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Monday
By Wayne Madsen
The staid financial and political news magazine The Economist is not prone to publish outlandish news stories and headlines. For that reason, the magazine’s readers around the world have taken notice of its annual Democracy Index for 2017. The magazine’s 2016 Index warned that the United States had dropped from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy.”
By Stephen Lendman
From February 1-7, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is visiting Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica, US-allied countries, serving privileged interests exclusively, exploiting others, the way America operates.
By Eric Zuesse
On November 18, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt spoke about how Google will help to defeat Russia. He said that Google helps in this effort not by “censoring” Russian news media, but by “deranking” them in Google web-searches, so that web pages from these sites, which he calls “propaganda,” will show so far down in the rankings in any Google-search, so that users of Google will not encounter (or will be vastly less likely to encounter) Russian sites—or any other non-mainstream sites (such as this one), which refuse unquestioningly to trumpet government lies.
By Ramzy Baroud
Although the genocide of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has gathered greater media attention in recent months, there is no indication that the international community is prepared to act in any meaningful way, thus leaving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees stranded in border camps between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The president's ‘open hand’ to Democrats is full of poison pills.
I’ll be honest: I didn’t watch Trump’s State of the Union address when it aired.
Tuesday
By Eric Walberg
Very simply, the demonstrations erupted after price increases. It is hard to live with unremitting foreign hostility, as the socialist bloc learned, with only tiny Cuba surviving the Cold War. Venezuela dared to buck the neoliberal order and has suffered terribly. The current unrest can be laid at imperialism’s feet.
By Amer Zahr
He only wants white people coming here. “Why can’t we have more people from Norway?”
By Kathy Kelly
On January 23, an overcrowded smuggling boat capsized off the coast of Aden in Southern Yemen. Smugglers packed 152 passengers from Somalia and Ethiopia in the boat and then, while at sea, reportedly pulled guns on the migrants to extort additional money from them. The boat capsized, according to The Guardian, after the shooting prompted panic. The death toll, currently 30, is expected to rise. Dozens of children were on board.
By Robert Reich
If Robert Mueller finds that Trump colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election, or even if Trump fires Mueller before he makes such a finding, Trump’s supporters will protect Trump from any political fallout.
By Linh Dinh
When out-of-town friends visit, I like to take them to Camden. With its high crime, horrible government and general wretchedness, it’s the worst of America’s present and, if all goes according to plans, our stereotypical future. Soon as you cross into Collingswood or Gloucester, however, the graffiti, trash, abandoned houses, sagging pants and neck tattoos disappear. In fact, South Jersey is dotted with quaint boroughs featuring relatively active Main Streets.
Wednesday
By Jan Oberg
The mainstream media are totally irresponsible in their priorities. At the moment of writing, five hours after the world’s most dangerous document was presented, no major Western media has featured it prominently. This means it won’t be. No chance it would go viral. The increasing risk of nuclear war isn’t important.
By Jonathan Cook
Barely a day passes without a new development in the war on social media—that is, the war on us. Today, it is a report that Twitter has emailed hundreds of thousands of its users, warning them that they shared “Russian propaganda.”
By Linda S. Heard
Donald Trump has to be one of the most unpopular US presidents ever from a global perspective. On his watch, confidence in US leadership has plummeted to a mere 30 percent around the world, according to a recent Gallup Poll that ranks America lower than its competitor, China.
By Eric Walberg
Al-Quds is, literally, the holy city, for believers, Jewish, Christian, Muslim alike, called by non-Muslims Jerusalem (from “City of Shalem” after a Canaanite deity, during the early Canaanite period (approximately 2400 BCE)).
By Michael Winship
Watching the saga of the Nunes Memo and the constant Republican attempts to protect and cover for Donald Trump and his minions, no matter how great the purported crime, I keep thinking back to a 2004 movie that didn’t get the attention it deserved.
Thursday
By Wayne Madsen
The retrograde Donald Trump administration is planning a military coup in Venezuela to oust the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking at the University of Texas prior to embarking on a multi-nation tour throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, said the military in Latin America has often intervened in Latin American politics during times of serious crises.
By Stephen Lendman
Donald Trump’s rage for wars makes the unthinkable possible. Washington never before attacked a nuclear powered nation.
By Margaret Kimberley
Republican and Democratic Party dueling over Russiagate provides us with a teachable moment. It should teach us to disrespect and discredit the law enforcement system as it exists in this country. We must oppose the surveillance state altogether and we should not be tricked by duopoly theatrics into thinking that either of the evil twins are acting in our interests.
By Linh Dinh
In the 17th century, the Manchus conquered China, causing thousands of defeated Chinese soldiers and their families to flee to Vietnam, then divided between north and south. The Nguyen Clan, rulers of the south, granted these Chinese land in nominal Cambodian territory, paving the way for Vietnam’s annexation of a third of Cambodia. This obscure history is just another example of how immigrants are used to serve rulers, and how de facto borders are often fluid, to be contested over.
By Martha Rosenberg
My number two does not look like a number two. I don’t know what to call it. Is there a number three?” So begins an ad in an aggressive AbbVie campaign to sell the disease of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) in order to sell AbbVie’s drug for it. EPI is characterized by frequent diarrhea, gas, bloating and stomach pain says the campaign whose pay off line is “Don’t Keep a Lid on It.” (Get it?) Creon, AbbVie’s drug to treat the hitherto almost unknown disease of EPI is priced at over $500 a prescription.
Friday
By Wayne Madsen
In many ways, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, retired General John Kelly, complements the commander-in-chief’s numerous racist and xenophobic gas lighting attempts and dog whistles. Kelly’s recent comments that some 1,110,000 undocumented immigrants who were eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, were either “too afraid to sign up” or “too lazy to get off their asses” reveals an attitude rarely seen in today’s military. In fact, the military led the way in establishing a zero-tolerance policy for racism and sexism and that policy has now been extended to homophobia.
By John W. Whitehead
They’re called the Little Barbies.
By Ramzy Baroud
For a brief historical moment, Alexis Tsipras and his political party, Syriza, ignited hope that Greece could resurrect a long-dormant Leftist tide in Europe.
By John Stanton
Back in January 2017, I wrote that President Donald Trump should not be too hastily compared to Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy who would come to an ignominious end. Well, I was dead wrong about that. America’s reasonable facsimile for Mussolini is Donald Trump. His mannerisms, posture and facial expressions, all call to mind the Italian dictator. Trump’s call for a military parade, being dutifully carried out by the Pentagon, closes the case for Trump-as-Mussolini.
By Philip A Farruggio
Many baby boomers remember the original MAD Magazine, which was founded in 1952. MAD reached its apex during the mid to late 60s, when there was so much to satirize about. The Cold War, the Vietnam debacle, the Civil Rights movement, Women’s Rights and of course the birth of ‘The Pill’ were among the many great issues to consider during that time. Factor in the presidency of Richard Nixon and whoopee, MAD had lots to satirize. We high school and college kids could not wait for the next issue to come out! This writer knows that MAD is actually still around , but the power of its themes were so great during those latter years.
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