My following book review appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald: An investigative journalist finds altered weather patterns are already having a significant impact. We are constantly bombarded with evidence of apocalyptic climate change – uncontrollable weather patterns that will irreversibly destroy sustainable life on planet Earth. Deniers argue such warnings are exaggerated. The Republican US…
How Romania became key site for Washington’s torture plans
“Democratic” America post 9/11 (via Associated Press): In northern Bucharest, in a busy residential neighborhood minutes from the heart of the capital city, is a secret the Romanian government has long tried to protect. For years, the CIA used a government building — codenamed “Bright Light” — as a makeshift prison for its most valuable…
Fascism in Israel barely registers in Israel (or elsewhere)
Amira Hass in Haaretz: Hillary Clinton had not yet finished voicing her concern about what is happening in Israel before that industrious Knesset member from the Likud, Danny Danon, started rattling off another version of the list of bills about loyalty to the state (which have meanwhile been dropped ): “Every certificate issued by the…
Solution to the climate crisis; force everybody to buy stuff
Democracy Now!, this week in Durban for the UN climate conference, offers one deluded perspective on solving the world’s problems: On Sunday, Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke attended the corporate-sponsored World Climate Summit here in Durban that advocates a market approach to solving the climate crisis. One of the people who attended was the South…
When former IDF prison guards even realise Zionist apartheid is here
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg is a little worried that his beloved Jewish state has an apartheid problem: I think we’re only a few years away, at most, from a total South-Africanization of this issue. And if Israelis believe that the vast majority of American Jews — their most important supporters in the entire world —…
When the dark PR arts are designed for only one thing; denial and money
If you think PR’s image couldn’t sink any lower, you’d be wrong. Reading the stunning series this week published by the London Independent and the The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals a litany of reasons the industry is in desperate need of sunlight. And how many despotic regimes (and some supposedly friendly ones, such as…
Washington sends men to war and then expects them to shut up
Project on Government Oversight uncover a terrible tale of the US establishment punishing somebody who dared tell the truth about the US war machine: On a hot, parched day in June 2004, a convoy of Humvees was making its way across Iraq’s Sunni Triangle when a roadside bomb exploded, mangling the head vehicle and knocking…
Remembering Hitler’s chilling vision
Surreal: On Thursday, a Manhattan auction house will be accepting bids on one of the more disturbing books to come onto the U.S. antiquarian book market in some time: Adolf Hitler’s personal copy of a city-by-city, state-by-state guide to the location of America’s Jewish population. The book includes detailed data on towns like Peabody and…
Thank God the New York Times asking White House permission is good “journalism”
How very revealing. Former State Department spokesman PJ Crowley speaks at an American university, praises the New York Times for co-ordinating with the White House on which Wikileaks… documents should be revealed but argues that Julian Assange should not be prosecuted (from around 30:30):