Generation of Vipers: The Original Sin and Continuous Crimes of America’s Involvement in Afghanistan
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? – Matthew 12:34 I. People need to understand something about Afghanistan, and the debacle we’re witnessing there. America’s involvement in Afghanistan didn’t begin in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. It began in the last years of the Carter Administration, when he and his […]
Reich and Reality: Culture Wars of the Conquerors
BERLIN, May 12, 2153 – Within the ivy-covered walls of Farben University, a great battle is now raging. But although the Reich’s ancient capital has seen its share of warfare down through the centuries, today’s combatants have no swords, no guns, no bio-disrupters – just words and pictures, marshalled on either side of a fierce debate […]
On the 18th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq
For months before the Iraq War began, I and many others wrote, in print and on-line, about the outrageous lies that were being told by the US government and its media sycophants to bring about this mass-murdering act of aggression. How did we know they were lies? Not from any secret knowledge or insider info, […]
On the Acquittal of the Murderous Thug Donald Trump
A friend of mine wrote on Facebook after the acquittal tonight: “America is truly lost.” And his words prompted this response from me: “Yes, you are sadly right. America is lost. But it was lost when it killed 3 million people in Southeast Asia when I was a boy. It was lost when Nixon obliterated […]
Impeachment Cave-in: Dems Plumb New Depths of Perfidy
I really don’t want to hear anyone saying that the staggering cave-in by the Democrats on Saturday – their monumental act of political and moral cowardice – was because they wanted to “move on and get down to the business of passing Covid relief and confirming cabinet posts, etc.” If that’s your defense of these […]
In Memoriam Richard Kastelein (1967-2021)
It is with great sadness that I must announce the death of the publisher and co-founder of Empire Burlesque, Richard Kastelein. Rich passed away last Friday at the age of 53. I saw the news this morning in a brief on-line notice from his family. If there is any information forthcoming about memorials and remembrances, I […]
The Surrenderists: Dem Leaders Stand Down; No Consequences for Coup
The Democratic leadership has announced that the House will not be called into session again until after the inauguration. So that’s it: no impeachment, no censure, no investigations, nothing. They are going to do absolutely nothing about an armed invasion of Congress aimed at overthrowing a presidential election. They are going to do nothing about […]
Unwrung Withers: No Downsides for Trumpists From Their Coup Push
The Trumpists will keep on pushing their (thus-far) cack-handed coup attempt because they know two things: 1) it might just succeed, in which case, yay! and 2) None of them will suffer any consequences for their blatant attempt to degrade and destroy the democratic process. If the coup fails, Mike Pompeo will be sitting on corporate […]
House of Death: Trump’s Endgame Plan to Kill Democracy
If you are resting easy about the election result: don’t. If you don’t think Trump, McConnell and their party of rightwing extremists, who have already exerted every sinew in a bid to destroy the democratic process, won’t keep on doing this until the very last second, with every weapon at their disposal, no matter what […]
Brief note on a bleary post-election morning
You’d think that if you woke up after an election to find one candidate leading by two million votes, with the millions of votes yet to be counted almost certainly going heavily in his favor, that would be it: “Well, the result seems clear: you had a race and the voters chose one guy over […]