Recent Blogs
During 2021, there were signs of growing militancy in America’s beleaguered union movement, as thousands of workers went out on strike at John Deere, Kellogg’s, Nabisco, Frito-Lay, Volvo, Frontier Communications, New York University, and Columbia University, as did thousands more from the ranks of union carpenters, hospital workers, airport workers, and coal miners. Even so, Read more…
Late January of this year will mark the first anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This momentous international agreement, the result of a lengthy struggle by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and by many non-nuclear nations, bans developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, Read more…
I’ve been trying to read the history of the processing of “The Back Better Act” in the Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_Back_Better_Act?wprov=sfti1). The Bill derived (it was an extracted part) from the American Jobs Plan, together with the Law for Investment in Infrastructure and Labor, and was part of a package of 3.5 trillion dollars, (later reduced to Read more…
Joseph Manchin III (a dinasty, apparently) (Farmington, August, 1947) built part of his fortune as a coal trader, running Enersystem, a company he founded in 1989, at 40. Throughout his political career, he has dedicated himself to defending the interests of the fossil fuel industries. He’s been sabotaging Dem politics all his life (just have Read more…
I am not, in anyway, an unconditional supporter of the Spanish Royal Household, but I have a long-lasting doubt that today, at last, I have dared to ask Professor Gerardo Pisarello (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerardo_Pisarello?wprov=sfti1). While posting crazily to Spanish Work Minister Yolanda Diaz Perez, who is somewhat of a Communist and presents herself as an alternative to Read more…
Although a major scandal erupted in 2019 over bribery and other fraudulent practices used by wealthy Americans to secure their children’s admission to elite colleges, the affluent continue to benefit from other kinds of special admission policies that are perfectly legal. Consider the fact that, according to a recent study, only about 57 percent of Read more…
Amid all the flag-waving, chants of “USA, USA,” and other nationalist hoopla that characterize mainstream politics in the United States, it’s easy to miss the fact that most Americans favor global governance. Although a great many Americans do feel a sense of identification with the U.S. government, a majority also supports the exercise of transnational Read more…
Although critics of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan to increase funding for U.S. education, healthcare, and action against climate catastrophe say the United States can’t afford it, there are no such qualms about ramping up funding for the U.S. military. This May, the Pentagon asked Congress to fund a $715 billion budget for Read more…
On September 10, 2021, during an important diplomatic meeting that occurred by telephone, U.S. President Joseph Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed the necessity of a better relationship between their two nations. According to the official Chinese summary, Xi said that “when China and the United States cooperate, the two countries and the world Read more…
In ancient Greek mythology, Cassandra was a priestess who was able to predict the future but unable to convince others to act upon her prophecies. The fate of Cassandra seems particularly relevant today, for there has been ample warning about three developments that threaten continued human existence—preparations for nuclear war, climate change, and disease pandemics—without, Read more…
Is it possible to build social solidarity beyond the state? It’s easy to conclude that it’s not. In 1915, as national governments produced the shocking carnage of World War I, Ralph Chaplin, an activist in the Industrial Workers of the World, wrote his stirring song, “Solidarity Forever.” Taken up by unions around the globe, it Read more…
The US government will (perhaps within a month) probably succeed in extraditing businessman Alex Saab from Cape Verde. His “crime” was being an official envoy for the Venezuelan government as he attempted to negotiate the sale of medicines from Iran to Venezuela. US sanctions have declared such activity illegal. Saab was on his way to Read more…
By Lawrence Wittner and Joseph Mangano In 2020, Harvard University’s T. C. Chan School of Public Health began a five-year study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, that will examine the connection between early life exposure to toxic metals and later-life risk of neurological disease. A collaborator with Harvard, the Radiation and Public Health Read more…
I reviewed Josiah Thompson’s new book in a blog post the other day. The book makes a persuasive case that there was a second shooter who killed JFL, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. Neither is Gerald Posner’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone, but I’ve come to think Thompson’s thesis is much stronger Read more…
I just finished Josiah Thompson’s excellent new book on the JFK assassination: Last Second in Dallas (University Press of Kansas, 2021). Near the end of the book he describes how the scene of the crime, Dealey Plaza, looks to him in 2020. He reflects that “the case itself has been drained of its mythic resonance Read more…
In 1980, Venezuela’s infant mortality rate ranked 58th best in the world, far below Cuba, whose infant mortality rate was 28th that year. Infant mortality is a basic Venezuela’s infant mortality rate in 1980 was more than twice as high as that in Cuba – all according to the 2018 version of UNICEF data.
Venezuela has been an important oil exporter since the 1920s. See this essay for historical details. As the chart below shows, It was not until the 1970s that big Middle east oil exporters like Saudi Arabia and Iran overtook Venezuela in oil production
There’s a serious political problem in the Spanish Kingdom that seems difficult to resolve and leads to a vicious circle. Probably because of the influence of Francoist ideology, having independence as an objective is contrary to the Spanish Constitution, (art.2 insists on “The indissoluble unity of the Nation (…),” for instance), but the legal and Read more…
The United States and China, the world’s mightiest military and economic powers, are currently heading toward a Cold War or even a hot one, with disastrous consequences. But an alternative path is available and could be taken. Beginning in 2018, U.S. government policy toward China turned sharply hostile, bringing relations between the two nations to Read more…
Although, beginning in about 2015, nationalist political parties made enormous advances in countries around the world, more recently they have been on the wane. The nationalist surge was led by a new generation of rightwing populist demagogues who, feeding on public discontent with widespread immigration and economic stagnation, achieved startling political breakthroughs. Matteo Salvini of Read more…
FARM JUSTICE BLOGS ZSpace ZSpace Home Page: http://zcomm.org/author/bradwilson/ You’re here! ZSpace List of Blogs: This went away in a ZSpace upgrade. I will create an index or table of contents. FOR NOW USE SEARCH FOR “Brad Wilson.” I think I have nearly 100 blogs at ZSpace, (and I’ve moved many from La Vida Locavore, which Read more…
Review of “Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World” In this crisply-written, well-researched book, Lesley Blume, a journalist and biographer, tells the fascinating story of the background to John Hersey’s pathbreaking article, “Hiroshima,” and of its extraordinary impact upon the world. In 1945, although only 30 years of age, Read more…
December 6, 2020 [Chomsky responds to a question about accusations of anti-semitism which stifle debates about justice in Israel-Palestine.] I think the question we should be asking ourselves is: Have our tactics helped develop the charges of anti-semitism? There are tactics that would not encourage that development. So for example, the Presbyterian Church has adopted Read more…
The recent announcement by the British government that it plans a 40 percent increase in the number of nuclear weapons it possesses highlights the escalation of the exceptionally dangerous and costly nuclear arms race. After decades of progress in reducing nuclear arsenals through arms control and disarmament agreements, all the nuclear powers are once again Read more…
Last year was a terrible time for vast numbers of people around the globe, who experienced not only a terrible disease pandemic, accompanied by widespread sickness and death, but severe economic hardship. Even so, the disasters of 2020 were not shocking enough to jolt the world’s most powerful nations out of their traditional preoccupation with Read more…
Please note that improbable doesn’t mean impossible. Who would watch sports or buy lottery tickets if very improbable things could not happen? Still, the probability of five deaths (of rioters, bystanders or police) happening within a day of the Capitol Riot might be 2.6%, and perhaps be as low 0.16%. It depends very heavily on how Read more…
Given the fact that nuclear war means the virtual annihilation of life on earth, it’s remarkable that many people continue to resist building a nuclear weapons-free world. Is the human race suicidal? Before jumping to that conclusion, let’s remember that considerably more people favor abolishing nuclear weapons than oppose it. Public opinion surveys—ranging from polls Read more…
An event revealing a great deal about the kind of government Americans want occurred this March, when members of the U.S. Congress voted on the American Rescue Plan. This legislation, staunchly supported by the Democrats, provided federal funding for the provision of life-saving vaccines, the re-opening of public schools, expanded benefits to the unemployed, a Read more…
This superb speech by Venezuelan-Canadian scholar Maria Páez de Victor should soon be up on www.NoSanctions.org , but I decided to post it here so I can spreading it around right away. **** Talk given in Webinar: US/Canada: HANDS OFF VENEZUELA, END SANCTIONS ON VENEZUELA NOW! March 5th 2021 Today is the 8th anniversary of the untimely Read more…
The world is currently engulfed in crises—most prominently, a disease pandemic, a climate catastrophe, and the prevalence of war—while individual nations are encountering enormous difficulties in coping with them. These difficulties result from the global nature of the problems. An individual nation is unable to institute adequate measures to safeguard public health because diseases spread Read more…
Two related events—the 75th anniversary of the January 24, 1946 UN General Assembly Resolution 1 (which established a commission to plan for the abolition of nuclear weapons) and the January 22, 2021 entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (designed to finally implement that goal)—should be a cause for Read more…
Trump incited his supporters to violently storm the Capitol Building in Washington DC in an attempt to revive his failed efforts to overturn the results of the election. Five people are dead as a direct result of the attack, including one police officer (ironically a Trump supporter) who was beaten to death [UPDATE: The cause Read more…
It’s clear that technical departments within the UN sometimes have their work corrupted by the US government and its allies. Consider recent reporting by the Grayzone on OPCW whistleblowers who exposed manipulation of an investigation into alleged chemical weapons use in Syria in 2018. Or recall an example from further back: Hans Blix, the Swedish Read more…
One of the reasons people may get duped into seeing Venezuelan politician Leopoldo López as a victim is his trial which began in 2014, when he finally went to jail after supporting a fourth US-backed attempt to violently overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected government. Overthrowing the late Hugo Chavez (who was first elected in 1998 and Read more…
Defense of the Easily Defensible By Dave Markland In 2018 Haymarket Books published Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: Democracy, Counter-revolution and Anti-imperialist Rhetoric. Its focus is on left journalists and analysts like John Pilger and the late Edward S. Herman who have committed the inexcusable sin of being overly suspicious of United States foreign policy. Many readers Read more…
Back in 2016, while campaigning for president, Donald Trump discovered a useful tactic for drawing the votes of disgruntled blue-collar workers: denouncing the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs and promising to restore them. At a rally in hard-hit Ohio, he assailed the Democrats and assured his listeners that he would turn the state into a Read more…
On September 15, UN investigators ( the so called “Mission”) published a 411 page report about the human rights situation in Venezuela.[1] Part 1 of my analysis of the report focused on its gross dishonesty about opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. The Mission reviewed his career since 2000 but never mentioned his proud participation in coup Read more…
Unlike their elected riulers, most Germans don’t want to be part of the nuclear ‘theater’ Trump, once again doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, wants to pull US troops out of Germany because Germany doesn’t spend enough on “defence”. The German population tend to like it but don’t like his reasons. And, as Read more…
The proposed hate crime clauses of the Scottish Crime Bill are being redrawn because of claims they will criminalize ‘legitimate acts of expression’. Climbdown on the Scottish Hate Crime Bill: a small setback for those who believe that attacking freedom of speech is the way to deal with prejudice and hatred of minorities. Without free Read more…
Back in July 1962, when, according to Donald Trump, America was “great,” I was in the Deep South, working to register Black voters. It was a near-hopeless project, given the mass disenfranchisement of the region’s Black population that was enforced by Southern law and an occasional dose of white terrorism. It all started in the Read more…
India is burning. In the months from March to May the news and social media were flooded with heart rending stories and images of the trauma of out-of state workers who lost their livelihood overnight when the coronavirus lock down was imposed without adequate notice. With all modes of transportation brought to a halt they Read more…
After nearly four years of the Trump administration, U.S. voters have a pretty good idea of the policies that the President and his Republican allies champion when it comes to America’s dealings with other nations. These policies include massive increases in military spending, lengthy wars abroad, threats of nuclear war, withdrawal from climate and nuclear Read more…
I’m surprised there is not more interest in a logical solution that definitely works and is ready to produce now, far easier than an unproven vaccine that may or may not work. Great if it did, but even if it eventually does it will take years to have an effect, that is waves and waves Read more…
UPDATE: I revised the second paragraph to be more fair to Bachelet whose position on US sanction has improved (most recently on September 25) – albeit from a terrible starting point). *** On September 15, UN investigators published a 411 page report about the human rights situation in Venezuela. They were not granted access to Read more…
Free daily home testing for the contagious form of the virus, by mass producing these simple, cheap, self administered, non invasive and quick test strips, this is a ready to go solution, that will save lives and restore society and all we can produce, by shining an inescapable light on this virus at root, in Read more…
The company ‘e25bio‘ has made a simple paper strip test, which only identifies Covid-19’s infamous spike protein that allows it to hook onto, spread and infect others so well, its the best cheapest test which does not require doctor or a machine and is just like pregnancy test, a simple paper strip, can be mass Read more…
1) Court-appointed attorney for Donziger says thanks but no thanks, citing ‘irreconcilable conflict’ … Donziger, the American lawyer who spent more than two decades suing… legal saga, Donziger’s ex-lawyer Frisch told the court in filings that he… SEPTEMBER 02, 2020 04:48PM EDT 2) Judge drags Donziger’s ex-atty back in to court to represent him at conduct trial …By Sebastien Read more…
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/how-to-test-every-american-for-covid-19-every-day/615217/ Scroll down this linked article to read about a company ‘e25bio‘ who have successfully made a simple paper strip test, which only identifies Covid-19’s infamous spike protein that allows it to hook onto, spread and infect others so well, its the best cheapest test which does not require doctor or a machine and is Read more…
Although Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that American workers are “thriving” during his presidency, this contention rings hollow. The mishandled coronavirus pandemic, of course, has created levels of unemployment, hunger, and misery in the United States not seen since the Great Depression. But even in the years before the pandemic, when Trump claimed he had Read more…