Chris Hedges’ recent speech at Princeton is not simply a commentary on the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran — it is a sweeping indictment of a global order collapsing into what he calls “technologically advanced barbarism.” Drawing on decades of reporting, historical analysis, and moral philosophy, Hedges argues that the atrocities […]
“All lies and jestsStill a man hears what he wants to hearAnd disregards the rest”“The Boxer,” Paul Simon Listening to Donald Trump is like staring at a record spinning on a turntable and finding your mind spinning with your eyes. Something playing here makes you feel crazy, not in the […]
Dignified, brave Iranian and Lebanese women are on the street in Tehran and Beirut. Their message is “We are going to fight, we will never accept being slaves to a foreign imperialist.” I have seen a number of such declarations on film recently. They suggest a growing grass roots resistance […]
Disclosure Day is an upcoming blockbuster science fiction movie about an alien invasion. Very little information has been released in relation to the actual content of the film. However, well ahead of its release on June 12th, the movie has a lavish promotional website and has enjoyed plenty of advanced […]
To claim that jostling for the biggest share of federal power and largesse–in a word, greed–magically serves the common good is a convenient cover for an oligarchy masquerading as a “democracy.” Is a “democracy” that’s for sale still a democracy, or is it something else? The question arises from the nature […]
“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.”—Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations You’re not imagining it. Everything costs more. Everything is monitored. Everything feels like it’s designed to take—from your wallet, your time, your freedom. That’s because […]
War is the most horrific series of events upon which any government can engage. It is systematic, industrialized, indiscriminate killing. It kills innocent adults and little girls. It often ruins the post-war lives of the killers. It is young men violently fighting old men’s power games. It is the health […]
Fighting for corruption and profits The great Gen. Smedley Butler wrote his classic War is a Racket in response to the pointless carnage of WWI. Some 15-22 million largely adolescent boys died for absolutely nothing. That fact that they can’t provide a more accurate estimate than that tells you clearly about the […]
I get so tired of all this American hand-wringing about “boots on the ground”. It’s a symptom of a wildly sick dystopia that these people are fine with raining military explosives on a densely populated city but draw the line at putting American troops in the line of fire. Reading […]
Former FBI director Robert Mueller died last week at the age of 81. The New York Times eulogized him as a “button-down, lockjawed, rock-ribbed exemplar of a vanishing caste.” In reality, Mueller was simply a twenty-first century version of J. Edgar Hoover, trampling the Constitution and seizing new power on any pretext. Mueller […]