Rolling Stone Magazine, for the first time ever, features John Lennon Bob Dylan on its cover.

The condom submitted as evidence in the sexual assault case against Julian Assange in Sweden does not have his DNA, according to a report given over to his lawyers. It’s a frame up, it appears.

~ Surprise surprise!~

The United States is a backward country in so many ways, what with our private for-profit health care system and its death panels, a private internet delivery system that is creeping and slow by world standards, a mullah-like governing body of nine judges who have final say on all laws, and private for-profit campaign finance system. Just to name a few shortcomings.

Yet another is our system for finance of higher education – for all but the very fortunate, private debt. The ease with which loans are granted has put kids in college who do not belong there, and allowed many others to extend their education into advanced degrees of little value.
Continue reading “Time now for a debt jubilee for someone besides banks and auto makers” →

Q: What is “wedge” politics?

A: A wedge is a tool used when splitting large pieces of wood into smaller pieces.

Q: So wedge issues are used to drive people apart?

A: In part. A wedge is an issue so strong that a voter will make a decision based on it and no other issue. But there’s more to it – it also has to be an issue that is of no concern to party leaders. Abortion, guns, mosques, rape pregnancies … none of that matters to real power. Wedge issues, in addition to driving votes, also fill up vacuums and distract from issues that they want the public to ignore.
Continue reading “Ball!” →

The totalitarian impulse is the same everywhere, crossing nationalities and race. Just as the old Soviet Union used to throw dissidents in mental hospitals, so too does the US Marine Corps.

If that doesn’t raise a hair or two, this will make you sick. US drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere are indiscriminatory by definition. Now the Obama Administration condones secondary strikes on rescuers and medical personnel who arrive after the first strike.

It’s been done regularly in the past, no doubt (here, for sure), but the odd thing with Obama is that he is going public with this stuff, rubbing our faces in it. It’s as if he is in a vacuum, with Democrats supporting him no matter what, and Republicans attacking him for being a socialist. The real Obama is a supporter of wealth without question, and apparently, desk murderer.

Not even in the darkest days of the Cold War did countries flaunt international laws regarding asylum. I blame 911 for this, opening Pandora’s box, turning the U.S. (and puppets) into an openly criminal enterprise, allowing its dark forces to operate in sunlight.

Smaller countries do not really amount to much in Washington or London’s view these days. What will be interesting is to see how much will come out in terms of the real game being played here. Nobody seems to remember that the prime accuser of Julian Assange – Anna Ardin in Sweden – used to work for extreme anti-Castro publications funded by the CIA. So there are links there, and it doesn’t require a conspiratorial attitude to see that the only way they can get at Julian Assange is by trumped-up charges of sexual indiscretions in a country that is hypersensitive to that, and they haven’t even persuaded a judge in Sweden to make those charges.

They have had ample opportunity to go to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and question Julian Assange. They said, ‘we’re not going to do that.’ Now, why is that? The reason is, there is no case against Julian Assange. In my opinion, it’s all very transparent. They want to extradite him to Sweden, and then to the United States to suffer the same indignities, the same torture of Bradley Manning – the person who allegedly gave those documents to Julian Assange – has faced. This is a violation of the First Amendment in our country and other amendments in our Bill of Rights, and I dare say that our founding fathers are rolling in their graves to see a [publisher] treated this way in violation of the right to make things known that are otherwise hidden. (Ray McGovern, former CIA agent turned political activist)

On October 6, 1976, Cubana Airlines flight 455, final destination Havana, blew up in midair. All 73 aboard were killed. Among them were the Cuban national fencing team, young men just fresh off a victory in Venezuela where they had won 22 gold medals.

Over a million Cubans were part of the public funeral for the victims. To this day, 10/6 has the same resonance for Cubans as as 9/11 for Americans – senseless violence by ugly, evil people.

There are no mysteries about this crime. Two bombs were placed in the passenger compartment by Venezuelans* Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo. Each was captured and convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison in Venezuela. One is now a cab driver in Caracas, the other’s whereabouts unknown. Each man fingered Posada Cariles and Orlando Bosch as the masterminds of the crime. These two men have managed to escape justice, with US assistance, for many decades. Each now lives comfortably in Miami.
Continue reading “Terrorists living among us” →

I have an ongoing (mostly one-sided) dialogue with the Denver Post. Their letters section is typical newspaper fare, boring beyond words, absorbed in politics and sniping from the two permissible viewpoints: Democrat and Republican. I send in letters now and then, but it’s a big city, so the odds are long anyway, but beyond that, my letters don’t fit within the proscribed framework.

I do occasionally get a call saying that my letter “might” be printed, and then it isn’t. That tells me there is some sympathy in the lower levels there for my words, but that the editor, typically someone who ascended the ranks due to predictability, vetoes it.

Anyway, here’s the latest, and for this one I can assure you that there will not even be a perfunctory phone call and a “might.” This one crosses three boundaries: It violates D/R; it criticizes the Post, and it is disrespectful of American journalism.

President Obama’s visit [to Colorado] created a flurry of press coverage, as intended.

Obama is doing what any politician would do given leeway. He professes devotion to high ideals while working against them behind the scenes. His public words and private actions do not square up.

Example: His administration is in court in New York attempting to preserve the executive power to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens without formal charges or even a day in court. This attack on habeas corpus started with President Bush. Obama has flanked Bush’s right wing by extending it to American citizens.

The Post is all over his stump speeches. We need to know about his real activities. It’s called “journalism.”

A politician can speak in favor of any high-falutin’ notion while running for office. But speeches are not governance. Actions are what matters. Journalists need to report to us on activities, and not just words.

The kerfuffle noted below between Democrats and progressives over minimum wage is exemplary of the larger rift in our society between a captured party and the remnants of what used to be called “the left.” Each bears its own share of responsibility for the dysfunction of our political system.

Democrats bear most of the brunt, but I’ll deal with progressives first.

We are like soldiers outside a castle shelling it with small rocks from decrepit catapults. The old ways are done, ineffective, long since under management by the right. Protests are routinely ignored by the media, and when effective, are infiltrated, marginalized, and otherwise gelded.
Continue reading “Progressives and Democrats are each ineffective in their own ways; eminent domain as a solution to the housing crisis; political nihilism exemplified” →

This story is fairly predictable. It is from the Russian news outlet “RT.com” (Russian Times*). I was told by Polish Wolf that Obama’s wars, as opposed to Bush’s, were smarter, better waged, kinder and gentler … something like that.

So we bombed Libya, murdered its leader, and the liberals now have all moved on to more murder and mayhem in Syria. (Some things never change. It was the liberals who initiated the Southeast Asian wars, and the millions killed there.)

In the meantime .. I love the last line of this story:

However, if the new Libyan authorities fail to bring peace to the country, that wouldn’t become an obstacle for the US to control its vast oil reserves, believes Richard Spencer, founder and co-editor of AlternativeRight.com.

“I think the US is very happy if Libya becomes a chaotic place where there is no real central power opposing anything they do,” he shared adding that “political stability and having the oil flow are two very different things.”

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*The Washington Post, demonstrating its acute self-awareness, referred to RT as the “Russian propaganda outlet.”