The post How Caffeine Addiction Changed History appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Josh Frank.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Trumpism was never quite what it seemed to the rest of the world when it came to America’s actions as opposed to his words. The tone was always belligerent, but Trump went out of his way not to start any wars. As for the slogan “America First”, this was not so much about an isolationist US More
The post When It Comes to Letting Down Allies, Trumpism and Bidenism Have Much in Common appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Patrick Cockburn.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Demographers looking back — years from now — on America’s annual mortality rates are going to find an asterisk on the years 2020 and 2021. The text behind that asterisk is going to give the reason why so many more Americans died in those particular years than the years right before. The explanation, of course, More
The post Why Do Europeans Live Longer Than Americans? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Sam Pizzigati.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Events are unfolding at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we are looking to our most respected and renowned thought leaders for an honest assessment of both U.S. foreign and military policy to offer their most current thoughts and insights. We know they have some ideas for improving the More
The post What Are the Prospects for Peace? An Interview with Mark Skidmore appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John Rachel.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The team of Arizona Republican state senators, legislative staff, and advisers finalizing the Cyber Ninjas’ report on the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County are preparing to say that Joe Biden legitimately won the election, according to the largest funder of the Senate’s mostly privatized election review, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. “The way some of these political More
The post Arizona Senate Poised to Report That Biden Beat Trump in State’s 2020 Election appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Steven Rosenfeld.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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On September 15, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved two companion motions that will put Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the nation, on a path to ban existing oil drilling and transition fossil fuel workers to careers in clean energy and other climate-friendly industries. There are approximately 1,600 active and idle oil wells within More
The post Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Approves Motions to Phase Out Oil and Gas Drilling appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Dan Bacher.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Photo credits: Sung Wang (via Unsplash) and Leijurv, CC by-sa 4.0 int’l.
Tesla’s going to produce $25K cars. Welcome news for many working folks who have, so far, only admired Tesla cars from a distance. And it should be good news for the global transition to sustainable energy—if we believe Elon Musk, the self-crowned Technoking.
Anyway, that 25K price tag got me thinking. When I can afford a Tesla, should I get one? First, I’m taking a due diligence drive. May I show you the sights?
The post Tesla and the Anthropocene appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
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Image by Jordy Meow.
With the War on Terror in its twentieth year, thrust back into the public discourse with the recent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Linda Sarsour, prominent Palestinian American activist and thinker, one of the national co-founders of the Women’s March (the largest single day protest in U.S. history), expressed what has been the core experience over the last two decades, “Unfortunately, we’ve been sitting around for twenty years, watching people who look like us, who pray like us, die.”
As Sarsour noted, the past two decades have been devastating for people within the U.S. but especially for those living abroad, especially those in the Central Asian and Middle East region. From the drone strikes of weddings to now, leaving a political vacuum for groups like the Taliban to re-emerge and reconquer, U.S. involvement, justified by the War On Terror, has left countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, utterly “decimated”, Sarsour said.
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Oscar Homolka in Alfred Hitchock’s Sabotage.
As compulsively watchable as it is, Hitchcock’s Sabotage makes a real hash out of Conrad’s The Secret Agent–that prescient novel which so accurately predicted the ways in which radical underground groups could be penetrated and manipulated by intelligence agencies into doing the repressive work of the state.
The post Hitchcock’s Sabotage: Film as Terrorism appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
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Threat perception is central to decision making regarding war and the use of force; alliance politics; and the role of deterrence. Exaggerations of threat make war more likely and weaken the ability of an alliance to function effectively and rationally. Since the end of World War II, the United States has consistently exaggerated the threat, particularly with regard to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Once again, the United States is embarking on a campaign of exaggerated threat perception as politicians and pundits exaggerate the “threat” of a so-called “resurgent” Russia and a so-called “aggressive” China. More
The post The Dangerous Exaggeration of the Threat appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Melvin Goodman.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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During the days of the U.S.’s exit from Afghanistan, I have been inching through the U.S. Army’s own massive history of The U.S. Army in the Iraq War: a wide window on the ignorance and arrogance that has led the U.S. into one bloody quagmire after another. Based on hundreds of documents and interviews, the two-volume history starts off with long mea culpa—an acknowledgment of the naiveté that led the U.S. into a chaotic and bloody occupation of the land where human civilization began. More
The post History’s Light on the Dark Road Ahead appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Carol Polsgrove.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The House Ways and Means Committee has just unveiled their proposalto pay for President Biden’s Build Back Better plans. This is an important step towards restoring a fair and balanced tax system and a making at least a down payment on much-needed investments in health care, vaccine distribution, child care, labor protections, and more. It More
The post House Tax Proposal Falls Short of Making Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Chuck Collins – Sarah Anderson.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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We’ve just hit the 20th anniversary of the Afghan war. But which one? There were actually two Afghan wars. The first began within a few weeks of the 9-11 tragedy, when the US was attacked by Al Qaeda with the assistance of elements of the Saudi Arabia ruling elite. In the first war US forces invaded More
The post The 2nd Afghan War and Retreat from Central Asia appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jack Rasmus.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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On 11 September 2019, I wrote an article for a UK-based online publication called The Canary titled On the anniversary of 9/11, let’s remember that conspiracy theories are counterproductive. The article sparked an unexpectedly large amount of debate and, sadly, an even larger amount of abuse from followers of the so-called “9/11 Truth” movement. In More
The post Why I’m Still Not Convinced by 9/11 Conspiracy Theories appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter Bolton.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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“Men that make envy and crooked malice nourishment, dare bite the best.” – William Shakespeare People are getting sick and dying because Republicans are focused on attacking President Joe Biden for violating individual freedom for mandating injecting vaccines to combat the coronavirus, a systematic undermining of a policy implemented to save lives. These extremist Trumpist More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Richard C. Gross.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The Bighorn National Forest is one of the hidden gems of the West. With peaks towering to over 13,000 feet and spacious flower-studded meadows, the forest is an underappreciated scenic and wildlife haven of the West. Because it is often overlooked, the Forest Service management capitulates to the desires of the livestock industry. As an More
The post The Plot to Destroy Sagebrush on the Bighorn appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by George Wuerthner.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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George Soros has thrown a public sissy fit over the fact that he can’t make the kind of easy money off China that he was able to make when the Soviet Union was carved up and privatized. On September 7, 2021, in his second mainstream editorial in a week, George Soros expressed his horror at the recommendation by Black Rock, the world’s largest asset manager, that financial managers should triple their investment in China. Claiming that such investment would imperil U.S. national security by helping China, Mr. Soros stepped up his advocacy of U.S. financial and trade sanctions. More
The post The Vocabulary of Neoliberal Diplomacy in Today’s New Cold War appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Michael Hudson.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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A major motivation for getting out of Afghanistan is to give the US a freer hand to bring down China and Russia. And this is not to be a peaceful “Pivot.” The US has surrounded both countries with military bases, and the Pivot to Asia pioneered by Obama/Hillary/Biden sees 60% of America’s naval forces ending up in China’s neighborhood. More
The post Biden Exits Afghanistan, Heads in the Wrong Direction appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John V. Walsh.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Image by Wesley Tingey.
Although she wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt had Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, QAnon’s, and most of the Republican Party’s number, down to almost the last decimal point. Nowhere else will one find a more chilling anticipation and explanation of Trumpism’s deranged conspiracy-mongering and startling resilience.
Since 2016, it’s been obvious that Trump himself is a purveyor of conspiracy theories, notably about a “deep state” conspiracy (which about 40% of Americans now believe) and 2020 election fraud. Republicans’ steadfast, sycophantic support for Trump, coupled with their recent decision to neither censure Taylor Greene nor strip her of her committee posts, their failure to vote to convict Trump in the Senate during the recent impeachment trial, and an ongoing, farcical “election fraud” investigation in Arizona authorized by state Republicans, confirm that they have morphed into a far-right party with a solid authoritarian base, one reminiscent of European extremist parties.
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Image by UX.
Daniel Falcone: Can you comment on September 11, 2001 as a historical event and provide how this day continues to shape the way the United States sees itself in the world?
Richard Falk: The attack itself on 9/11 was a most momentous event from the perspective of international relations, undermining the dominating historic role of hard power under the control of national governments in explaining historical agency.
Dramatically, 9/11 revealed the vulnerability of the most powerful country, as measured by military capabilities and global security hegemony, in all of world history, to the violent tactics of non-state combatants in coercive interactions labeled by war planners as ‘asymmetric warfare.’
On the basis of minimal expenditures of lives and resources, al-Qaeda produced a traumatizing and disorienting shock on the United States from which it has yet to recover, responding in ways that are fundamentally dysfunctional with respect to achieving tolerable levels of global stability in a historical period when security threats were moving away from traditional geopolitical rivalries as climate. While not fulfilling its goals, great devastation and human suffering was spread far and wide, especially in the Middle East and Asia.
Such an efficient use of terrorist tactics by al-Qaeda, not only as an instrument of destruction, but as a mighty symbolic blow directed at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, embodiments of American economic and military hegemony. The effect was further magnified by its status as a spectacular visual moment unforgettably inscribed on the political consciousness of worldwide TV audiences, conveying the vulnerability of the strong to the imaginative rage and dedicated sacrifice of the avenging weak.
Of course, the ‘success’ of this attack was short-lived, producing an initial wave of global empathy for the innocent victims of such mayhem, heralding widespread support in the spirit of internationalist solidarity on behalf of greatly augmented efforts at criminal enforcement of anti-terrorist policies and norms. Yet this early international reaction sympathetic to the U.S. has been erased in the American memory, as well as overshadowed internationally by the effects of the American over-reaction that claimed during the next twenty years many times the number of innocent victims than were lost on 9/11. This over-reaction has had counterrevolutionary impacts worldwide that are still reverberating.
The post 9/11: The Doctrines of Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Richard Falk – Daniel Falcone.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Image by Sébastien Goldberg.
Aviva Chomsky’s new book, Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration, provides a much-needed corrective to the skimpy and frequently inaccurate coverage of Central America which dominates U.S. media. But more than that, it makes a compelling case for, in Chomsky’s words, “changing the structures and institutions which have brought so much harm [to the region].”
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Still from When the Towers Fell.
It is the second plane that haunts the mind, curving on a course that seems to descend right out of a waking nightmare. Even before it struck that ugly steel and glass tower, there was already a dreadful familiarity to it. Somehow we’d seen its shape before. The Hindenburg in flames. JFK’s head blooming open on the Zapruder film. The Challenger space shuttle exploding live before our eyes in the stratosphere on an impossibly sunny Florida day. The Waco fire incinerating women and children in those Texas winds. The events of 9/11 played out like a horrifying novelty show, seared into the brainpan of the nation by thousands of instant replays.
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The American withdrawal from military intervention in Afghanistan continues a broader American as well as European disengagement from the Middle East. Greater US energy independence and a shift on the part of Europe to Russian oil, fatigue among Americans over their “endless wars” in the region, and a perceived need to “pivot” to the challenge More
The post New Opportunities For Progressives in an Evolving Middle East? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jeff Halper.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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I attended the American Public Health Association in Atlanta in late October 2001. Against the backdrop of daily bombing runs projected on the megascreen of the CNN Center, I thought that I might find fellow health workers opposed to the war. After all, UN agencies such as the World Food Program and UNICEF had been drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan that pre-dated 9/11. Severe drought and twenty years of war in Afghanistan had led to conditions bordering on widespread famine. Shouldn’t public health workers, who are concerned about the health and well-being of people, oppose the U.S. war on Afghanistan? More
The post Twenty Years After 9/11: a Health Worker’s Perspective appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Seiji Yamada.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Invoking the played-out trope of the American Dream, with its symbolism of dogged aspiration and hard work, has of course long been a staple in US politics. The truth here is that Youngkin’s father worked in finance and played basketball for Duke University—hardly a shabby background for his son, the aspiring politician. The website shuffles-off the Carlyle Group as “an investment firm”. More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Kenneth Surin.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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The Census Bureau recently released the first-round of results from the 2020 census and its findings shocked many, especially older white, conservative Americans. William Frey, of the Brookings Institute, reports, “Yet most notable is the small decline in white population — the first in any census since 1790. During much of the nation’s history, white More
The post The End of White Hegemony? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by David Rosen.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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When reading about anti-maskers in Los Angeles attacking a breast cancer patient seeking care in a medical facility, and then reading about Boston College’s policy of not requiring masks in classrooms this fall with expected faculty pushback, I wondered where the hell all of this led? As the echoes of 1960s’ solidarity lose even their place in the rearview More
The post So Long to a Sense of Community appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Howard Lisnoff.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Sept . 11 is approaching – the 20th anniversary of the most startling event in the lifetime of most adults. The notorious Muslim suicide terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 Americans and horrified the world. Nineteen young male fanatics, armed only with boxcutters, hijacked four airliners and flew them like projectiles into More
The post Sept. 11 – Day of Warning appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by James A Haught.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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There’s no nice way to put it. Hundreds of Montanans are now getting sick and dying thanks to the anti-science, anti-mask, anti-vax messages propagated by the insane rhetoric of Republican politicians under the false rubric of “personal responsibility” and “freedom.” But as the costs to society continue to rise exponentially while the more lethal, more More
The post Republican FreeDumb is Killing Us appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by George Ochenski.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason recently wrote an open letter to the head of the Pesticides Unit at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Jose Tarazona. (Since this article was written, Jose Tarazona has stepped down from his position and the letter has been forwarded to his successors, Manuela Tiramani and Benedicte Vagenede.) Mason More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Colin Todhunter.This post was originally published on Radio Free.