Panama

There is no simplifying Brazil’s political or economic situation. Anyone “certain” about the outcome is sure to get smacked in its crossfires sooner or later. Corruption might be bi-partisan in the United States, legalized in many cases, but in Brazil, it’s the full multi-party monty. Eduardo Cunha, the Lower House speaker gunning for President (and political rival) Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment,  has just been fingered by the Panama Papers for stashing millions in Switzerland.

Diana Johnstone recently published a very good book on Hillary Clinton entitled Queen of Chaos (Counterpunch Books, 2015). Johnstone justifies the title through her convincing critical examination of Clinton’s performance as Secretary of State as well as her broader record of opinions and actions. But Clinton served under President Barack Obama, and the policies which she pushed while in office were of necessity approved by her superior, who worked with her in “a credible partnership”.1

By Bjorn Hilt | International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War | January 11, 2016 At the UN General assembly last fall there was an essential vote on the future of mankind. Resolution number A/RES/70/33 calling for the international society to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations had been submitted by Austria, Brazil, Chile, […]

Once again in the history of American intervention we have the spectacle of the creators being threatened by their own creation. It’s not that long ago that the mujahideen, who benefited from American financial and military support during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, later turned on the West in the form of Al-Qa‘ida. Yesterday’s “freedom fighters” have become today’s “terrorists.”

If you are not dedicated to the destruction of empire and the dismantling of American militarism, then you cannot count yourself as a member of the left. It is not a side issue. It is the issue.
The post The Real Enemy Is Within appeared first on BSNEWS.

by KenIn the New York Harbor area we've had an ongoing awareness of the Panama Canal expansion that's been in progress, because the "New York" port -- which nowadays means almost exclusively New Jersey's adjacent Newark Bay ports, Port Elizabeth and Port Newark -- has known that it isn't equipped to accommodate the taller and deeper ships scheduled to be able to pass through the expanded canal. The most conspicuous manifestation of that unpreparedness has been the 1928-31 Bayonne Bridge, connecting the NYC borough of Staten Island to the NJ mainland.

Every political conservative I ever met was a both a hypocrite and a liar-- by nature. This week we saw the quintessential Republican, Tennessee Congressman Scott DesJarlais (who represents Murfreesboro, Lynchburg, Shelbysville and the suburbs west of Chattanooga), vote against the right of a woman to exercise Choice in her own reproductive health.

The New York Times recently published an editorial lamenting the “shameful impunity of the Islamic State” and encouraging the United Nations Security Council to refer the group’s crimes to the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.). The editorial, titled “The Crimes of Terrorists” (4/2/2015), should more accurately be titled “The Crimes of the U.S. and Its Allies Should Go Unpunished.”

I’m not accustomed to paying much attention to anyone’s national holidays, except perhaps France’s, but only because it at least commemorates what for a brief time was a real revolution. Since I pass a certain consulate almost every day, I do wonder every time I notice that the flag has not been hoisted.

Twenty five years ago, before dawn on December 20, 1989, U.S. forces descended on Panama City and unleashed one of the most violent, destructive terror attacks of the century. U.S. soldiers killed more people than were killed on 9/11. They systematically burned apartment buildings and shot people indiscriminately in the streets. Dead bodies were piled on top of each other; many were burned before identification.