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Economic Straight Talk
by Stephen Lendman
Things aren't as good as they seem. Dire economic conditions masquerade as sound. Media scoundrels twist reality.
Big Lies proliferate. Repetition convinces most people hard times are good or not as bad as their personal situations suggest.
Wall Street manipulators transformed America into an unprecedented money making racket. Business models prioritize grand theft. Money is made by stealing it.
Government officials collude at the highest federal, state and local levels. They're well rewarded for going along. Who said crime doesn't pay?
Two Years of Bahraini State Terrorism
by Stephen Lendman
February 14 marked the second anniversary of Bahrain's uprising. Earlier protests erupted sporadically.
In mid-February 2011, major ones did nonviolently. They continue virtually daily. At issue is King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa's tyranny.
Bahrainis want democratic change, sectarian Shia discrimination ended, equitable distribution of state wealth, political prisoners released, and state terrorism stopped.
They want fundamental freedoms. They want popularly elected leaders replacing Al-Khalifa rule. It's despotic, ruthless and intolerable. State terrorism is policy.
Israeli Lawlessness in Issawiya
by Stephen Lendman
Issawiya is a Jerusalem area Arab village. It's located on Mount Scopus. It's 2.5 km east of the Green Line. It's three km northeast of Jerusalem's Old City.
It's close to Hebrew University. It straddles Jerusalem's border. It's surrounded by Israeli settlements and military outposts.
Its 2006 population was 12,000. After Israel's 1967 Six Day War, Israel took control. Issawiya faced annexation and division. Thousands of dunums were confiscated.
Today's reality confines residents to 600 dunums. It's a fraction of Issawiya's original size. Israel used stolen land for settlements, expanding greater Jerusalem, commercial development, Jews-only roads, and planned E1 area construction.
Spielberg v. Tarantino - Hollywood and the Past
By Gilad Atzmon
History is commonly regarded as an attempt to produce a structured account of the past. It proclaims to tell us what really happened, but in most cases it fails to do that. Instead it is set to conceal our shame, to hide those various elements, events, incidents and occurrences in our past which we cannot cope with. History, therefore, can be regarded as a system of concealment. Accordingly, the role of the true historian is similar to that of the psychoanalyst: both aim to unveil the repressed. For the psychoanalyst, it is the unconscious mind. For the historian, it is our collective shame.
The West's selective morality in Mali
By Khalid Amayreh
The ongoing Malian crisis looks quite minor when compared with far more tragic crises plaguing other part of the world. Yet, we have seen France, with the solid backing of the international community, embark on a bloody crusade to dislodge Islamist fighters from the sub-Saharan African country.
To be sure, the Islamist fighters in that region, particularly those affiliated with al Qaeda, are not quite sinless. However, it is sufficiently clear that whatever evil these people have or may have committed pales into insignificance when contrasted against the genocidal atrocities and injustices taking place in countries such as Myanmar, Syria and occupied Palestine.
Will Washington grasp the hand being offered by the Iranian people?
Franklin Lamb
Tehran
Truth told, this American observer has attended his share of international conferences and has traveled in more than 70 countries. But never has he visited such a complex country, evolving culture, and striving energized society, populated by idealistic people of great warmth, sense of humor and caring for those in need as he experiences in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Except when traveling in his own country.
Being in Iran during these tense times is to experience an epiphany. Which is that Iranians and Americans have so very many needs and interests in common-yes even in our religious beliefs- that both peoples should immediately repair our countries relations and return to the days when 60,000 Iranian students studied in the US and thousands of Americans lived and worked in Iran- all in singular harmony and with myriad mutual benefits.
The People Are a Superpower, The Movement as a Wave Rising Up and Constantly Shaping the Shore
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Co-directors, ItsOurEconomy.US
“Every wave on the ocean that has ever risen up and refused to lay back down has been dashed on the shore, but it is the very purpose of a wave to rise up, because once it rises up above the horizon it finally has the perspective to see that it's not just a wave, that it's a part of a mighty ocean. And the sharpest rock on the wildest shore can never break that ocean apart, they can never wear that ocean down, because it's the ocean that shapes the shore.” Tim DeChristopher, March 3, 2011, after being convicted for an act of climate justice.
Tim DeChristopher’s words ring true as we look at the transformational movements that fight for justice – economic, social and environmental – against corporate power which brings injustice on all fronts. If you have not heard DeChristopher’s remarkable speech on the courthouse steps you can listen to it here. He is due to be released from a halfway house this April.
Can Black America Survive ‘Drone Man’ Barack Obama?
Larry Pinkney
“They realize at last that change does not mean reform, that change does not mean improvement.” - Frantz Fanon
Perhaps the more encompassing and pertinent question is not only can Black America survive the ‘Kill List,’ NDAA signing, slick-talking, corporate Trojan Horse, predator drone man Barack Obama; but can this nation as a whole, and Mother Earth herself survive him?
Frankly, whether we survive or not remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: If we are to survive and regain our rightful places as a part of the global human family we must exercise political and social conscience and consciousness as critical thinkers. We must be principled. We must quickly cease allowing ourselves to be perpetual pawns of the ‘color’ game, which game implies that if a person is black, then he or she must be given a pass no matter what he or she does. This is folly. Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz] was absolutely correct when he said, “Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it.”
Israeli Gaza Airstrikes Violated Laws of War
by Stephen Lendman
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said so. Rarely does HRW do the right thing. Exceptions prove the rule. Most often it's a reliable imperial partner.
Connections in high places and corporate funding keep it that way. Services rendered in return are expected. Conflicts of interest are rife.
HRW and likeminded sources followers rely on operate like their scoundrel media counterparts. They do it deceptively. They produce one-sided or quasi-real reports on issues mattering most.
Exceptions occur. Even then they fall far short. On February 12, HRW headlined "Israel: Gaza Airstrikes Violated Laws of War." More on its report below.
International laws of war are clear. They unambiguous. UN Charter provisions explain under what conditions attacking another nation is justified. No others apply.
LAPD High Crimes
by Stephen Lendman
Michael Ruppert is a former LAPD cop. He knows its dark side well. He witnessed it firsthand.
Its rap sheet includes corruption, abuse of power, complicity with CIA drugs trafficking, unjustified arrests, beatings, murder, perjury, witness tampering, evidence planting, frame-ups, coverups, racism, sadism, and other crimes.
It wants its dirty secrets kept hidden. They're ugly and longstanding. Many examples bear witness. In March 2000, news reports revealed LAPD Rampart Division Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit criminality.
It included unjustified arrests, beatings, drug dealing, witness intimidation, murder, evidence planting, frame-ups and perjury.
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