamin and by Nicolas J S Davies photo above: Not only are they reeling from protests against government corruption […]

Why this ‘genius’ scholar is mapping out the world’s largest jail system

photo above: Kelly Lytle Hernández, who received the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant, views prison abolition through the eyes of rebels Fri 11 Oct 2019 by Sam Levin WN: In a revised forthcoming publication by Wipf and Stock Publishers, namely Volume One of Justice That Transforms, I write: Longtime Restorative Justice promoter Howard Zehr once directly critiqued […]

Beyond Impeachment: Remove This Regime from Below

October 1, 2019 by Paul Street photo above: White House – Public Domain WN: This is a powerful broadside against the Ultimate Bad Guy on the Planet: the Evil Empire of the United States of America! The vehemence is found not only in the colourful language, but even in the typos . . . Mr. […]

Donald Trump Is Finished

Sep 30, 2019 TD originals Bill Blum photo above: President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence at left, takes part in an Armed Forces event at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., on Monday. (Evan Vucci / AP) WN: Of all the vile presidents I have lived through, Trump is clearly the worst: as I […]

Tribunal Declares Trump and Duterte Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity

Tribunal Declares Trump and Duterte Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout Published March 14, 2019 photo above: CNN Politics WN: The article highlighted below describes a continuing horror story… Lord, have mercy. Then, I must confess that this article makes me hopping furious for another reason! I’m livid about the majority of […]

On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal

On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal Trudeau tried to pressure justice minister to cut deal to let corporation avoid bribery prosecution, she says. By Tyee Staff February 27, 2019 | TheTyee.ca photo above:Jody Wilson-Raybould: ‘I come from a long line of matriarchs and I am a truth teller in accordance with the […]

New Pro-Life Movement: ‘No’ to Trump; ‘yes’ to atheists

New Pro-Life Movement: ‘No’ to Trump; ‘yes’ to atheists Jan 17, 2019 by Peter Feuerherd Justice People photo above: Aimee Murphy, executive director of Rehumanize International, tells a group of pro-life activists at the 2018 March for Life Jan. 19 in Washington that it’s important for people to know that being pro-life means being against […]

How Israel Spies on US Citizens

A never-shown Al Jazeera documentary on the pro-Israel lobby in the United States reveals possibly illegal Israeli spying on American citizens, and the lobby’s fear of a changing political mood. By Alain Gresh August 31, 2018 photo above: Kids play next to an Israeli flag near the Israel-Syria border at the occupied Golan Heights in […]

The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism

The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Caribbean August 24, 2018 Slavery and the Origins of Capitalism by Louis Proyect WN: I wrote the following in introduction to a book similar in its findings about 19th-century American capitalism to 17th-century colonial capitalism, entitled The Half  Has Never […]

Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Will China Be the Next Global Hegemon?

Beijing’s Bid for Global Power in the Age of Trump “America First” Versus China’s Strategy of the Four Continents By Alfred W. McCoy image above: Visual Capitalist, from “The world’s top economy: the US vs China in five charts” WN: As usual, Dr. McCoy’s trenchant analysis proves compelling, sage, hugely informed, and immensely helpful. Trump’s […]

Pope revises catechism to say death penalty is ‘inadmissible’

Commits the church to working toward its abolition worldwide1 Aug 2, 2018 by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Theology   photo above: Pope Francis gestures before speaking about the death penalty at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, at the Vatican in this Oct. 11, 2017, file photo. […]

Judgment days

In a small Alabama town, an evangelical congregation reckons with God, President Trump and the meaning of morality Please go to the end to read the fascinating article by the above title and subtitle1. WN: Trump – “Angel of Light” A kind of mantra in my Canadian white evangelical upbringing went, “You can be sincere […]

How Martin Luther Paved the Way for Donald Trump

To understand why evangelicals support the president, look to the first Protestant. By Michael Massing April 19, 2018 illustration above by Sabine Formane WN: This article draws a fascinating direct line from Martin Luther in the early 16th century to Donald Trump in the 21st. There is likewise a fascinating/tragic direct line to be drawn […]

Pope Denounces ‘Mentality of Fear’ Caused by Nuclear Regimes, Urges Disarmament

Published on Friday, November 10, 2017 by Common Dreams At a seminar at the Vatican, Pope Francis praised the U.N.’s recent anti-nuclear weapons treaty by Julia Conley, staff writer photo above: Pope Francis called for nuclear disarmament at a Vatican summit on Friday, a week after an emotional anti-war speech at a military cemetery in […]

The Pentagon’s New Wonder Weapons for World Dominion

Or Buck Rogers in the 21st Century By Alfred W. McCoy [This piece has been adapted and expanded from Alfred W. McCoy’s new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.]  illustration above: Mongol airships fire disintegrator rays to destroy America. (Buck Rodgers, 2429 A.D., 2-9-1929, Roland […]

Why Trump Could Be Gone Before 2020

AUGUST 18, 2017 by PAUL STREET excerpts: Increasingly, though, one really must wonder if the arch-authoritarian racist idiot Donald Trump will make it to 2020. The supreme madness and evil of the rolling atrocity that is the Insane Clown Trump presidency has just now reached a new level of bizarre and scary-weird ruling-class dysfunction. Just last […]

The Fallout

Report Climate & EnvironmentHealthJustice July 10, 2017 In St. Louis, America’s nuclear history creeps into the present, leaching into streams and bodies. By Lacy M. Johnson photo above: For the first three months, the AEC didn’t own the property onto which it was dumping. The drivers worked for an independent company; one, Tom Greene, was a […]

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Aiding and Abetting the Tweeter-in-Chief

The Insult Wars in Washington  How They Blind Us to Our Troubles  By Tom Engelhardt Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 5:15pm, July 9, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. photo above: From the article highlighted below is this: But one tweet truly caught my attention, even if it was at the very beginning of a donnybrook that, with twists […]

Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, Two Impulsive Leaders Fan the Global Flames

Posted by Dilip Hiro at 6:51am, July 6, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. image above: Winning entry of this year’s International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest in Tehran. WN: The article highlighted below shows two impulsive leaders, Trump and Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman, to be hell-bent on fanning the flames of the Middle East, and thereby […]

The Unacknowledged Logic of North Korea’s Missile Tests

We may not like it, but nuclear weapons may be all that stands in the way of another US-conducted “regime change.” By Patrick Lawrence July 6, 2017 2:05 PM photo above: South Korean and U.S. Army tanks fire live rounds during a joint live-fire military exercise near the demilitarized zone in Pocheon, South Korea, April 21, […]

White Supremacy Is Anti-Gospel. I’m Glad the Southern Baptist Convention Agrees

WN: I copied the entire article below. It is about an historic decision by the Southern Baptist Convention. Russell Moore has been the head of the (SBC) Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission since 2013. As you can see from the links, he has been an amazing voice within those ranks for actually […]

Fifty Years On: MLK’s Concerns Still Plague Us, Including Militarism

Tuesday, 04 April 2017 photo above: Racism, extreme materialism and militarism are still inextricably linked, and still prevent our society’s becoming anything close to Dr. King’s “beloved community.” (Photo: Susan Melkisethian) KEVIN MARTIN AND REVEREND DR. HERBERT DAUGHTRY WN: The United States has acted like an empire since its inception: its two foundational sins are indigenous […]

For Abolition: Prisons and Police Are More Than Brutality, They’re State Terror

Saturday, 12 November 2016 00:00 By Frank Castro, The Hampton Institute | News Analysis photo above: Jobs For Felons Hub; Edited: LW / TO This is an incredibly powerful assessment of “state terror” in arguably the most oppressive democracy of recent times: the United States of America. The author’s analysis rings true at every turn: […]

The Republic Repeals Itself

By Andrew Sullivan WN: The article linked below is one of despair. There is no doubt this is a sentiment joined in by untold millions around the world, not least in America. However, Andrew Sullivan’s painting of the American Republic as an ideal to emulate was only ever that: an ideal with a hollowed-out centre. […]

Trump, America, and the Abyss

November 3, 2016 4:47 p.m. By Andrew Sullivan I have decided to post a few articles warning against Trump’s America. It is that dire. The world never has seen a potential evil dictator like Trump, in terms of capacity to do evil like no other before. Period. An evil dictator heading up the most evil […]

My Journey to the Center of the Alt-Right – The Huffington Post

By Luke O’Brien Illustrations By Mariano Pascual November 3, 2016 I went to a white nationalist ethnostate in Indiana. I got bounced from a secret meeting in D.C. I spent weeks figuring out how hate gurgles up from the nastiest recesses of the Internet. And I’m sorry to report that unconscionable racists will be a […]

PAULIST FATHERS STATEMENT ON MORAL ISSUES IN THE 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

photo above: St. Mary’s of the Lake, Lake George, N.Y. – Paulist Fathers, www.paulist.org Though this is not a ringing disavowal of war (when will the RC Church – and so many other churches – ultimately reject “just war” for the heresy it is?), it in many ways is encouraging. And though the Paulist Bishops […]

The Revenge of Roger’s Angels

How Fox News women took down the most powerful, and predatory, man in media. September 2, 2016 7:30 a.m. By Gabriel Sherman photo above: Wesley Mann/AUGUST: Roger Ailes. WN: There is something profoundly disturbing, but in no way surprising, about Roger Ailes, who recently was fired from Fox News, after his decades-long harassment and abuse […]

US War Crimes or “Normalized Deviance”

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 09:22 By Nicolas J.S. Davies, Consortium News | Op-Ed photo above: 1986 launch of the doomed spaceshuttle Challenger, with reference to the “normalization of deviance” in the NASA culture that led up to the disaster, an expression coined by sociologist Diane Vaughan [WN] This is as succinct and compelling a statement […]

The Myth of Trump’s Alternative Worldview

photo above: Supporters attend a campaign event for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, August 3, 2016. (Reuters / Eric Thayer) His foreign policy isn’t an alternative to US empire. It’s a cruder rendition of it. By John Feffer AUGUST 10, 2016 an excerpt: AN EXCEPTIONAL RULER Let […]

There’s No Business Like the Arms Business

photo above: A mural near the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. (David Holt / CC-BY-2.0) July 26, 2016 Tomgram: William Hartung, How to Arm a “Volatile” Planet Editorial by WN It is a very strange world: Michelle Obama makes a highly impassioned, brilliant speech at the Democratic National Convention – one nearly universally praised, […]

Re-Sacralizing Violence in the Left Behind Books

by Paul Nuechterlein An excerpt: From the perspective of mimetic theory, the most serious problem with the Left Behind series of novels, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins,(1[ Published by Tyndale in twelve volumes, 1995-2004.]) is their re-sacralization of violence. Their version of Jesus is no longer the Lamb slain but the same beastly […]

Is War the Real [U.S.] National Pastime?

These are excerpts from an interview with Eugene Jarecki, director of the documentary: “Why We Fight“. For consideration: “Pax Americana: War is the means by which Americans learn geography.” – Ambrose Bierce an excerpt: Q: It is very interesting that in the film you used the footage of [current US Defence Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld’s meeting […]

Emperor Bush, Pirate bin Laden, Calvin College, and the Gospel

image above: webpages.uidaho.edu WN: Evangelicals were in bed with former President George W. Bush like never before. They of course are out of sorts with President Obama. The Christian Left however hugely welcomed Obama, who has hardly since in any way (if ever) shown desert of the Nobel Peace Prize. The paper, written during the […]

Just War Against Terror

The Burden of American Power in a Violent World, Jean Bethke Elshtain, New York: Basic Books, 2003, 240 pp. The book is a compelling apologia and call for America to be the police force for the world… Elshtain’s book is grounded in the horror of September 11, 2001, which “provided the historical, political, and rhetorical […]

“Not Enough!” and International Restorative Justice

Colloquium on Violence & Religion (COV&R) Presentation, May 31 – June 4, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada WN: When I finally decided to register to present a paper at my friend Vern Redekop’s urging (he was the Conference host), there was only a slot left under French language workshops. I immediately asked two bilingual colleagues about […]

Restorative Justice

  NOTE: Some of what follows is excerpted from Chapter One of Justice That Transforms: Volume 1 WN: From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, is one of the three “grandfathers” (if one must use that term) chronologically of Restorative Justice, together with Mark Yantzi and Dave Worth, the first and longstanding […]