Birchers in the Beer Joint: Trump “Resistance” Revives Old Slurs
In recent days, a disturbing trope has appeared among the self-declared “Resistance” to Trump. Citing “research” that often has the scientific rigor of Donald’s Trump’s investigations of Barack Obama’s birthplace, they say that Russia is fanning the flames of the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Take a Knee” campaign. Some of these progressive Resisters […]
“That Which Happened”: 9/11 Revisited
I wrote the column below on Sept. 12, 2001; it was published in The Moscow Times on Sept. 14. As I noted a few years ago, a lot of water – and a lot of blood – have gone under the bridge since then, but I think most of the piece still holds true, unfortunately. […]
End Games: The Apocalyptic Trope That Swallowed the World
Everywhere you look these days, you see the trope: the “end of the world” is nigh from a nuclear war. It’s there in somber headlines, in weighty punditry, even in throwaway jokes in the middle of, say, a TV review: “Looks like the BBC finally has a comedy hit — just as the world is […]
Spinal Crap: NYT’s Contortion to Obscure Obama’s Origin of Trump’s Nuke Plan
Trump Forges Ahead on Costly Nuclear Overhaul, Sweeping Aside Doubts (NYT). This is a remarkable story. Its import is that Trump is plunging forward with a reckless overhaul and expansion of the nuclear arsenal. Then it notes that in doing so, he’s continuing plans & contracts designed by Obama. Then it tells us, with a […]
Omission of Sins: NYT Turns Away From Deeper Truth on Yemen
At last, the “paper of record” runs a long, detailed story about the death spiral in Yemen. However, it seems to be short a few details. It paints the Saudis as champions of freedom simply trying to restore a democratically elected leader to office. It neglects the detail that the leader was “elected” in a […]
American Carnage: White Punks on Parade
(Written on Facebook early Saturday morning; updated below) (UPDATED AGAIN): American nazis (many of them no doubt radicalized by the self-proclaimed “godfather of the alt-right,” Steve Bannon) were on the march Friday night, chanting the actual Nazi slogan, “Blood and Soil.” Close-ups reveal most of them to be young white college-boy types, pudgy, coddled, comfortable, […]
Dark Matter: Surrendering our Secrets to Malevolent Forces
(This is my latest column for the print version of CounterPunch, edited slightly.) “And if my thought-dreams could be seen They’d probably stick my head in a guillotine.” Thus quoth the Bard, more than half a century ago. At the time, these lines were an electrifying insight into human nature, lighting up dark corners of […]
“Moderates” Making Inevitable Pivot to Trump as the Money Rolls In at the Top
I reckon Mike Bloomberg took a good long gander at that GOP “Massive Tax Cut for the Super-Rich Disguised as Healthcare” bill and liked what he saw. (Salon: Michael Bloomberg says Democrats should “get behind” President Trump) Pivoting on a dime — or rather, on a gargantuan pile of extra loot for himself — he […]
FUBAR, FUBAR über alles: Careening Toward Chaos – or Conflagration
Just days after President Trump came out firmly on the side of the Saudi Islamic extremists in their tiff with the Qatari Islamic extremists, his State Department, led by the rape-the-environment extremist Rexxon Tillerson, has denounced the Saudis for not coming up with a justification for their embargo of Qatar — a move that Trump […]
Family Planning: Trump’s Trollish Housing Pick Part of Dystopian Plan
So: Trump appoints his son’s wedding planner to head NYC’s massive federal housing agency. She has no experience in housing; she falsely claims to have a law degree; she falsely claims to have gone to Yale. This is very much in line with most of Trump’s appointments. People look at the series of gormless courtiers […]