Search results for: trump

New Revelations Emerge on How Donald Trump Killed 400,000 (or More) Americans

David Corn Washington, DC, Bureau Chief, Bio | Follow photo above: President Donald Trump at a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, on March 22, 2020, with Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vice President Mike Pence, and FEMA head Peter Gaynor. Patrick Semansky/AP WN: The concluding lines […]

Reflections on “God, Trump and the Closed-Door World of a Major Conservative Group”

By Robert O’Harrow Jr. October 25, 2021 image above: Nick Ogonosky WN: There is a telling quote in the article highlighted below: “We’ve got an amazing opportunity here,” [Jim DeMint, a former senator and tea party favorite] told them. “And it’s incredible with this president, who is the last person I ever thought would promote […]

Trump Extremists Brought Numerous Guns on January 6, Evidence Shows

Mark Follman, Dan Friedman, Ryan Little, and Sam Van Pykeren September 30, 2021 photo above: Mother Jones illustration; John Minchillo/AP; Official Congressional Directory WN: And so it goes . . . Tragic. Sick. Dangerous. Deadly. Some family members are speaking out against some of the rally’s ringleaders: Republican Accountability Project, which has been calling out […]

There’s a Word for What Trumpism Is Becoming

Ideas by David Frum July 13, 2021 image above: Adam Maida / The Atlantic WN: Sobering and eerily prophetic. Please also see the video below, August 5, 2021. Of it, we read: Right-wing FOX News host Tucker Carlson is broadcasting from Hungary and praising that nation’s hardline policies. We discuss what’s really going on with […]

Trump’s Secret Rules for Drone Strikes Outside War Zones Are Disclosed

By Charlie Savage May 1, 2021 photo above: Targeted killings away from conventional war zones have been a central feature of the sprawling war on terrorism, raising legal and policy questions that remain in flux. Credit… Janis Laizans/Reuters WN: Of course the use of drones–as any aerial bombing–invariably murders civilians–often vast numbers. Two classic studies […]

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 […]

America Must Understand How Bad Trump Truly Was in Order to See What’s Coming

By Jake Jackson March 24, 2021 image source: Blog for Arizona WN: The situation in the U.S. continues to be dire, as it teeters on the brink of fascism. excerpts: Seldom do you come across a man who changed so much in so little time. His efforts normalised authoritarian tendencies, legitimised fascism, and shaped the […]

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 […]

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., […]

Donald Trump’s new reality:

By George T. Conway III January 22, 2021 WN: George Conway knows American law and history, clearly has done his homework, and makes eminent sense–at least to one fairly deficient in the above! 🙂  In my Restorative Justice work, there was no substitute for accountability, however much the scales invariably tilt towards grace and truth […]

National Security Experts Warn Trump “Is Promoting Terrorism”

National Security Experts Warn Trump “Is Promoting Terrorism” The president’s post-election incitement expands on a tactic he has long used: stochastic terrorism. Mark Follman National Affairs Editor Bio | Follow Politics photo above: A person in a gas mask protests Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic policies at the Michigan State Capitol in May 2020Paul Sancya/AP December […]

Trump Has Pushed Ahead With Drone Strikes, Putting US Citizens in the Crosshairs

Trump Has Pushed Ahead With Drone Strikes, Putting US Citizens in the Crosshairs by Adam Hudson, Truthout Published December 5, 2020 WN: This excerpt from the article highlighted is devastatingly the case, one that gives the lie to the strictly compartmentalized/schizophrenic “decency” of Biden: Where does that leave Biden and where does he stand? Biden has […]

Trump’s Politics Fractured My Family. Where Do We Go After The Election?

Trump’s Politics Fractured My Family. Where Do We Go After The Election? I’m a Democrat, they’re Republicans. Healing the political divide will be America’s next challenge. Updated 11/13/2020 By Jenn Merritt, Special To HuffPost     WN: The article highlighted below holds special sadness for me, given a similar concern in our family with some […]

Tomgram: Ariel Dorfman, Trump’s Divine Fate

Posted by Ariel Dorfman  October 22, 2020. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. WN: In a word: brilliant! More so: incredibly legitimate! Trump like other (would-be) tinpot despots, is a Self turned downwards on a (seeming) endless spiral of Evildoing that also seems to know no bounds. But if every saint has a past, every sinner […]

The World Order That Donald Trump Revealed

When it comes to foreign policy, the president’s most important characteristic is not amorality or a lack of curiosity; it is naïveté. Story by Tom McTague and Peter Nicholas Photo illustrations by Rohan Hande October 20, 2020 Global WN: This analysis is fascinating and insightful. While one celebrates America’s loss of hegemonic power, its sting […]

Trump’s Wild Lies Down the Election Homestretch Are Not Crazy

The president isn’t nuts—he’s trying to make you nuts. Disinformation October 19, 2020 Mark Follman National Affairs Editor Bio | Follow Mother Jones illustration; Chris Kleponis/CNP/Zuma WN: But what about his crazed cultic followers?! Of whom I have two close relatives . . . Deplorables, yes! But what else? . . . excerpts: What can […]

‘He’s Destroyed Conservatism’: The Republican Case Against Trump’s GOP

Stuart Stevens was a winning GOP operative. Now he feels terrible about what he’s done to the country. By MICHAEL GRUNWALD Michael Grunwald is a senior staff writer for Politico Magazine. 08/19/2020 photo above: AP/Patrick Semansky [NOTE: It took an article by Bob Ekblad (Blind and Deaf) in Clarion Journal, noted below, to occasion a revision […]

‘Republican Voters Against Trump’ Launches to Make Biden President

Meghan Roos May 25, 2020 photo above: @RepublicanAgainstTrump   WN: Wow! This is immensely hopeful! Though Biden is nonetheless a neoliberal tragedy . . . See “An Open Letter To Joe Biden“. excerpt: Republican voters who do not want to see President Donald Trump win reelection in the fall are coming together as part of […]

Inside the Influential Evangelical Group Mobilizing to Reelect Trump

Lee Fang May 23 2020, 3:00 a.m. photo above: politifact.com WN: These Evangelicals are very dangerous and scary–like their conservative Catholic counterparts. As they have embraced increasingly the Alt-Right, they like a close relative, will be among the first to take up arms in defence of Trump.  They could not any more blatantly reject the Way […]

A Top Obama-Biden Aide Slams Trump for Missing the Moment for “Economic Dignity”

A Top Obama-Biden Aide Slams Trump for Missing the Moment for “Economic Dignity” May 18, 2020 David Corn Washington, DC, Bureau Chief Bio | Follow photo above: Susan Walsh/AP WN: This is lovely to hear. Everyone on the Planet yearns for “economic dignity”. Of course, this is the very essence of “democratic socialism”. excerpt: Gene […]

Editorial: Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP

Editorial: Dolan delivers the church to Trump and the GOP Apr 28, 2020 by NCR Editorial Staff photo above: New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan celebrates Easter Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral April 12 during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS/Reuters/Jeenah Moon) WN: The article highlighted below shows American Catholic leadership in relation to Trump and his party […]

He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus

He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus by Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger, Maggie Haberman, Michael D. Shear, Mark Mazzetti and Julian E. Barnes of . photo above: © Erin Schaff/The New York Times “Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion,” President Trump said […]

N.J. comedian’s riff on Trump’s coronavirus response goes viral

WN: This outstanding riff on Trump’s Easter, God and Jesus sadly (for America, for Planet Earth) nails it! The memes too nail it about World-Loud-Mouth-in-Chief. Please also see the article highlighted below. excerpt: A New Jersey comedian’s dead-on impersonation of President Donald Trump vowing to move past the coronavirus crisis by Easter is going viral. […]

John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, Coronavirus & Trump

WN: John Oliver calls it with great humour and insight! But this is already dated. Here is what the situation is today (source: worldometer–several columns omitted below): Country, Other   Total Cases   Total Deaths Total Recovered Active Cases World 842,320 41,408 176,504 624,408 USA 180,723 3,578 6,241 170,904 Italy 105,792 12,428 15,729 77,635 Spain […]

Many Evangelicals Excuse Anything Trump Does —

By Sasha Abramsky, Truthout Published November 30, 2019 WN: This kind of veneration is not only despicable, it is beyond heretical into a twilight zone of anti-religion: and profoundly anti-Christ. Please also see the daft: “‘An Idiotic False Equivalency’: GOP Rep. Loudermilk Implies Trump Impeachment Worse Than Trial of Jesus Christ“. excerpts: [su_dropcap size=”5″]E[/su_dropcap]nergy Secretary […]

Progressives Rebel as House Hands Trump War Spending Package

Progressives Rebel as House Hands Trump War Spending Package By Mike Ludwig, Truthout December 12, 2019 WN: And this is the “Land of the Free and Defender of worldwide Human Rights?!” The sheer obscenity of such military spending is exponentially staggering. The country since inception, and astronomically beyond comparison with any other State in world […]

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 […]

Donald Trump’s Iran Humiliation

U.S. Military bases and Iran photo above: infiniteunknown.net Oct 08, 2019 Opinion | TD originals by Scott Ritter WN: One rightly asks, in light of the map showing U.S. military bases encircling Iran, “Who is the aggressor/terrorist here?” excerpts: Exactly 17 months have passed since President Donald Trump precipitously withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement, […]

Playing the Trump Card in Ukraine

October 1, 2019 by Victor Grossman WN: Indeed! excerpts: Yes, we all detest Trump and would be gladdened and relieved to see the last of those orange-yellow tresses now defiling the pure White House! Therefore: impeachment – olé! But does all such current enthusiasm have the same motivation? The reasons stressed by most of the […]

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 […]

Under Donald Trump, drone strikes far exceed Obama’s numbers

By S. E. Cupp May 8, 2019 photo above: In this 2013 file photo, an X47-B Navy drone grabs the wire as it lands aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush off the Virginia coast. | AP Photo/Steve Helber WN: This is, I believe, the first article I have highlighted about Trump’s […]

We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism

It is staggering to imagine how much more violence this president may motivate if he continues down this deeply disturbing path photo above: Trump’s rhetoric is infused with notions of violence and dehumanization’. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images  by  David Schanzer WN: While I do not believe anyone is pure evil, manifestations of such are arguably […]

American Carnage: a masterful must-read on Trump’s Republican takeover

Tim Alberta of Politico has written a compelling, alarming and scoop-heavy history of the fall of the party of Lincoln Lloyd Green Sat 13 Jul 2019 photo above: Mike Pence and Paul Ryan applaud as Donald Trump delivers his first address to Congress in February 2017. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool/EPA WN: Trump is beyond vile, […]

‘You’re excluding people that look like me’: Megan Rapinoe’s message to Trump

US soccer captain again rejects White House visit, saying team does not want to be ‘corrupted’ Sarah Marsh Wed 10 Jul 2019 photo above: Megan Rapinoe and team during the Broadway ticker tape parade. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters  WN: Bottom line: Trump is Scapegoater-in-Chief — the Ultimately Deplorable Ugly American — as are unwittingly or cynically […]

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 […]

Catholic leaders resist Trump’s ‘national emergency’ plan to fund border wall

Politics & Society Dispatches Catholic leaders resist Trump’s ‘national emergency’ plan to fund border wall Kevin Clarke February 15, 2019   photo above: President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern border. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez […]

Is Trump’s National Emergency (ANOTHER) Step Toward Fascism?

Is Trump’s National Emergency (ANOTHER)1 Step Toward Fascism? By Mark Bray, Truthout February 15, 2019 photo above: VALENCIA, SPAIN – MARCH 19, 2017: Photo with blurred background Ninot sculpture representing of Donald Trump placing a brick on the wall with mexico   WN: The article highlighted is a balanced response to the question above. excerpts: […]

The man who stood behind Trump

The man who stood behind Trump After his laugh was heard around the country, Joe Davidson is wondering: “I’m a good person. Isn’t that what people say about me?” By Stephanie McCrummen   Photos by Michael S. Williamson January 19, 2019 WN: The article highlighted below says so much about not only privileged whites in […]

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 […]

Donald Trump Is the Damn Emergency

Donald Trump Is the Damn Emergency By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout January 9, 2019 WN: I hate now mentioning the guy’s name on the website, his actions so beneath the otherwise modicum of dignity every human is accorded, created in the image of God. The article highlighted below captures deftly the political reality south of […]

Escape From the Trump Cult

Escape from the Trump Cult Millions of Americans are blindly devoted to their Dear Leader. What will it take for them to snap out of it? By Alexander Hurst December 13, 2018 Illustration by Zach Meyer WN: The very well-researched article highlighted below is fascinating, not because about Trump, but about deprogramming cultists from fundamental […]

Trump routinely says things that aren’t true. Few Americans believe him.

Trump routinely says things that aren’t true. Few Americans believe him. Polling A new Washington Post Fact Checker poll Take the quiz to see how your fact-checking skills stack up against others nationwide. Reporting by Glenn Kessler and Scott Clement Graphics by Kevin Schaul Analysis and fact-checking by Emily Guskin, Meg Kelly and Salvador Rizzo […]

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…   […]

Trump’s Pantheistic Temptation

February 06, 2017 by Vern Redekop WN: Anything my friend and scholar Vern Redekop writes — and he is prolific! — is invariably thoughtful/thought-provoking. To understand a greater context for his article copied in full below, please see: René Girard. Vern is a noted Girardian scholar. ********** In the book, René Girard and Creative Mimesis, […]

Trump’s War on Regulation Is Just Another Form of Trickle-Down Economics

Aug 14, 2018 by Robert Reich photo above: Economist Robert Reich. (YouTube screen grab) WN: True to expectation, an acquaintance immediately blamed California’s 2018 wildfires on environmental extremists… He is an absolute climate change/anthropocentric climate disruption (ACD) denier offering not a shred of evidence but constant bombastic fundamentalist pronouncements that brook no discussion, no questioning1… […]

Melania Trump trolls her husband

photo above: First lady Melania Trump with President Trump at the White House on Monday. (Andrew Harnik/AP) by Karen Tumulty, May 7, 2018 Email the author WN: Way to go Melania! And she has just spoken out in favour of LeBron James whose intelligence Trump publicly ridiculed. excerpts: It may be that the most effective […]

HERE’S WHAT RUSSIA `HAS’ ON TRUMP

  Reader’s Editorials Donald Trump Vladimir Putin Russia WN: The article highlighted below does not surprise… It is also no surprise that such information rolls off supporters’ backs like water off a duck’s…1 Mother Jones published recently “The Very Strange Case of Two Russian Gun Lovers, the NRA, and Donald Trump“, that tells a very […]

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 […]

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 […]

And the Trumpie goes to . . .

By Dana Milbank Opinion writer January 5 at 7:48 PM WN: despite what the article highlights below, there is someone I know well enough who accepts every Trump claim as Gospel truth. This staggers comprehension… excerpts: Of all the scandalous revelations in the Michael Wolff book, the most revealing may be the one about the […]

“Fox Evangelicals” Embrace Trump’s White Nationalism

Wednesday, 27 December 2017 07:36 BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT photo: Alan / Flickr [su_pullquote align=”right”]”But you will recognize them by their fruits.” – Jesus[/su_pullquote] WN: We know that the ultimate “fruit” is Love. From my Home page: Personal Mantra The Gospels indicate that the test case for love of God is love of […]

A running list of the eyewitnesses who prove Trump’s innocence on sexual misconduct

By Philip Bump December 12 at 9:36 AM WN: “Prove” in the title is of course patently ironic, as is the tongue in cheek below about  Trump’s having been “exonerated”. Trump is a tragic piece of self-consumed humanity — grand counter-model to all that makes one human. Still loved by God of course. But what positive can […]

Utilizing Indigenous Thought to Cope in the Age of Trump

Sunday, November 26, 2017 By Four Arrows, Truthout | Op-Ed photo above: aljazeera.com WN: Below is a wise, challenging, hopeful piece. As I read it, I reflected on how similar it is to The Great Tradition within the Judaeo-Christian Story, and beyond. Today’s reading on this is copied below: An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Reverence,” […]

North Korea Nuclear Testing Tunnel Collapse, Fears of Radiation Leaks, Will Trump Resort to “Fire and Fury” Insanity?

By Felicity Arbuthnot Global Research, November 02, 2017 Region: Asia, USA Theme: Media Disinformation, US NATO War Agenda In-depth Report: NORTH KOREA, Nuclear War photo above: November 1951 nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. Test is shot “Dog” from Operation Buster, with a yield of 21 kilotons of TNT (88 TJ). It was the first U.S. nuclear field exercise conducted with live troops […]

Everything Just Got Worse for Donald Trump

WN: The video is indeed hilarious. And millions around the planet feel smug satisfaction at seeing the Trump Gang of Thieves beginning to get their due. Few doubted that day would come. All knew it was long “over-due” – in Trump’s case, about 70 years and counting! I once asked an avid Trump supporter if […]

Forget Trump, This Huge Volcano Could Literally Wipe Out Life on Earth

If only for a moment, this story is forcing many to put the current political chaos “into perspective” by Jake Johnson, staff writer  WN: Hmmmmm!… Where is God in such a possibility? Hmmmmm! It’s not April 1st … It would be wonderful to have the Planet pull together to stop such a kind of (extremely […]

As Trump Carves Path of Destruction, Nader Asks Obama: Where Are You?

While list of programs and rules under attack grows, a call for former president to fight back against “Trump-led assault on our weakening democracy” Tuesday, October 10, 2017 by Common Dreams  by Jake Johnson, staff writer photo above: President Obama and president-elect Trump in the Oval office on November 10, 2016. Picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/APSource:News Corp […]

Don’t Just Protect Affirmative Action From Trump—Demand More

Racism’s economic effects are pernicious.​ August 24, 2017 By Bryce Covert WN: Similar realities obtain of course in Canada. Please see for instance a trilogy edited by Steve Heinrichs of Mennonite Church Canada. Affirmative action – railed against by a close family member – is a drop in the bucket for what is needed. As the […]

‘Shades of 1933 Germany’: Trump’s Hostile Rally Prompts Third Reich Comparisons

Former British ambassador expresses shock at president’s rhetoric as U.N. panel issues warning on Charlottesville response Published on Wednesday, August 23, 2017 by Common Dreams WN: Things begin to become genuinely scary. Especially in light of a former Trump advisor who warned of armed insurrection if Trump is impeached. Lord, have mercy. In the wake […]

Ex-intelligence chief – Trump’s access to nuclear codes is ‘pretty damn scary’

James Clapper questioned the US president’s ‘fitness to be in this office’ after his speech in Phoenix, joining a growing chorus of alarm over his erratic behavior Julian Borger in Washington Wednesday 23 August 2017 16.17 BST excerpts: Donald Trump’s access to the nuclear codes is “pretty damn scary”, a former US intelligence chief has said, calling Trump’s […]

Christianity Does Not Justify Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’

Steven Paulikas THE STONE AUG. 14, 2017 photo above: Jeff Swensen for The New York Times excerpts: Jeffress told The Post, “God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil.” I argue that recent history has already demonstrated that the invocation of evil in political rhetoric leads […]

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 […]

Denier-in-Chief Trump Should Read NOAA’s Frightening New Climate Report

With “highest concentration of CO2 in the air in 800,000 years,” how much more proof does president need? Published on Thursday, August 10, 2017 by Common Dreams by Jake Johnson, staff writer photo above: The report—based on contributions from over 450 scientists from around 60 countries—is the most detailed climate assessment that has emerged from […]

Trump has taken us to the brink of nuclear war. Can he be stopped?

In previous nuclear standoffs, Trump’s predecessors knew when to hold back from further antagonising the other side. But now there is no such certainty Wednesday 9 August 2017 12.39 BST Jonathan Freedland WN: A few months ago, Germany’s Der Spiegel used an online headline about Trump and Jong un thus: “The Two Crazies with the Bomb”“. I […]

Pope Francis allies accuse Trump White House of ‘apocalyptic geopolitics’

Article vetted by the Vatican offers scathing critique of Steve Bannon, who is Catholic, the Trump White House and ‘evangelical fundamentalism’ in the US photo above: Ivanka Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and President Donald Trump stand with Pope Francis during a meeting at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. Evan Vucci—AP WN: Utterly appalling and […]

Trump Bet Americans Would Like His Un-Presidential Antics. He May Be Right.

Posted on Jul 15, 2017 By Neal Gabler / Moyers & Company WN: Of course nonsense about “American exceptionalism” stinks to high heaven! Always has! Most of the rest of the world is too aware of that – and increasingly so with President Ultimate American Con, President Ultimate Ugly American. (OK! I know! Christians are to love their enemies. […]

There Trump Goes Again

Published on Friday, June 30, 2017 by Washington Post by Eugene Robinson photo above: White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) an excerpt: One doesn’t need a degree in psychology to wonder if the president suffers from some deep-seated insecurity. I can’t help but think about that Cabinet meeting this […]

Naomi Klein: How to Resist Trump’s Shock Doctrine

Naomi Klein is brilliant, articulate, and deeply committed to the well-being of humanity. She recently published No is Not Enough, on which the video above is based. Please click on: Resist Trump’s Shock Doctrine You may also listen to an interview with Naomi Klein, June 12, 2017, on CBC’s “The Current”. The discussion was entitled: […]

Avaaz: 21 Children vs Trump

Momentum is building! Just last week the court shut down Trump’s latest attempt to kill the case. Let’s send the children to trial with a wave of support — click below: Dear friends, One lawsuit could stop Trump wrecking our planet. And here’s the kicker — it’s a case brought by 21 children! Yup, after […]

Video: “Trump Won’t Be Cancelling World War 3 After All”. #StandDownMrTrump

Mr Trump is a liar, a hypocrite and a fool By StormCloudsGathering Global Research, April 15, 2017 stormcloudsgathering.com WN: It is a towering truism in relation to Trump, that “one should never trust a liar.” If only it were that simple, and we could all go to bed tonight with full assurance that the world is safe […]

HOW TO JAM THE TRUMP BRAND

Naomi Klein April 12 2017, 8:19 a.m. WN: Anything short of violence to reduce this man’s power to do evil. Click below for a kind of Planet Harm Reduction 101. Naomi Klein is quite brilliant – and funny. Video below. Please click on: HOW TO JAM THE TRUMP BRAND

Is Trump Turning to Missile Strikes to Salvage His Failing Presidency?

Friday, April 14, 2017 By Michael Meurer, Truthout | News Analysis photo above: President Donald Trump makes a statement about the American attack on an air base in Syria, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017. (Photo: Doug Mills / The New York Times) WN: Trump is a colossal failure: at being a […]

Neoliberalism in the Driver’s Seat: Trump and Ryan’s Ruling-Class Schemes

Thursday, April 06, 2017By C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout | Interview photo above: House Speaker Paul Ryan looks on as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 28, 2017. (Photo: Doug Mills / The New York Times) an excerpt: Donald Trump ran a campaign to “make America great again,” promising […]

The Spoils of War: Trump Lavished With Media and Bipartisan Praise For Bombing Syria

Glenn Greenwald April 7 2017, 7:43 a.m. WN: “The first casualty of war is truth“, is an adage proved invariably true throughout human history under all kinds of regimes: not least democracies. Or, as author/activist David Swanson tirelessly and convincingly argues: War Is a Lie – not only title of his most recent book, but a reality […]

Observers Warn That Syria Attack is Trump’s “Wag the Dog” Moment

Published on Friday, April 07, 2017 by Common Dreams Reports that Russia was warned about strike fuel accusations that military action was taken to distract from mounting domestic problems photo above: Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro appear in the 1997 film “Wag the Dog,” about a political consultant and a Hollywood director who construct a […]

You’re Fired! The Unemployable Trump Administration

February 23, 2017 Dana Snitzky Longreads photo above: British (Canadians) burn White House in War of 1812. (Metaphorically, would that Trudeau and Company do the same now! Then again, Trump the Arsonist is working hard on that project himself! “Give a man enough rope…”) an excerpt: The second takeaway is that Donald Trump is made […]

Conservative evangelicals join letter denouncing Trump’s order on refugees

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey February 8, 2017 WN: My question is really amazement. How is it possible that conservative Christians reading Jesus are so blinded to what Jesus calls for? The story below is hugely encouraging. Some conservative Christians actually get Jesus! Go figure… an excerpt: “This is not the usual list of left-leaning, social […]

Trump’s anti-press conference would be funny – if it weren’t so scary

Friday 17 February 2017 15.09 GMT Richard Wolffe If Donald Trump is qualified for any job – and that’s a rather big if, based on this press conference – it’s clear that he wants to be a media critic on Fox News WN: It is extremely painful to continue to post about Donald Trump. A friend […]

Fake News and Donald Trump’s War on Truth

Published on Friday, February 10, 2017 by Truthdig by Sonali Kolhatkar photo above: President Trump with chief of staff Reince Priebus, center, adviser Kellyanne Conway and members of the press aboard Air Force One in January. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP) an excerpt: “Fake news” and “alternative facts” are hardly new concepts. Right-wing websites, […]

John Oliver on Trump and the truth: ‘a pathological liar’

In his return to HBO, the host of Last Week Tonight dissected the troubling falsehoods in the president’s statements and exactly where they originate Guardian staff Monday 13 February 2017 23.59 GMT John Oliver has criticized reality TV star turned president Donald Trump’s rhetoric, calling him “a pathological liar”. Brilliant satire in the video embedded below. […]

Trump travel ban hits major setback after judges uphold temporary restraining order

Ben Jacobs in Washington @Bencjacobs Thursday 9 February 2017 23.17 GMT Complete victory’: attorney general celebrates Trump travel ban verdict Judges upheld order issued last week to prevent 90-day travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries and 120-day freeze on US admission of any refugees Travel ban: judges refuse to reinstate Trump’s order – live WN: One […]

Trump’s War on the Courts, the Press, and the States

Published on Wednesday, February 08, 2017 by RobertReich.org In short: Trump is a robber baron control freak who wishes to become the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world. A narcissistic megalomaniacal Ugly American to outdo all former contesters. an excerpt: Trump’s real beef is California is independent of him. It has defied Trump […]

Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports

February 8, 2017 What the author is describing is scapegoating, ubiquitous in human cultures and history. René Girard, recently deceased, is the dominant modern theorist in this regard. For more on scapegoating violence and Girard on my website, please see amongst others this and this. (You will also see below each article  related posts highlighted.) […]

Dear Mr. Trump…

Recent news about campaign by Avaaz highlighted below: With the Muslim ban, Trump has shown that the worst fears about his Presidency are true. Add your voice to the open letter below to join the resistance — then spread it far and wide: —- Dear Mr. Trump, This is not what greatness looks like. The […]

Jeremy Scahill on Donald Trump and the Military-Industrial Complex

Posted on Feb 2, 2017 In an interview with acTVism, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill discussed the connection between President Trump’s Cabinet picks and the military-industrial complex. Scahill also addressed the history of anti-war movements and Germany’s role in the United States’ “war on terror.” He examined the significance of the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and questioned […]

Donald Trump Intentionally Lies to Us

He has no mandate. That fact has so unhinged Trump that he is shaming himself and his office by promulgating obvious lies. Picture above: President-elect Trump calls on a reporter during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower, on Wednesday, January 11, 2017. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci) By John Nichols January 24, […]

David Fahrenthold tells the behind-the-scenes story of his year covering Trump

Magazine/By David A. Fahrenthold December 29 photo above: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post an excerpt: The point of my stories was not to defeat Trump. The point was to tell readers the facts about this man running for president. How reliable was he at keeping promises? How much moral responsibility did he feel to help those […]

Israeli Ministers Throw Trump-Like Tantrums After U.N. Security Council Slam

Posted on Dec 27, 2016 By Juan Cole / Informed Comment an excerpt: He criticized President Obama:  “The heart aches that after eight years of friendship and cooperation with the Obama Administration — a friendship that did see some disagreements over the Iranian issue and other issues — this is the parting shot; a painful, unpleasant, unfair […]

Millions Will Be Harmed by Trump’s Policies, Warns Rights Advocate in Open Letter

‘As president, you will have the heavy responsibility to prevent enactment of dangerous pledges and proposals that were made in the course of the campaign’ Published on Thursday, November 24, 2016 by Common Dreams By Nika Knight, staff writer WN: Human Rights Watch Director Kenneth Roth, subject of the article highlighted below, valid as it […]

Rising European Fascists Welcome Trump Victory

Saturday, 12 November 2016 00:00 By Ryan Harvey, Truthout | Report photo above: Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, the largest far-right party in France, speaks to reporters at a political meeting in Perpignan, France, February 15, 2014. Under Le Pen, the daughter of the party’s founder, the National Front has moved […]

The world vs Donald Trump

Dear friends, The unimaginable has happened. President Trump. And worse, there are Trumps in every town. Threatening all our democracies. What’s most important now is to build a global movement to stop them. Over 2 million of us have signed the open letter, below, from the world to Trump, and it’s been covered across major […]

HOW TRUMP TOOK HATE GROUPS MAINSTREAM

The full story of his connection with far-right extremists. Sarah Posner and David Neiwert Oct. 14, 2016 5:00 AM photo above: Donald J. Trump Credit Randall Hill/Reuters This is the second in-depth look at Trump and hate/white extremists that I have posted on this site. The first is here. Surely with this exposure of the […]

Will American politics survive Trump?

Sunday November 06, 2016 The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright Perhaps the most fascinating are David Frum’s comments. Frum (son of former CBC “As It Happens” personality Barbara Frum) is a long-standing Canadian/American conservative, former speech-writer for George W. Bush, and ardent Republican: who also voted already this season for Hillary Clinton! – and is […]

Nasty Women: Donald Trump, the Greatest Victim in the History of the World

Tomgram: Ann Jones, Donald Trump’s Open Carry | TomDispatch By Ann Jones an excerpt: Donald Trump grabbed a new lifeline. Speaking at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 15th, he raised a hand as if to take an oath and declared: “I am a victim!” The great business tycoon, the one and only […]

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 […]

Donald Trump’s Campaign Has Been Vile and Offensive—and We Should Thank Him for That

How Trump stopped the gaslighting of America. By Matthew Arnold October 26 9:07 photo above: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Monday, October 10, 2016, in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci) an excerpt: It’s quite possible that a decade from now, we’ll look back on Donald Trump’s norms-transgressing, concession-refusing […]

Why would Christians vote for Trump?: Coren

It is difficult to understand how millions of evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics can still be committed to Trump and ignore or justify his repugnant actions By Michael Coren Amen! Tues., Oct. 25, 2016 an excerpt: Donald Trump is a winner. Not that he’s likely to win the election but his style, approach and entire […]

Donald Trump’s Apocalypse Is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Whatever happens in November, the forecast is more stormy weather ahead. By John Feffer October 13, 2016 1:30 photo above: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to a campaign rally at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tuesday, August 9, 2016. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci) an excerpt: In the United States, meanwhile, Trump’s economic […]

Donald Trump Is a Worse Crook Than Bernie Madoff

Madoff only scammed his rich clients. Trump could scam us all. By Nomi Prins September 29, 2016 photo above: Gage Skidmore an excerpt: Trump vs. Madoff, The Scorecard Trump is much richer than Madoff ever was, though we have no idea by how much. Forbes puts his wealth at $3.7 billion. Trump says it’s $10 […]

Will Trumpism, Brexit, and Geopolitical Exceptionalism Sink the Planet?

The Mounting Threat to Climate Progress Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Rise of the Right and Climate Catastrophe photo above: In his first major speech on energy, delivered in May, Donald Trump—who has called global warming a Chinese hoax—pledged to “cancel the Paris climate agreement” and scrap the various measures announced by President Obama to ensure […]

There’s a Bigger Problem at the Border Than Trump’s Proposed Wall

We live in fear of Trump’s plan for the Mexican border—not realizing that much of it already exists. By Todd Miller August 23, 2016 12:02 pm photo above: US Border Patrol agent Jerry Conlin looks out over Tijuana, Mexico, along the old border wall at the US-Mexico border ending at the base of a hill […]

How Obama Helped Lay the Groundwork for Trump’s Thuggery

His refusal to prosecute torturers and his Wild West assassination of bin Laden show how moral complacency can all too easily degenerate into full-blown corruption. By Rochelle Gurstein August 23, 2016 11:25 am photos above: Thugs an excerpt: Trump’s particular brand of maliciousness—his belief, as lazy as it is insolent, that he need not abide […]

The Scary History of Trump’s Second-Amendment Call to Action | The Nation

In North Carolina, we have heard this before, and lived through the bloody consequences of white terrorist rhetoric. By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II photo above: Top: Donald Trump. Bottom: A group of rioters pose outside the ruins of the Record building in Wilmington, 1898. (Top: Reuters / Carlo Allegri; bottom: Library of Congress) […]

An Open Letter to Ivanka Trump From Michael Moore: ‘Your Dad Is Not Well’

Posted on Aug 11, 2016 By Michael Moore / AlterNet an excerpt: Dear Ivanka: I’m writing to you because your dad is not well. Every day he continues his spiral downward—and after his call for gun owners to commit acts of violence against Mrs. Clinton, it is clear he needs help, serious help. His comments […]

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 […]

Henry A. Giroux | Donald Trump and the Plague of Atomization in a Neoliberal Age

Monday, 08 August 2016 00:00 photo above: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump addresses a crowd during his campaign rally at Windham High School in Windham, New Hampshire, on August 6, 2016. (Ilana Panich-Linsman / The New York Times) I have recently returned to reading Leo Lowenthal, particularly his insightful essay, “Terror’s Atomization of Man,” first […]

Dear Donald Trump: This Is Why Nuclear Weapons Are Bad

Wired: Author: Issie Lapowsky  Business Date of Publication: 08.03.16. Donald Trump is incredibly dangerous! PERIOD. an excerpt: This morning on his show Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said that according to one of Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisors, the Republican nominee recently asked why the United States can’t use nuclear weapons. “Three times he asked […]

Cold War, Détente, Neo-McCarthyism, and Donald Trump

August 2, 2016 By Stephen F. Cohen What’s going is that the United States and its neocon war hawks are flirting dangerously with the possibility of real war with Russia, as Michael Klare and Stephen Cohen have noted. As Ignatius certainly knows but most Americans may not, the United States was deeply involved in agitating […]

Marc Maron Speaks on the Rush of Shameless Hate Motivating Trump Voters

Wednesday, 03 August 2016 10:48 BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT photo above: Marc Maron Regarding the election, “I can’t understand what the decision is to vote for a man like that. Look if you don’t want to vote, fine. I suggest you vote. If you don’t like Hillary, fine. But whatever you got to […]

Trump’s Rape Rhetoric Appeals to Male Anxiety

photo above: Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 22, 2016. (Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr) Saturday, 30 July 2016 00:00 By Nicholas Powers, Truthout | Op-Ed an excerpt: In 1989, the same year as the Central Park Five case, Donald Trump assaulted […]

Part 1: Michael Moore on Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Brexit (06/10/16)

Published on Jul 5, 2016 Michael Moore was in Britain and speaking with British journalist Owen Jones (The Guardian) on June 10th, 2016. To quote Moore: ‘Trump is like the sound of dying dinosaurs’. Please also see this about Michael Moore’s new film, Fahrenheit 11/9, release date September 21, 2018:

Facing Down Trump’s Demagoguery: Lessons From Weimar Germany

Friday, 22 July 2016 00:00 By Charles Derber, Truthout | Op-Ed photo above: Donald Trump points to his vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence, on the final night of the Republican National Convention, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 2016. (Photo: Stephen Crowley / The New York Times) an excerpt: Donald Trump […]

Donald Trump’s Acceptance Speech Reconfirmed His Fascist Authoritarianism

Friday, 22 July 2016 05:14 MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT an excerpt:   “Law and order” were the key code words for Nixon’s Southern strategy that finalized the conversion of the deep South from voting Democratic in presidential elections to voting Republican. The words sent the message that Nixon would seek to keep […]

Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All

The Political Scene July 25, 2016 Issue By Jane Mayer image above: “I put lipstick on a pig,” Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter, says. He feels “deep remorse.”  Illustration by Javier Jaén “The Art of the Deal” made America see Trump as a charmer with an unfailing knack for business. Tony Schwartz helped create that myth—and […]

Adventures in the Trump Twittersphere

Zeynep Tufekci MARCH 31, 2016 Mr. Trump’s rise is actually a symptom of the mass media’s growing weakness, especially in controlling the limits of what it is acceptable to say. an excerpt: For decades, journalists at major media organizations acted as gatekeepers who passed judgment on what ideas could be publicly discussed, and what was […]

Trump, the Man and the Image

His words increasingly signify his confusion about who he is and what he has got himself into. Trump vs. “Trump” – The New Yorker Comment July 11 & 18, 2016 Issue By Mark Singer an excerpt: Actually, for Trump it is all a game, one in which, though this seems an odd way to characterize […]

The Seas Are Rising Around Donald Trump

He may deny global warming, but it’s still threatening to swamp his properties. image above: Trump: Helga Esteb/Shutterstock; Bear: FloridaStock/Shutterstock an excerpt: Scientists have long expected sea level rise on the southeast Florida coast to occur faster than the global average, advancing rapidly on barrier islands and beaches. The low-lying coastal areas are exposed to […]

WHO ARE ALL THESE TRUMP SUPPORTERS?

At the candidate’s rallies, a new understanding of America emerges. image above: Trump’s energy flows out of him, as if channelled in thousands of micro wires, and enters the minds of his followers. ILLUSTRATION BY SEYMOUR CHWAST  AMERICAN CHRONICLES JULY 11 & 18, 2016 ISSUE By George Saunders an excerpt: From the beginning, America has […]

Tomgram: John Feffer, Donald Trump and America B

Posted by John Feffer at 3:58pm, June 26, 2016. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. an excerpt: America B has a fondness for Donald Trump and his almost childlike audacity. (Gosh, kids say the darndest things!) Right now, his fans are attached to an individual, rather than a platform or a party. Many of his supporters […]

Tomgram: Ann Jones, Donald Trump Has the Traits of a Wife Abuser and Women Know It

Posted by Ann Jones at 8:01am, June 14, 2016. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch There are two other articles I’ve posted about Trump’s bullying ways here: Bully, and here: Bully Trump. There is a related article about Donald Trump and potential running mate Newt Gingrich here. an excerpt: In fact, Donald J. Trump perfectly fits […]

Evangelicals Embrace Profane, Bigoted, Thrice-Divorced Trump

Wednesday, 22 June 2016 08:14 BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT photo above: Michael Valdon an excerpt: The Post report also noted that “Catholic conservative Robert George, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and a Princeton professor, declined to attend the meeting, saying that while he may think even lower of […]

Donald Trump and the Rise of the Far Right on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Wednesday, 22 June 2016 00:00 By Ryan Harvey, Truthout | News Analysis photo above: Donald Trump speaks with supporters at a campaign rally at Fountain Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona, on March 16, 2016. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) an excerpt: A Fading Global Hegemony While steeped in their complicated domestic histories, the rise of this new […]

The Foreign Consequences of Trump’s Racism

Published on June 18th, 2016 | by Guest by Paul R. Pillar an excerpt: Donald Trump is waging the most explicitly racist major U.S. presidential campaign since the third-party candidacy of segregationist George C. Wallace in 1968. The exploitation of bias based on ethnicity or religion has taken more subtle forms in other election campaigns […]

Trump Card: The Bully Who Exposes Our Bully Nation

By Charles Derber and Yale Magrass photo above: by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels WN: There is much on this website about America’s–and the West’s concomitant–“militarized capitalism.” None of it is good news . . . an excerpt: The mainstream media and party establishments say, “Isn’t it terrible that Trump is such a bully?” Many ordinary people say […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Comments On: Amazing Disgrace

By Sarah Posner Illustration above by Brian Reedy. Think of the illustration in conjunction with this hugely ironic quote, one that said far more about Christian Nationalist sentiment than the good reverend knew: “We put God right at the center of the White House.” —Paula White, speaking at an Evangelicals for Trump event at Solid […]

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 […]

Commentary On: How can I reconcile the good and evil of Jean Vanier?

Colleen Dulle photo above: Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche communities, is pictured in a Feb. 17, 2015, photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Jean Vanier Association)  WN: What does one do with this revelation of a man almost universally considered a saint? My mind goes to: what, in the end is the difference between Vanier and (dare I […]

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 […]

Why I Oppose the Death Penalty

WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska because debate was heating up in a state with no death penalty on the books. (Since the death penalty’s abolition in 1957, […]

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 […]

Consider: “U.S. Covid Deaths Get Even Redder”

By David Leonhardt Nov. 8, 2021 photo above: Image by torstensimon from Pixabay WN: This remains consistent everywhere: vaccinations save lives. See too: Partisan Gap in Covid Deaths Growing Thanks to Right-Wing Vaccine Disinformation. We read: The fact that heavily Trump counties had over three times more Covid-19 deaths in October than heavily Biden counties […]

Walter Wink & “The Myth of Redemptive Violence”

November 8, 2021 by Robert Koehler WN: The author of the highlighted article below is right on. For background to Walter Wink’s use of the term, please see: Facing the Myth of Redemptive Violence The myth of redemptive violence and ‘The Hateful Eight’ Book Extract: The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium by […]

The European Union makes a policy play in Venezuela.

by Anthony Faiola with Claire Parker photo above: istockphoto.com WN: Just as the “free press” is that only for the corporations who own the presses/news, so “Pro-Democracy” seems to be limited to the Pro-elites that run the world: namely militarized capitalism‘s titans such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. A story such as that highlighted […]

Nearly a Third of Republicans Surveyed Are Ready to Support Violence

By Matthew Rozsa, Salon Published November 2, 2021 photo above: aljazeera.com WN: Founder and CEO of PRRI, Robert Jones said: I’ve been doing this a while, for decades, and it’s not the kind of finding that as a sociologist, a public opinion pollster, that you’re used to seeing. This is deeply ominous . . . […]

Spotlight on “Why MAGA Social Media Is a Hacker’s Wet Dream”

Adam Rawnsley, Senior Researcher; Shannon Vavra, National Security Reporter Oct. 31, 2021 image above: Optimized Hate WN: Fools rush in . . . excerpts: When a photo of a pig in an obscene position smothered in poop was posted to an account that appeared to belong to former President Donald Trump on his newest social […]

Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny

WN: The video below is highly disturbing. It is an interview with Yale historian Timothy Snyder, author of the widely acclaimed study: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. It is indeed ominous. A portion of the transcript reads: ARI MELBER: “When you see this effort to put this much pressure on installing partisan […]

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 […]

Mapping the Evangelical Mind

By Abbie Storch October 20, 2021 WN: The review of Reading Evangelicals: How Christian Fiction Shaped a Culture and a Faith below offers fascinating insights. Most troubling is this observation: Whether through their embrace of individualism or their diagnosis of pluralism as the death knell of Christianity, Silliman argues, these books shaped the imaginations of […]

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 […]

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 […]

They Went to Bible College to Deepen Their Faith.

Becca Andrews September 30, 2021 photo above: yelp.com WN: The article highlighted below begins with Megan Wohlers telling her story of abuse, and ends with these understated words from her: And that’s not how Jesus would have acted. I added October 24, 2021 almost an identical story, only from Jerry Falwell’s (Founder) Liberty University. His […]

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 […]

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 […]

How America Fractured Into Four Parts

By George Packer July/August 2021 Issue The Atlantic image above: Lucy Jones WN: Wow! The essay is stunning as it is brilliant. At least read my excerpts below. Better though, purchase the book it is excerpted/adapted from: Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal. It challenges understanding about America’s past and present place in […]

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 […]

‘Get scared’: World’s scientists say disastrous climate change is here

By ZACK COLMAN and KARL MATHIESEN 08/09/2021 04:01 AM EDT Updated: 08/09/2021 03:29 PM EDT photo above: Fire burns during a wildfire near the village of Schinos, Greece, on May 19, 2021. | Valerie Gache/AP Photo WN: We have met the enemy, and he is US.–Pogo We have seen the forecast, and it is NOW! […]

Covid Is Now a Crisis for the Unvaccinated

By Aaron E. Carroll Dr. Carroll is the chief health officer for Indiana University. He’s also a writer who focuses on health research and policy. photo above: Tim Gruber for The New York Times WN1: The consistent messaging is: If for no other reason, because of our neighbour, we should get vaccinated. There is also […]

Opinion: The Jan. 6 select committee is already exceeding all expectations

Opinion by Columnist Jennifer Rubin July 28, 2021 photo above: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) hugs Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn on Tuesday after he testified to the House select committee hearing on regarding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Pool/Reuters) [pullquote] Fox News’ decision to air segments mocking the bravery of Capitol Police […]

Apocalypse Right Now

Opinion Maureen Dowd July 24, 2021 photo above: Fire consumed a home as the Sugar Fire tore through Doyle, Calif., this month.Credit…Noah Berger/Associated Press WN: As the author’s last line states: Après moi, le déluge –This is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone,[2] though it may […]

The Threat of an Unvaccinated South

By Adam Harris July 22, 2021 photo above: kyma.com WN: Sadly, idiot politicians like the one mentioned in the second last paragraph (see if you can guess who!) are creating enormous smoke screens of outright lies, and thereby threaten potentially millions. For, As [Shweta Bansal, an associate professor and an infectious-disease expert at Georgetown University] […]

What were the Capitol rioters thinking on Jan. 6?

By Dan Zak and Karen Heller July 20, 2021 photo above: (Robert Carter for The Washington Post) WN: Sadly, the person guilty of First Degree Insurrection–along with a sycophantic GOP almost en masse–is not yet in the dock or jail. May his day hasten . . . Please see also: ‘Some are still suffering’: Months […]

How to worry about the Delta variant

By MYAH WARD  07/20/2021 image above: wrex.com WN: I have a close relative who “won’t let anybody shoot that stuff into my body!” And like the best–or worst–of religious fundamentalists, he always knows best–always only knows–from past discussions with me. Whether it is ACD (Anthropogenic Climate Disruption–ain’t happening!); people of colour (no historic wrongs to […]

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 […]

Tucker Carlson’s Manufactured America

By Megan Garber July 12, 2021 WN: Sick . . . Please also see an earlier piece by  Timothy Karr, April 27, 2021: Tucker Carlson’s Racism: Paid for by You. We read: Racism pays in America—especially if you’re the primetime host of a cable channel that panders to the country’s sizable population of white nationalists. […]

How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievance

By Michael Kranish July 14, 2021 photo above: patheos.com WN: What does one do with such elite entitlement; with such endless prevarication; with such premeditated blindness/deafness? In short, with such just plain awfulness?! Mark 8:18 and John 12:38 – 41 in Jesus’ words are pointers to a response: Do you have eyes but fail to […]

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 […]

Signs of a Need to Hate

By Community last July 11, 2021 image above: David G. Brown / Flickr WN: The article highlighted below asks why Conservatives (not all) have such a need to hate. Sadly, Liberals (not all) evoke such a question too. The answer for puzzling Liberals according to the author is: Trump’s supporters love him, this hypothesis declares, […]

The Ascension of Bernie Sanders

Opinion Maureen Dowd July 10, 2021 photo above: Senator Bernie Sanders heading back to his office after breakfast in Burlington, Vt. Credit… Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times WN: Go for it, Bernie! excerpts: At 79, Bernie Sanders is a man on a mission, laser-focused on a list that represents trillions of dollars […]

Pro-Impeachment Republicans Face Voters’ Wrath

By Jake Jackson July 10, 2021 WN: All so tragic! But for some comic relief: The Replacement Republican Party from MarkFiore on Vimeo. excerpts: GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Rep. Peter Meijer cites Gerald R. Ford as his inspiration these days, not because the former president held his House seat for 24 years or because his […]

The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It’s Taking America With It

Opinion Michelle Goldberg July 9, 2021 photo above: Mark Peterson/Redux WN: To the first part of the title: Amen!!!1 To the second part: Whenever Christianity “owns” a culture it becomes corrupt. British 19th-century Catholic historian Lord John Acton observed: Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, […]

The war inside the Canadian Armed Forces

By Marie-Danielle Smith July 8, 2021 illustration above: by Anna Minzhulina WN: Military. Police. Prisons.1 All are rife with abuse within. As the article states: The Canadian Armed Forces, as an institution, has a necessarily coercive culture. Leaders must have a high degree of authority and control over their subordinates in order for the military […]

Welcome to crazy town: The QAnon movement explained

By Brian Bethune July 7, 2021 photo above: mindbrews.in WN: Loony and terrifying! You will also find interesting this story by Shawn Boburg, July 7, 2021, interesting and . . . sick: From corporate America to conspiracy theory promotion: How a Minnesota man made a career out of anonymously amplifying dark plots. We learn: Turnbull’s […]

Opinion: Texas Republicans rush to guard the Alamo from the facts

Opinion by Jason Stanford July 5, 2021 photo above: The Alamo in San Antonio, seen in 2013. (Eric Gay/AP) WN: This is parable of course as well about American Exceptionalism ever since Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in the 1830s of the United States as “exceptional” . . .1 Grand irony: those most railing against “political […]

Inside the Capitol Riot: An Exclusive Video Investigation

By The New York Times June 30, 2021 WN: While video images can be selectively strung together, they are real images just the same. And this was anything but the proverbial walk in the park–or a tourist visit to the Capitol. Søren Kierkegaard wrote: The crowd is untruth. Anthropologist René Girard spent a career explicating […]

What the Rich Don’t Want to Admit About the Poor

By Ezra Klein Opinion Columnist June 13, 2021 photo above: Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos WN: In Mark 14:1-11, there is a story of an unnamed woman who came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. The story continues: 4 Some […]

Thoughts and Prayers for my right wing aunt and uncle

By Community May 29, 2021 WN: I found this wise, caring and touching. excerpts: So I just found out today that both my elderly aunt and uncle have tested positive for COVID 19.  Both of them belong to a very conservative church, and have like so many Americans been fed a heavy stream of lies […]

Mass Psychosis May Follow Cheney’s Ouster

By Community May 11, 2021 [pullquote]During the Obama administration, Cheney was a Fox News regular who, as was the fashion at the time, insisted that the president was secretly sympathetic to jihadists. She enthusiastically defended the use of torture, dismissed the constitutional right to due process as an inconvenience, and amplified the Obama-era campaign to […]

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 […]

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 […]

Opinion: The American right is becoming completely untethered from reality

Opinion by  Max Boot April 28, 2021 photo above: President Biden in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 8. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) WN: The article highlighted speaks to the current tragedy of the GOP. Please also see: Almost Everything Biden Said About Ending the Afghanistan War Was a Lie. Trump is […]

Almost Everything Biden Said About Ending the Afghanistan War Was a Lie

April 27, 2021 by Sonali Kolhatkar image above: Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair chart below: The Washington Post, Fatal Force WN: Ethicist A. J. Coates writes in The Ethics of War: The moral prohibition of lying, for example, makes good sense in the context of personal relations, but no sense at all in affairs of […]

Wall Street May Finally Be Taking Climate Change Seriously

Dominic Rushe Bio Environment  March 19, 2021 photo above: Axiom/Zuma WN: Hope springs eternal. The article highlighted is hopeful! excerpts: This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Wildfires burned nearly 10.4 million acres across the US last year. The most costly thunderstorm in US […]

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 […]

The Useful Idiot:

02/28/2021 By S.V. Dáte, HuffPost US illustration above: Rebecca Zisser/HuffPost; Photo: Getty WN: I can only add: I have two close relatives who belong to that cast of Deplorables highlighted below. That is agonizingly incredible!. . . Sigh. . . excerpts: The following is excerpted from “The Useful Idiot: How Donald Trump Killed the Republican […]

10 Years After His Passing, Howard Zinn Remains a Threat to the Status Quo

By Anthony Arnove, Truthout Published January 27, 2020 photo above: wikiwand.com WN: Trump and white nationalists, for starters, would not be pleased . . . Jesus’ message too is ever a call to see the world upside down–consequently right-side-up Ultimate Reality. . . For that, we need the right lens . . . Invariably, this […]

How the Military-Industrial Complex Gets Away With Murder in Contract After Contract

January 23, 2020 by Mandy Smithberger illustration above: Matt Wuerker (Politico/Reddit) WN: In short: reducing military spending/international arms sales/wars is ever an American non-starter. It will remain so as long as the United States–regardless of which party–remains in thrall to militarized neoliberalism/capitalism. As Nick Turse’s The Complex makes abundantly clear, it is, since World War […]

On Misreading Victory

Tomgram January 7, 2020 By Andrew Bacevich illustration above: lindsaysocialstudies.weebly.com (President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.“) WN: There is great wisdom in the article highlighted. “Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh when will they ever learn?”–Peter, Paul and Mary excerpts: Thirty years ago this […]

His pastors tried to steer him away from social media rage.

By Peter Manseau Feb. 19, 2021 photo above: Michael Sparks, far left, stands with other Trump supporters as they are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate chamber on Jan. 6. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) WN: The article highlighted is an anatomy of a Trump cultist who stormed the Capitol. It did not turn […]

Pandemic Revelations

December 4, 2020 WN: I recently posted an article about David Cayley. There have been a few others. So I will not repeat what I have shared earlier. Except: he is arguably one of the most informed thinkers in Canada–and across multiple disciplines. I’ll highlight the second reflection that Cayley did on his website. That […]

Neoliberalism –

Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative? George Monbiot @GeorgeMonbiot Fri 15 Apr 2016 photo above: ‘No alternative’ … Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher at the White House. Photograph: Rex Features […]

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 […]

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 […]

The COVID-19 tsunami is coming, and it will be worse than most people can imagine

The COVID-19 tsunami is coming, and it will be worse than most people can imagine SquireForYou Tuesday December 01, 2020 WN: The article highlighted is heart-wrenching! The gross absolutely unfeeling negligence and incompetence of the White House makes one wish to scream bloody murder to high heaven! It’s a slow-moving endlessly replaying (like the movie […]

Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism?

Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism? Donald Trump has revealed the depths of the country’s prejudice—and has inadvertently forced a reckoning. by Ibram X. Kendi September 2020 Issue Ideas image above: The Atlantic WN: I love the ironic optimism of this piece! As you will see excerpted in context below, I […]

Washington Post Publishes Names and Details of 1,400 Civilians Killed in US-Led Bombings of ISIS

Washington Post Publishes Names and Details of 1,400 Civilians Killed in US-Led Bombings of ISIS By Brett Wilkins / Common Dreams (11/19/2020) November 20, 2020 WN: “Collateral damage” has always meant huge numbers of civilians–aged and young, noncombatants of both sexes, etc.–indiscriminately slaughtered during U.S. drone strikes and other bombings the world over. American military […]

The United States Is Not a Democracy. Stop Telling Students That It Is.

When our students only learn about this exceptionally strange system from their corporate-produced history and government textbooks, they have no clue why this is how we choose our president. Published on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca (Zinn Education Project) photo above: Students deserve an explanation for the origins of the Electoral College. (Photo: […]

No. I will not meet you halfway. You must change.

MindMatter Saturday November 07, 2020 photo above: Politico WN: I suppose the highlighted article could best be summed up: There is no compromise with evil. I’ve posted the opening paragraphs. The rest is also simply great! excerpt: Dear Trump supporter, Let’s make a deal.  I will not accuse you of being evil as Satan or […]

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 […]

The Priority of Peaceableness in a Disruptive Election

Craig M. Watts October 26, 2020 General, Peace & Nonviolence, Politics WN: The article highlighted is very sobering. Amen to the last two sentences: Blood may be shed. But may it never be by our hands. excerpts: Extensive studies have shown the vast majority of political violence in the US in nearly thirty years –with […]

Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda

Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda By Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts, and Ethan Zuckerman March 3, 2017 WN: This is a fascinating study, discovered in this article in the New York Times by Ben Smith: Trump Had One Last Story to Sell. The Wall Street Journal Wouldn’t Buy It.: Inside […]

Is abortion the only thing that matters to Jesus?

Blog / Paradigm Shift Guest Contributor September 4, 2020 “I have felt a heaviness in my soul lately.” by Jennifer Abel WN: This is powerful! I also highly recommend another powerful piece addressing the same issues, that I posted about four years ago: White, Conservative, Christian Friend—I Wish You Really Were Pro-Life. Abel writes below: […]

James Murdoch, Rebellious Scion

Increasingly uncomfortable with News Corp’s politics and profit motives, Rupert’s younger son chose chickens and sheep over Fox, and insists he doesn’t watch ‘Succession.’   By Maureen Dowd Oct. 10, 2020 photo above: John Phillips/Getty Images   WN: A very telling article highlighted below . . . excerpts: WASHINGTON — As we sat down to […]

The Entire Presidency Is a Superspreading Event Down in the polls, high on steroids, and clinging to good health while endangering everyone else’s. By Olivia Nuzzi

The Entire Presidency Is a Superspreading Event Down in the polls, high on steroids, and clinging to good health while endangering everyone else’s. THE SWAMP Oct. 9, 2020 Art: Eric Fischl WN: The article highlighted is tragic recounting of an incredibly sick man on every level–and an administration trying desperately to keep the four-year con-job […]

The TSN anchor is a proud voice for the Black community

Kayla Grey is using her platform to fight racism By Claire Sibonney October 5, 2020 WN: The article highlighted below is immensely hopeful! With all colours represented in our extended family, my greatest yearning is that the world over be inflicted with an enduring colour-blindness. Sadly it needs to start in that same extended family, […]

Dying in a Leadership Vacuum

Editorial 4 References 1 Citing Article WN: Wow! I’ve decided to post this Editorial in its entirety. This is the first time in 208 years that one of the most prestigious journals in the world has spoken against an American presidential candidate–and his enablers!–up for re-election! All I can add: Get this monster narcissist who […]

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 […]

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 […]

George Yancy: To Be Black in the US Is to Have a Knee Against Your Neck Each Day

By Woojin Lim,Truthout Published July 18, 2020 photo above: reddit.com WN: A close relative saw the post, The Case for Reparations, ((a long essay about the history of Black repression in the U.S.),  and in response merely indicated that these things happen and moved on  . . . Another close relative who did not read […]

The Price of White Evangelical Patriarchy

By Eric C. Miller | July 7, 2020 photo above: Donald Trump stands near a statue of John Wayne during a news conference at the John Wayne Museum in Winterset, Iowa. (AP/Jae C. Hong) WN: Though not declamatory, this interview with Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of just published Jesus and John Wayne: How White […]

The Case for Reparations

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. Story by Ta-Nehisi Coates June 2014 Issue WN: NOTE: This piece appeared in The Atlantic  6 years ago. It […]

A Long Talk With Anthony Fauci’s Boss About the Pandemic, Vaccines, and Faith

A Long Talk With Anthony Fauci’s Boss About the Pandemic, Vaccines, and Faith just asking questions July 1, 2020 By Jebediah Reed@jebediahreed photo above: statnews.com WN: So much could be said that is positive about the article. As to the first two items in the title, I have excerpted a little on that. As to […]

Doctors Are Covid’s First Historians

Since March, 40 physicians have created a record of a pandemic in which “grief was the overwhelming theme.” By Ron Suskind, Illustrations by Lilli Carré June 12, 2020 Ron Suskind is the author of six books including, most recently, “Life, Animated.” photo above: Two doctors (Kelly Griffin and Lindsay Lief) discussing fighting COVID-19 WN: This […]

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: […]

Black Toronto residents 20 times more likely to be shot dead by police, study says

Black people made up 61% of cases where police used force that resulted in death, Ontario human rights commission report said Leyland Cecco in Toronto Mon 10 Dec 2018 photo above: rt.com WN: The article from a year and a half ago highlighted below was brought to mind by today’s “Trudeau: Canadians watching US unrest […]

The Liar Tweets Tonight

WN: Below is pure brilliance. It would be hilarious were The Supreme Lout not tragically so deadly to the health of millions. And that extends to multiplied millions around the world victims of the U.S.T.S.– U.S. Targeted Slaughters. See also: All the President’s Lies About the Coronavirus: An unfinished compendium of Trump’s overwhelming dishonesty during […]

How China’s Fails, Lies and Secrecy Ignited a Pandemic Explosion

The regime now is in full propaganda mode, aided by the World Health Organization. Andrew Nikiforuk April 2, 2020| TheTyee.ca Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about the energy industry for three decades and is a contributing editor to The Tyee. Find his previous stories here. photo above: Xi Jinping, general […]

Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance

What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time Tomas Pueyo Mar 19–29 min read WN: This is an immensely important paper, one that every politician in any way connected to the COVID-19 outbreak in the world should be reading–outside a handfull of countries that have already implemented the policies compellingly […]

The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What’s Coming

Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant, who warned of pandemic in 2006, says we can beat the novel coronavirus—but first, we need lots more testing. 03.19.2020 photo above: Dr. Larry Brilliant is known, among other things, for his work with the World Health Organization in the 1970s, helping to successfully eradicate smallpox in India. REUTERS/Carlos Barria WN: Dr. Brilliant […]

Inside the COVID-Denialist Internet Bubble

While many of the president’s ardent supporters have come around to the seriousness of the disease, others have come up with elaborate conspiracies. KEITH KLOOR03/22/2020 Keith Kloor is a writer in New York and adjunct professor of journalism at New York University. WN: Jesus and the OT Prophets say: If you have eyes to see, […]

Beyond the Economic Chaos of Coronavirus Is a Global War Economy

Beyond the Economic Chaos of Coronavirus Is a Global War Economy By William I. Robinson, Truthout March 23, 2020 photo above: Image by Unknown Owner WN: Great wisdom here. Only the extremely naïve believe that the militarized capitalism of the West is about democracy. Anything but! excerpts: [pullquote]When the pandemic comes to an end, we […]

Can the Coronavirus and the Stock Market Meltdown Break America’s Addiction to Fantasy?

image above: Fantasy Landscape HD Wallpapers, Pictures, Images hdwallpaper.nu Jon Schwarz March 18 2020, 9:14 a.m. WN: Such a telling article! Added to all other epithets about Trump such as Ugly-American-in-Chief, Liar-in-Chief, Buffoon-in-Chief, Narcissist-in-Chief, Ignoramus-in-Chief, World-Enemy-in-Chief, is Fantasizer-in-Chief.1 America will never become “White Again”. Such days are forever gone–regardless of Trump’s short-lived success to the contrary. . […]

How America’s Elites Lost Their Grip

By Anand Giridharadas November 21, 2019 Giridharadas is a TIME editor-at-large and the author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, The True American and India Calling. He is also a political analyst for NBC News and teaches writing at NYU. Illustration by Shout for TIME WN: Compelling–and hopeful–analysis in light […]

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 […]

When the Facts Are Not Debatable

The House’s two charges against Trump get right to the point, are easy to prove, and precisely describe the threat the president poses to American democracy. December 11, 2019 Kim Wehle Professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law photo above: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters WN: As a non-lawyer and Canadian, I find the […]

In a polarized world, dialogue is a radical act

Julie Schumacher Cohen Julie Schumacher Cohen is Director of Community and Government Relations at The University of Scranton. She is the former Deputy Director of Churches for Middle East Peace, Senior Fellow for the Telos Group and a facilitator for Soliya’s Connect Program. December 03, 2019 photo above: iStock  WN: A very wise and hopeful […]

Canada’s Best Hope Of Meeting Emission Targets Is Hiking Carbon Price: Economists

Canada’s Best Hope Of Meeting Emission Targets Is Hiking Carbon Price: Economists  NEWS 11/26/2019 18:27 EST | Updated 8 hours ago photo above: Activists rally for action on climate change on Sept. 27, 2019 in Montreal. WN: No doubt future generations will look at us with great anger, though not incomprehension. It is the human […]

America’s Arms Sales Addiction

November 17, 2019 The 50-Year History of U.S. Dominance of the Middle Eastern Arms Trade By William D. Hartung Honestly, if a single corporate entity controlled three-quarters of the global market in a product, you’d call it a monopoly, right? Well, in 2011, that was the situation of the United States when it came to […]

The Exposure of the Republican Party

The Exposure of the Republican Party The GOP will not be a great or good party until those who lead it straighten their backbone. November 13, 2019 Peter Wehner Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC photo above: Pool / Reuters WN: This rings so true. When unchecked hubris and unbridled greed […]

Uncovering Russiagate’s Origins Could Prevent Future Scandals

There are legitimate grounds to probe the intelligence officials behind the all-consuming Trump-Russia affair. By Aaron Maté October 28, 2019 photo above: Trump shakes hands with Attorney General William Barr before taking the podium in the East Room of the White House in September. He was awarding police officers and civilians for their role in […]

The Collusion Of Church and State

Published on Thursday, October 17, 2019 Common Dreams by Robert C. Koehler Where are the values—religious or otherwise—that can save this recklessly careening, war-addicted, carbon-spewing state from participating both in its own and the whole planet’s destruction? photo above: Considering that Pompeo is widely known as both a war hawk—a proponent of war with Iran—and […]

Our Mad Dog President—and His Bible-Thumping Kennel Pals

Published on Wednesday, October 16, 2019 Common Dreams by Michael Winship The White House theocrats may be the biggest danger of all. photo above: Like Trump, a would-be dictator madly claiming the overwhelming support of the populace, the real-life Capone insisted that his criminal acts satisfied “a public demand.” (Photo-Illustration: Daily Intelligencer; Photos: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty […]

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, High Crimes and Misdemeanors of the Fading American Century

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, High Crimes and Misdemeanors of the Fading American Century The Real Cover-Up: Putting Donald Trump’s Impeachment in Context Posted by Andrew Bacevich at 7:28am, October 8, 2019. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. WN: Mr. Bacevich I find always on target and persuasive. excerpts: As this process unspools, what politicians like to call […]

Impeachment, Brought to You by the CIA

October 4, 2019 by Rob Urie photo above: Photograph Source: Master Steve Rapport – CC BY 2.0 WN: There is always more going on geopolitically than meets the eye! This account is to be taken seriously. excerpts: For the first time in half a century, the political left in the U.S. is ascendant. Bernie Sanders […]

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. […]

Why Would a Whistle-Blower Save This Nation of Cowards?

For nearly three years, none of our leaders have held Trump accountable—yet we expect the Ukraine scandal to be different. By Elie Mystal September 23, 2019 WN: Very sad . . . excerpts: [su_dropcap size=”5″]W[/su_dropcap]e cannot guarantee the safety of whistle-blowers. Oh, we pass all kinds of laws with fancy names like the “Whistleblower Protection […]

John Bolton’s Ouster Makes the World Safer

But only a little. Trump’s clownish foreign policy shouldn’t be used to discredit diplomacy. By Jeet Heer September 11, 2019 photo above: John Bolton talks to reporters about outside the White House on May 1, 2019. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci) WN: This analysis strikes as reading Trump all too well: thereby accentuating Trump’s continued […]

Imperialist Made Crisis of Migrants and Refugees

For the last 18 years, since the new era of war and occupation began, there has been no end to the war, violence, and economic devastation imposed on people around the world by imperialist governments like the U.S., Canada, and the countries of the European Union Published on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 by Common Dreams […]

Puerto Ricans Demonstrate How to Oust a Corrupt Leader

Jul 25, 2019 Opinion | TD originals Sonali Kolhatkar photo above: Puerto Ricans gather in San Juan to celebrate the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. (Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo / AP) WN: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Ultimate Corrupt/Ultimate Despicable/Ultimate Deplorable Trump were next (or better went through a genuine Christian conversion)?! 🙂 excerpts: […]

Editorial: The politics of division stripped of any disguise

Jul 18, 2019 by NCR Editorial Staff photo above: The White House is seen in Washington July 12. (CNS/Tyler Orsburn)  WN: This is so well stated, it bears quoting in full. Opinion The stock market indexes keep pushing through the ceiling. Your portfolio looks better than it has in years. The jobless rate recently hit […]

American Jews Divided On Israel Are Uniting — In Anti-ICE ‘Never Again’ Protests

American Jews Divided On Israel Are Uniting — In Anti-ICE ‘Never Again’ Protests July 16, 2019 by Aiden Pink and Ari Feldman photo above: Getty WN: Wonderful! excerpts: [su_dropcap size=”5″]I[/su_dropcap]f you’re liberal, Jewish and Zionist, it has been difficult to find a home in the earth-shaking activist movements of the past decade. A leading Black […]

AOC’s ‘Squad’ Represents Me As An American Jew – More Than Any Republican

July 16, 2019 by Shoshana Hershkowitz photo above: Getty Images WN: White American “Christian” Evangelicals, meet real (Judeo-)Christian values! Amen! excerpts: For me as an American Jew, seeing a diverse group of young women who are focused on progressive policies inspires me. As a Jewish woman, social and economic justice are inextricably connected with “Tikkun […]

It Has Long Been Past Time To Take A Stand

July 16, 2019 by Henry Karlson image above: GDJ: Stop Racism / Pixabay WN: Trump is doing great evil in America and across the world. Every Christian pulpit in the nation — and beyond — should be declaring with Amos, Micah and Jesus: Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless […]

Progressives Need to Start Preaching Hell Again

July 16, 2019 by Chuck McKnight   photo above: Gage Skidmore, Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 Generic. WN: Amen! Except: I so dislike the term “progressive”, which in my view can smack of just another kind of (religious) elitism. “Justice-seekers” or some such term is what I’d rather identify with. Please also read about the Poor […]

How Can We Celebrate “Freedom” While Kids Are in Concentration Camps?

How Can We Celebrate “Freedom” While Kids Are in Concentration Camps? By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Published July 4, 2019 photo above: Pro tip, flag-waver: Your July Fourth “freedom” narrative is a bald-faced lie.Lauren Walker / Truthout WN: And damned if anyone out there for the most part cares!… I have a close relative who […]

Kids Locked In Cages Aren’t So Sure You’re Actually “Pro-Life”

Benjamin L. Corey July 1, 2019   WN: Of course, the persons addressed in the article highlighted below in the end are neither “pro-life” nor “Christian”. They have always happily supported bombing the hell out of whatever perceived enemy of the month America is targeting “now” (and that is anyone/state not bowing to its hegemony […]

Good Riddance to Cultural Christianity

Good Riddance to Cultural Christianity April 19, 2019| nones, Religious Right, voluntary association photo above: Pat Robertson speaks at the Road to Victory event at the Christian Coalition Conference September 19, 1998 in Washington, DC (Richard Ellis / Alamy Stock Photo). WN: Of course, “cultural Christianity” is ever part of Christian expression in all eras, […]

Canadian Company, Peace Collective, Reinvents MAGA Hat As Anti-Hate Toque

By Charmaine Noronha photo: Victor, who immigrated to Canada from Kampala, Uganda, is proud to “unravel hate,” and call Canada home. WN: The article highlighted below is a wonderful made-in-Canada response to the vituperative hatred of — on the MAGA issue at least — Trump’s Deplorables. Sadly, a close relative is amongst that TD Hate […]

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 […]

On March 15, the Climate Kids Are Coming

On March 15, the Climate Kids Are Coming A massive, international, youth-led mobilization will demand action on the climate crisis. By Mark Hertsgaard  Twitter March 4, 2019 photo above:  Mad as hell: Greta Thunberg is not letting leaders get away with inaction on the climate crisis. (Christian Charisius / Picture-Alliance / dpa / AP Images) […]

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 […]

A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy

[irp]A Centuries-Old Idea Could Revolutionize Climate Policy The Green New Deal’s mastermind is a precocious New Yorker with big ambitions. Sound familiar? Robinson Meyer Feb 19, 2019 illustration above: John Trumbull / Caitlin Ochs / Eric Vidall / Reuters / Thanh Do / The Atlantic WN: The Deal continues to sound hopeful! However, as we […]

How Colin Kaepernick Beat the NFL

How Colin Kaepernick Beat the NFL His settlement with the league is a major victory for the leader of the league’s protest movement. By Jeremy Stahl Feb 15, 2019 5:22 PM photo above: New York City, New York, JuLY 12 ,2020: In this photo we see a graphic artist drawing, painting, an artist made of […]

Millennials are so over US domination of world affairs

by Bruce Jentleson Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Duke University July 26, 2018 6.36am EDT photo above: Millennials are not into the ‘We are the greatest country’ idea. Shutterstock   WN: The article highlighted below is immensely hopeful – if millennials stay the course. Its final paragraphs read – significantly understated that they […]

Anti-Semitic Violence Erupts in America

Anti-Semitic Violence Erupts in America By Joseph Kishore October 29, 2018 photo above: Reaction to anti-Semitic violence in Pittsburg, October 2018 WN: World News Daily Information Clearing House tends towards right wing distortion. But it carries as well great analysis such as that highlighted below. excerpts: Eleven people were killed in the slaughter in Pittsburgh, […]

Venezuela: The U.S.’s 68th Regime Change Disaster

Venezuela: The U.S.’s 68th Regime Change Disaster February 6, 2019 by Medea Benjamin – Nicolas J. S. Davies WN: An all-too-familiar story again is playing itself out in Venezuela. Western leadership, the U.S. in particular, foments lies and economic collapse towards regime-change goals. The article highlighted below tells thjat story. Similarly, “US ‘Regime Changes’: The […]

American Psychological Association links ‘masculinity ideology’ to homophobia, misogyny

American Psychological Association links ‘masculinity ideology’ to homophobia, misogyny For the first time in its 127-year history, the APA has issued guidelines to help psychologists specifically address the issues of men and boys. photo above: vintag.es Jan. 8, 2019, 3:28 PM PST By Tim Fitzsimons WN: The article is about powerful, hopeful moves by Gillette […]

Five Forces Driving the Rise of Fascism in 2019

Five Forces Driving the Rise of Fascism in 2019 By Michael I. Niman,Truthout Published January 13, 2019 WN: The article highlighted below is a call to see beyond dystopian rise of fascism in the world to what we Christians call “Kingdom Come”. The article is nonetheless very sobering. excerpts: bitchute.com [su_dropcap size=”5″]T[/su_dropcap]he New Year’s Day […]

Tucker Carlson has sparked the most interesting debate in conservative politics

Tucker Carlson has sparked the most interesting debate in conservative politics “All I’m saying is don’t act like the way things are is somehow ordained by God.” By Jane Coastonjane.coaston@vox.com Jan 10, 2019, 5:00am EST   photo above: Tucker Carlson, host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, in his Fox News Channel studio in New York on […]

Theology That Builds Walls

Theology That Builds Walls   January 8, 2019 by Morgan Guyton    photo above: First Baptist Church of Dallas on “Freedom Sunday” WN: “Salvation Industrial Complex” (S.I.C.)  is a new one on me, and quite apt! So is the entire article, that is highlighted below. The author’s book also looks quite interesting: especially when so […]

No, Heaven Does Not Have A Border Wall

No, Heaven Does Not Have A Border Wall January 7, 2019 by Zack Hunt (Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons) WN: In fact, Christ is in the business of tearing down walls, as in Ephesians 2: 14For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility […]

What’s Behind U.S. Troop Withdrawals Announced for Syria and Afghanistan?

By Sara Flounders Global Research, December 27, 2018 WN: What is indisputable is the U.S. remains singularly guided in the Greater Middle East (as everywhere else in the world) by unapologetic imperialist impulse. It is also indisputable that Israel is likewise an imperial power which not only does the bidding of the U.S., but also […]

Deadly weather: the human cost of 2018’s climate disasters – visual guide

Deadly weather: the human cost of 2018’s climate disasters – visual guide Scientists say extreme weather events are getting worse as emissions rise and the planet warms ‘Uneasy about the heatwave’: readers on a year of climate anxiety Daniel Levitt, Peter Andringa, Frank Hulley-Jones, Lydia Smears and Jonathan Watts Fri 21 Dec 2018 06.45 GMT Image […]

Bush the Archvillain

Bush the Archvillain By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout Published December 4, 2018 photo above: President George H.W. Bush speaks during his unsuccessful bid for re-election for the presidency, October 29, 1992.Wally McNamee / Corbis via Getty Images WN: My commentary from the previous post is fitting again: Of course any lineup of contemporary former Presidents […]

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Bad Character Has Nothing to Do With His Bad Politics

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Bad Character Has Nothing to Do With His Bad Politics Published on Wednesday, October 03, 2018 by T.S. Mendola Rewire.News photo above: usapoliticstoday.org [pullquote]No saint is without a past; no sinner is without a future.[/pullquote]WN: And Hitler was apparently an animal lover… excerpt: Brett Kavanaugh’s politics are bad—not in the sense that […]

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, […]

Brace for Impact, as the Climate “End Game” Has Arrived

By Dahr Jamail — Truthout Published September 25, 2018 photo above: Smoke from wildfires in British Columbia, Eastern Washington and Montana enshrouds the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. In the Pacific Northwest, experiencing weeks on end of wildfire smoke during the summer months has become the “new normal.” Dahr Jamail WN: The author updates readers […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Why the Vatican continues to struggle with sex abuse scandals

by Chico Harlan August 12 at 6:53 PM Email the author photo above: Members of Chile’s bishops conference, Luis Fernando Ramos Perez and Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, give a news conference at the Vatican in May. (LUCA PRIZIA/AFP/Getty Images) WN: Pope Francis by all accounts is faltering on this, rather than robustly pursuing justice in all […]

How Does This All End? How Do We Come Back Together?

August 1, 2018 by Tim Suttle 8 Comments WN: In the article highlighted below, we are told — again by this author — that America has a wisdom problem. I have no doubt that he is right. What must be asserted however much more so is that America has an Evil Empire problem. When an […]

America just won the world’s hardest math contest. Again.

by Mahbub Majumdar August 1, 2018 Mahbub Majumdar is the national coach for the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad and a professor at BRAC University in Bangladesh. photo above: (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) WN: I’m not anti-America! I am though anti-bullying, bullying of which America is Ultimate Example,  Ultimate Offender. Just as Trump is of all Americans, […]

What It’s Like Inside the Largest Immigrant Prison in the US

By Christina Fialho  Salon Published August 4, 2018 photo above: A guard escorts an immigrant detainee from his ‘segregation cell’ back into the general population at the Adelanto Detention Facility on November 15, 2013 in Adelanto, California. John Moore/Getty Images WN: It is ever true that the measure of any civilization is its prisons. Fyodor […]

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 […]

Enough Bombs Bursting in Air. We Need to Love One Another.

By William Rivers Pitt Truthout, Published July 4, 2018 WN: I love it when people not necessarily in the faith reflect back to us Jesus’ central message to “love one another”. And I think it singularly sobering that they remind people of faith about its central tenet. Would that the white evangelical majority everywhere in […]

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 […]

Chuck Feeney: the billionaire who gave it all away

Philanthropist lives modestly in rented apartment after giving away $8bn fortune Sat, Mar 3, 2018, 06:00 Conor O’Clery photo above: In 2003, Chuck Feeney signed off on a decision to spend all of his fortune in his lifetime. “Giving while living,” he called it. WN: In light of the following verse, I kind of think […]

The Arctic Is Melting Down as the Antarctic Food Chain Is Breaking

Monday, March 05, 2018 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report photo above: Little Visuals excerpts: A draft UN report has warned that missing the 1.5°C warming target set by the Paris Climate Accords will multiply hunger, migration and conflict around the globe. The 1.5°C target means limiting atmospheric temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C above what they […]

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 […]

The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya’s Women-Only Village

WN: These are fascinating stories of Kenyan villages where women are in charge. You may notice they are a tad biased against men… One wonders why… Just as of course one cannot imagine why there is bias against white men who have the “burden” to “take care”of their “lesser brethren” when all they offer is […]

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 […]

Justin Trudeau, Israel and the Palestinians

photo above: A just peace for Palestine, means peace for Israel too. by Michael Rose from Flickr Creative Commons WN: My friend Ron Dart suggests three reasons that the Liberal Party of Canada is in fact not liberal towards the Palestinians. Unsurprisingly, each has to do with power and money. As pointed out elsewhere, Trudeau […]

“Apocalyptic” Melting Transpires in Antarctica as Earth Wraps Up a Scorching Year

Monday, December 04, 2017 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report photo above: (Photo: Ghost Presenter; Edited: LW / TO) WN: The capacity to deny ACD (Anthropogenic Climate Disruption) despite massive evidence otherwise is mind-boggling. Yet someone I know well enough (who never reads my blogs!) has been doing this for years. His favourite whipping boys are David Suzuki and […]

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 […]

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 […]

Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Last Men Standing

Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 8:03am, September 5, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. Victory at Last!  In America’s Wars, Failure Is the New Success By Tom Engelhardt photo above: Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (left), speaks to White House chief of staff Gen. John F. Kelly. (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of […]

On 9/11: How We Hyped Terrorism and Slighted the Real Threat: Climate Change

SEP 11, 2017 Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan and the proprietor of the Informed Comment e-zine. He has written extensively on modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf and South Asia and has given numerous media interviews on the war on terrorism and […]

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 […]

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 Fundamentalists Holding Us Back from a Climate Change Solution

The evangelical Christian movement has been at war with environmentalism for decades—but the stakes have never been higher. By ALLIE CONTI illustrated by LIA KANTROWITZ Aug 20 2017, 7:15pm WN: It is truly tragic to see US politics swayed by a minority of religious climate change deniers – out of all proportion to their numbers. […]

We Must Speak Out: Christian Leaders on the White Nationalist Rally

The hate must end. August 13, 2017 This weekend, hundreds of alt-right white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, to hold a “Unite the Right” rally. Their stated goal was to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a park. Their rally, which consisted of neo-Nazis, heavily armed militia members […]

How to Challenge Media Narratives Without Being Called a Conspiracy Theorist

August 12, 2017 John Kiriakou Contributor photo above: President Kennedy minutes before his assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Also in the presidential limousine: Jackie Kennedy, Texas Gov. John Connally and Connally’s wife, Nellie. (Walt Cisco / Wikimedia) WN: As to the last line of the quote below: You can fool all the people […]

Note To Wall Street: Never Mind Your Nuclear Stock Tips For “Highly Dovish Forward Guidance.” On Account of Everyone Being, You Know, Dead.

by Abby Zimet, staff writer illustration above: by The Spectator We can’t even. Tensions with North Korea continue to escalate, in large part thanks to the belligerent rhetoric of our moronic Narcissist-In-Chief – who, despite claims to the contrary, has not done anything  to “renovate and modernize” our nuclear arsenal. Though he has in fact fired the people who […]

Slouching Toward Mar-a-Lago

The Post-Cold-War Consensus Collapses Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, The Great Hysteria Posted by Andrew Bacevich at 6:10am, August 8, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. By Andrew J. Bacevich WN: The article highlighted below claims that “Trumps R Us“. Another way of expressing it of course: Trump is the Ultimate Ugly American! Tragically, America got exactly what it had become. […]

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. […]

Courts Must Hold Executive Branch Accountable for Drone Strikes

Thursday, July 13, 2017 By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout | News Analysis WN: Of course all Presidents by definition are mass murderers. Trump is on track to be the worst of them all. an excerpt: Judge Brown Invites Courts to Review the Legality of Drone Strikes In addition to writing the majority opinion, Judge Brown also authored a separate […]

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, […]

We Are the 99 Percent—Except for the Top 20 Percent of Us

 In a new book Dream Hoarders, Richard V. Reeves argues that members of the upper middle class, not just the ultra-wealthy, are making our society profoundly unequal. By Bryce Covert JULY 3, 2017 WN: What the author calls for in the article highlighted below is what biblical Jubilee Justice repeatedly heralds: that for everyone “enough should be […]

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 […]

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 […]

The US tried to derail climate action before – and it ended in humiliating defeat

George W Bush failed in his attempt to block global action on climate change. His mistake – about to be repeated by Trump – was to imagine the UN process was weak Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent Thursday 1 June 2017 16.50 BSTLast modified on Friday 2 June 2017 00.36 BST photo above: A polar bear leaps over melting ice, Svalbard […]

Ajamu Baraka, “Uncle Tom,” and the Pathology of White Liberal Racism

AUGUST 24, 2016 by ERIC DRAITSER WN: White Supremacy has many disguised faces. One is “white liberal”, worn by those who supported a Black President because it is the “liberal thing” to be anti-racist, and who smugly know they do the right thing: end of all discourse. But the issue is far deeper – and […]

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 […]

Stop swooning over Justin Trudeau. The man is a disaster for the planet

Donald Trump is a creep and unpleasant to look at, but at least he’s not a stunning hypocrite when it comes to climate change Bill McKibben @billmckibben Monday 17 April 2017 11.00 BST Last modified on Tuesday 18 April 2017 19.35 BST an excerpt: Last month, speaking at a Houston petroleum industry gathering, he got a standing ovation from the […]

Global Resource Depletion

Home › 2013 › Volume 64, Issue 08 (January) › Global Resource Depletion Is Population the Problem? by Fred Magdoff Topics: Ecology , Marxist Ecology , Stagnation Places: Africa illustration above found here WN: A fascinating article! So much to understand. So little time to learn and act! It is a long article, but so rewarding to read. an excerpt: The original 1972 Limits to Growth study [see update 30 […]

VOW – Statement on Syria

Justin Trudeau has shown his true colours in his complete flip-flop on what The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) calls for below. He lacks the spine of his father, who in part was willing to stand up to U.S. Empire. Without doubt, he will also bless (has done so already?) the MOAB dropped […]

Who Rules America?

WN: Of course who rules America in turn rules the world. Such unbounded ruthlessly greedy power brokers have embraced and even to a large extent realized in the 21st century what was offered Jesus in the 1st (Matthew 4:1 – 11): “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour.“ But “the art of the deal” represents in fact […]

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 […]

‘No Walls, No War, No Warming’: Progressives Call for Priorities Shift

Published on Tuesday, April 04, 2017 by Common Dreams Under President Donald Trump’s budget, “war wins out”—over pretty much everything photo above: Fifty years ago Tuesday, Martin Luther King, Jr. warned that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual […]

Statement re Israeli Ministry’s Attack on JVP ahead of National Conference Today

For Immediate Release Friday, March 31, 2017 – 2:30pm Organization Profile:  Jewish Voice for Peace Contact: 510.465.1777, info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org Israeli Ministry’s Attack on JVP a sign of the movement for Palestinian rights’ growing power an excerpt: CHICAGO, IL. – Ahead of the largest ever gathering of Jewish Voice for Peace members, the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs reportedly issued a statement attacking […]

Evangelist Franklin Graham hits perfect storm in Vancouver

Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun  03.05.2017 photo above: Thirty-three Vancouver Christian leaders wrote a public letter admonishing Graham for saying “Islam is a ‘very evil and wicked religion’” and for “portraying … U.S. President Donald Trump as intrinsically aligned with the Christian church.” Photo: Graham takes the stage in Alabama. Mark Wallheiser / Vancouver Sun WN: […]

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 […]

Truthdiggers of the Week: Sanctuary Churches, Havens for Undocumented Immigrants

photo above: Members of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, N.J., show support for undocumented immigrants. (Reformed Church of Highland Park / Facebook) Posted on Feb 18, 2017 By Emma Niles an excerpt: Since President Trump took office less than one month ago, fears of increased deportations at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have […]

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them – Jesus

WN: Across the United States, there has been massive support by conservative Evangelical Christians for Donald Trump. For instance, before election, he was fêted by 1,000 Evangelical leaders in New York City who embraced him as a great Christian leader. At his inauguration, Franklin Graham (Billy Graham’s son) ad libbed that God’s blessing was on […]

For America’s Sake, We Need Answers about Russia. Now.

Why we must now ask famous questions that so bedeviled Richard Nixon: What did Donald Trump know and when did he know it? Published on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 by  Common Dreams By Michael Winship image above: Russian President Vladimir Putin. ‘The bottom line is that Putin is far shrewder than Trump,’ writes Winship. (Image: […]

Tomgram: Rajan Menon, The China Missile Crisis of 2018?

Posted by Rajan Menon at 5:11pm, February 12, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. an excerpt: “We’re Going to War in the South China Sea…” Facing off against China, President Trump could find himself in a similar predicament, having so emphasized his toughness, his determination to regain America’s lost respect and make the country great […]

“I’ve Never Been So Ashamed To Be an American.” Really?

These are shameful times, but the current ugliness did not start simply with Donald Trump Published on Friday, February 10, 2017 by Common Dreams By Christian Christensen photo above: ‘How deep is our disconnect from that of which we should be most ashamed?’ asks Christensen.  (Photo: Ted S. Warren/ AP) WN: Of course the author […]

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

Feisty Harriet’s Reviews In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (Goodreads Author) Feisty Harriet‘s review Nov 16, 2016 bookshelves: world-war-ii Read from November 16 to 20, 2016 WN: “I am not comparing the incoming US administration to Hitler’s Third Reich, however the similarities in the […]

Why We March: Reflections from Women’s Marches

Jan 26, 2017 Donald Trump Women’s March photo above: Sean Talbot joined thousands of people marching in the rain in Portland, Oregon. See more of his photos from the day at Stumptown Lives. On Saturday, January 21st, the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, millions of people […]

Tomgram: Engelhardt, It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s The Donald in the News!

Crimes of the Trump Era (a Preview) The 25/8 News Cycle Is Already Rolling, But the Looting of America Hasn’t Really Begun By Tom Engelhardt Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 7:45am, February 7, 2017. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. an excerpt: Call it perfect scheduling, but just two days before his inauguration — two days, […]

Obama: Prevent nuclear war!

From Avaaz: What’s the scariest thing about Trump?? He’s completely unpredictable, and if he decides to launch US nuclear weapons — there’s nothing that can stop him. That’s cause once the President says “go”, there’s just 4 minutes til launch. It’s a crazy dangerous system that started in the Cold War and is totally unnecessary today […]

If You Think Jesus Was White, Here Are Five Reasons You’re Wrong

Posted on Dec 26, 2016 By Juan Cole Jesus is the polar opposite of Donald Trump. And sadly, so are some Trump supporters opposite to Jesus, for whom another name than “deplorables” is “goats” à la Matthew 25. Jesus was however, in today’s terms neither Left nor Right, Progressive nor Conservative, and, à la Galatians 3:28, Jew […]

James Mattis Is a War Criminal: I Experienced His Attack on Fallujah Firsthand

Tuesday, 06 December 2016 00:00 By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis photo above: Marine Gen. James Mattis testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 27, 2010. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / The New York Times) an excerpt: Standing near the ambulance in frustration, Maki told […]

Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Most Dangerous Country on Earth

Was 11/8 a New 9/11? The Election That Changed Everything and Could Prove History’s Deal-Breaker By Tom Engelhardt Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 7:31am, December 1, 2016. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. an excerpt: Whatever Americans may have ushered in with the events of 11/8, one thing is increasingly certain about the country that Donald […]

Letter to First Ministers from major business and civil society leaders

More than 60 CEOs and civil society leaders urge Prime Minister and Premiers to take bold action on clean growth and climate change Media release: November 24, 2016 This looks highly promising, in direct contradistinction to the new administration to the south, and seemingly to this woman vying for Conservative Party leadership. an excerpt: Dear […]

No, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright

Published on Tuesday, November 15, 2016 by Common Dreams By Ted Rall photo above: ‘Trump’s fascism,’ writes Rall, ‘will come about naturally, caused by the perfect storm of his ego, his CEO mentality, the politics and personalities of the men and women with whom he is surrounding himself, and a set of developments that are […]

Pope Francis Denounces Growing ‘Demonization’ of Enemies and Outsiders

By David Gibson, Religion News Service 11-21-2016 an excerpt: “God has only sons and daughters,” the pope said. “We are the ones who raise walls, build barriers, and label people. God has sons and daughters precisely so that no one will be turned away.” Francis said “our instinctive reaction” is to “discredit or curse” those whois anathema […]

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 […]

George Takei: They interned my family. Don’t let them do it to Muslims.

By George Takei November 18 at 6:00 AM Follow @GeorgeTakei George Takei is an actor, activist and social media maven. The United States apologized for locking up Japanese Americans. Have we learned nothing? an excerpt: There is dangerous talk these days by those who have the ear of some at the highest levels of government. […]

As a Muslim, How Do I Tell My Child the New President Doesn’t Like Us?

Donald Trump’s victory has led to a surge in anti-Muslim feeling in the US. Explain that to a nine-year-old. By Mehdi Hasan an excerpt: How do I explain to my daughter, a proud US citizen who recites the pledge of allegiance in class every morning, that millions of her fellow Americans elected as her next […]

How could we — I — get so much so wrong? – Michael’s essay

CBC: The Sunday Edition With Michael Enright Sunday November 13, 2016 excerpts: On the morning after, an early warming sun lit up the street now covered in freshly fallen leaves. A beautiful young woman walking briskly on the other side of the road suddenly looked over and smiled beatifically. Everything was as it should be in […]

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. […]

Election 2016 and the Growing Global Nuclear Threat

Playing a Game of Chicken with Nuclear Strategy By Michael T. Klare Tomgram: Michael Klare, Whose Finger on the Nuclear Button? | TomDispatch an excerpt: It’s clear that we’re on the threshold of a new nuclear era: a time when the actual use of atomic weapons is being accorded greater plausibility by military and political […]

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 […]

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 […]

How Breitbart Conquered the Media

 TA-NEHISI COATES Sep 12, 2016 Politics Why the Media Didn’t Bother to Verify if Hillary Clinton’s Remark About Half of Donald Trump’s Supporters Being ‘Deplorable’ Was True – The Atlantic Political reporters were taken aback by Hillary Clinton’s charge that half of Trump’s supporters are prejudiced. Few bothered to investigate the claim itself. an excerpt: […]

UN Human Rights Chief Urges Action Against Western ‘Demagogues’ | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Comparing the likes of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, and Geert Wilders to ISIS, UN’s Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein implores: “Speak out and up…Draw the line!” Tuesday, September 06, 2016 by Common Dreams photo above: “The formula is…simple: make people, already nervous, feel terrible, and then emphasize it’s all because of a group, lying within, foreign […]

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 […]

When this is over, you will have nothing that you want – Chicago Tribune

photo above: Donald Trump calls for ideological screening tests of all immigrants. Aug. 31, 2016. (C-SPAN) By Garrison Keillor Special To The Washington Post an excerpt: Why doesn’t someone in your entourage dare to say these things? So sad. The fans in the arenas are wild about you, and Sean Hannity is as loyal as […]

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 […]

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 […]

Three Fact-Checking Websites of Note

Image above: from Politifact: I’ll highlight the All Pants-On-Fire assertions by Donald Trump – there are of course so many such by other politicians too! But PolitiFact did award Trump “2015 Lie of the Year“. I’m sitting back not a little dumbfounded by a recent exchange I had about Obama and the US elections candidates. […]

The US Government Can’t Stop Loving Nukes​

Thursday, 11 August 2016 06:17 ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT an excerpt: In essence, nuclear deterrence — a.k.a., M.A.D. — depends not only on having a nuclear arsenal ready to go, but having a president perceived by the other guys to be ready to use it, kind of like we imagine President Trump […]

The Average Black Family Would Need 228 Years to Build the Wealth of a White Family Today

Just as past public policies created the racial wealth gap, current policy widens it. By Joshua Holland AUGUST 8, 2016 WN: The poor are invariably blamed for their poverty. This article, applicable to other “democracies,” challenges this perverse blaming of victims. excerpts: [su_dropcap]I[/su_dropcap]f current economic trends continue, the average black household will need 228 years to […]

The Neocon Project for a New Democratic Party

photo above: White House Monday, 08 August 2016 08:45 J.P. SOTTILE FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT an excerpt: Unlike Hillary Clinton, of course, which brings the whole thing back to the miasma of confusion hanging over this strange election. Hillary is on the Neocon team — if not in name, certainly in deed. She will “stand up” […]

The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism

Posted on Aug 8, 2016 By Chris Hedges an excerpt: College-educated elites, on behalf of corporations, carried out the savage neoliberal assault on the working poor. Now they are being made to pay. Their duplicity—embodied in politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—succeeded for decades. These elites, many from East Coast Ivy […]

Nuclear disarmament: back on centre stage

by Elizabeth Renzetti The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Aug. 05, 2016 6:00 AM EDT Last updated Friday, Aug. 05, 2016 9:27AM EDT an excerpt: Could Donald Trump accidentally be the best friend of the nuclear disarmament movement? This may sound like Dr. Strangelove-level madness, but the prospect of the Republican presidential candidate anywhere near […]

The Decay of American Politics

Tomgram: Andrew Bacevich, Pseudo-Election 2016 Posted by Andrew Bacevich at 7:50am, August 4, 2016. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch. An Ode to Ike and Adlai By Andrew J. Bacevich an excerpt: So while a Trump presidency holds the prospect of the United States driving off a cliff, a Clinton presidency promises to be the equivalent […]

Rev. William Barber Drops the Mic at the DNC

Wow! Except for the part about Hilary Clinton, who gets a pass from him, she ultimate Warmonger and rapacious Neoliberal. meaning of “drop the mic” Please also see: Barber on Trump and Second Amendment

Part 2: Michael Moore with Piers Morgan: Good Morning Britain

Published on Jul 5, 2016 With over one million Americans killed by guns since John Lennon, Michael Moore is in Britain and speaking with Piers Morgan about guns, Donald Trump, Brexit and the EU. Full Interview Good Morning Britain (06/24/16) Please also see this about Michael Moore’s new film, Fahrenheit 11/9, release date September 21, […]

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, […]

How technology disrupted the truth

Social media has swallowed the news – threatening the funding of public-interest reporting and ushering in an era when everyone has their own facts. But the consequences go far beyond journalism. [However, it has been known since the rise of Big Corporation ownership of major news outlets, that truth disruption (“manufacturing consent” – Noam Chompsky) […]

Of Lethal Drones and Police Shootings

Friday, 08 July 2016 00:00 By Kathy Kelly, Consortium News | Op-Ed photo above: Demonstrators record a crowd of police officers on hand in New York’s Times Square, where a large crowd protested after fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota on July 7, 2016. (Christopher Lee / The New York Times) WN: Police brutality […]

In Transparent Act, Obama Administration Erases Civilian Deaths From Drone Strikes

photo above: President Barack Obama convenes a meeting in the Situation Room to discuss the latest on the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. Photo by the White House on Flickr. Obama and his administration are not only outright liars: they are mass serial killers with impunity. Under either Clinton or Trump, the […]

The Language of War

Posted on June 19, 2016 by wjastore an excerpt: The language of war fascinates me. I was reading President Obama’s response to Donald Trump on whether Obama “gets it” when it comes to the threat of terrorism and came across this passage: “Someone [Donald Trump] seriously thinks that we don’t know who we are fighting? […]

Cornel West: Black Lives Matter Is an Indictment of Neoliberal Power

By George Souvlis, openDemocracy | Interview photo above: Dr. Cornel West speaks at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 3, 2009. (Photo: James Stewart; Edited: LW / TO) an excerpt: George Souvlis: What is the legacy of the Obama administration? Cornel West: We are at a crossroads in American history. We must choose […]

Crisis Narratives and the Ongoing Drought in Ethiopia

Wednesday, 01 June 2016 00:00 By Christine Ro, Truthout | News Analysis an excerpt: But Ethiopia is much more than a Live Aid poster country, and the crisis situation it’s facing now differs from the one in the 1980s — the country has a more stable government and a stronger emergency management system. And El […]

Tomgram: Mattea Kramer, The Grief of Others and the Boasts of Candidates

photo above: An injured Afghan boy is put on a stretcher at a hospital in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan. Photograph: Nesar Ahmad Posted by Mattea Kramer at 7:01am, March 3, 2016. An excerpt from the introduction: Here’s a what-if that continues to haunt me. What if some disturbed “lone wolf,” “inspired” by the Islamic State’s online […]

The Untold History of US War Crimes

(Photo: atomic cloud over Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. (Photo: Hiromichi Matsuda) An interview with Professor (of History) Peter Kuznick It is a truism that the United States has been committing war crimes almost since its inception. This interview looks at U.S. war crimes during and since World War II. An excerpt: As a freshman in […]

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

image above: Benito Mussolini (left) and Adolf Hitler (right), the leaders of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, respectively, were both fascists. WN: Sobering. Canada anyone? See too: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder. Of it: The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces […]

Christianity and the Subversion of Just About Everything!

April 16, 2017 WN: This essay was initially written in the 1980’s while I was preparing a sermon on Romans 13. My “aha” moment is that described in the excerpt below. I’ve never seen this elsewhere in biblical scholarship. Someday a New Testament scholar may tell me it really is not good exegesis. But until […]

WAR AND HELL – and Exception-Clause Footnote Theology

WN: War and Hell is an interactive essay with a movie and a book. The movie: Saving Private Ryan. The book: The Other Side of The Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ Teaching on Hell, Wheaton: Victor Books, 1992 (later published by one other at least). The current iteration of this document was prepared for […]

“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 […]