There is much religiosity in the U.S., with the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority even approving Christian prayers at the start of government business. But there is little appreciation of the radical political and economic message at the center of Jesus’s teachings,…
Year: 2014
The Commandment to Save the Planet
America’s right-wingers are so hostile to the federal government and to the Constitution’s commandment to “promote the general Welfare” that they reject action even when needed to save the planet. A resistance that continues whatever the evidence, as ex-CIA analyst Paul…
The Death Penalty’s Grotesque Reality
On April 29, Oklahoma authorities strapped convicted murderer Clayton Lockett to a gurney and began pumping in drugs to kill him. But the process went awry as Lockett writhed in pain for 43 minutes, raising moral questions discussed by Dennis J Bernstein with death-penalty opponent…
UN Syria-Sarin Investigator Voices Doubts
More doubts about last August’s Sarin attack in Syria are being raised by the U.N.’s lead investigator who questions the number of people actually exposed to the poison gas, suggesting the incident was much more limited than claimed, writes Gareth…
What Obama Can Do to Save Ukraine
Exclusive: The fate of Ukraine whether it descends into civil war or finds a path back from the brink may rest with President Obama and whether he can work with Russian President Putin while recognizing the legitimate concerns of both eastern and western…
Ukraine’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Reality
Exclusive: The horrendous fire in Odessa, killing dozens of ethnic Russians protesting against the U.S.-backed coup regime in Kiev, has lurched the country closer to full-scale civil war and disrupted the American media’s efforts to deny the existence of pro-regime neo-Nazis,…
American Hawks Who Never Learn
The mainstream U.S. news media has taken great umbrage over President Obama’s defense of the more peaceful parts of his foreign policy, when he suggested lessons were not learned by the many pundits and pols who supported the disastrous Iraq…
Another NYT ‘Sort of’ Retraction on Ukraine
Exclusive: The mainstream U.S. media likes to talk about Ukraine as an “information war,” meaning that the Russians are making stuff up. But the false narratives are actually being hatched more on the U.S. side, as a new New York Times…
Can Obama Speak Strongly for Peace?
From the Archive: During the Cold War, two presidents delivered honest warnings to Americans, Eisenhower on the “military-industrial complex” and Kennedy on how “we all inhabit this small planet.” Now Ukraine presents a challenge to President Obama to speak out for peace, as Robert…
Needed: Obama-Putin Summit on Ukraine
As the death toll mounts in an incipient civil war between east and west Ukraine, a group of retired U.S. intelligence professionals urges President Obama to hold a summit with Russia’s President Putin to defuse the crisis.