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Monday
By Emanuel E. Garcia, MD
When I was a kid there were no two ways about it: Russians were bad, in fact, they were positively evil, and the emergency drills we practiced in grade school for a nuclear attack struck this truth home. Whether or not putting our heads under our desks would have done much for our safety is another thing altogether. The main point was that we should be afraid and that the Russians were the indisputable reason why. And there was no reason to question this. In my neighbourhood of second generation Italian immigrants who made it a habit to disagree about everything, this was something everybody agreed on.
By Wayne Madsen
The Florida Panhandle has seen its share of sketchy Republican office holders. Few local voters who were around in 2001 can forget the suspicious death of Lori Klausutis, a 29-year old constituent services staffer for retiring Florida GOP Representative Joe Scarborough. Klausutis’s body was discovered at 8:00 in the morning on July 20, 2001, by a couple who arrived at Scarborough’s North Fort Walton Beach office for a meeting. Klausutis is said to have died from a skull fracture. The local coroner’s determination that the very physically fit Klausutis died from accidental causes left many voters in Florida’s First Congressional District convinced that Scarborough, now the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” somehow knew more than what was revealed about the circumstances of his aide’s death during the middle of the night.
Senate Majority Leader punts corporate-friendly trade deal to next administration
By Deirdre Fulton
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that the U.S. Senate will not vote on the 12-nation, corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) this year, buoying progressive hopes that the trade deal will never come to fruition.
By Ben Tanosborn
Why, I am constantly being asked by my overseas peers, do you Americans have such affection for a creepy old pretender, a political candidate who’s been around forever, and all he has done is have his way with you? Does the “me-or-else” political ultimatum award Lesser Evil license to govern and rape? Whether dressed as Tweedledee or as Tweedledum, Lesser Evil righteously appears to so think; adding one more rosary bid in our march towards the 2016 presidential election . . . just as it happened in 2012 and, as I tap into my memory, to all other quadrennials before then.
By Jane Stillwater
Did you know that Oliver Stone is a Vietnam vet? That explains a lot. No wonder he has come out so strongly against all the various American “war” fiascos since then. If you had suffered through all the shite that he did while fighting in Vietnam, you would most likely be anti-war as well.
Tuesday
Part 1 of 2
By Walter Brasch
Donald Trump, who is commanding all of 1 percent of Black voters, according to an impartial Quinnipiac poll, says he could get as much as 95 percent of the Black vote in a second term. In June 2011, he had said, “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.” It’s nothing less than political hyperbole in a campaign for a first term, and meant to get a few thousand more votes in key states. However, Trump’s past actions don’t mitigate whatever future plans he has.
There's a method to the madness of Big Pharma's prioritizing profit over human life.
By Martha Rosenberg
It has been two years since Gilead Sciences Inc. rolled out its $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, priced at $84,000 for a course of treatment and met with disbelief from patients, insurers and health care professionals. After an 18-month investigation the Senate Finance Committee concluded prices did not reflect Gilead’s development costs and that the drug maker cared about “revenue” not “affordability and accessibility.” The committee also found that Sovaldi and a related pill, Harvoni, cost taxpayers $5 billion in 2014.
By Stephen Lendman
Obamacare was designed as a healthcare rationing scheme to benefit drug companies, large hospital chains and insurers—instead of Medicare for all, everyone in, no one left out, everybody treated equally on a level playing field.
By Jane Stillwater
What in the freak has gone wrong with America’s priorities these days? I keep asking myself this question—but never get an answer that makes any sense.
By Philip A Farruggio
In most cases satire reveals so many hidden truths. Such is the case with the 1997 Barry Levinson film Wag the Dog. Obviously done as a spoof on the Bill Clinton sexual imbroglio with Ms. Lewinsky and the damage control done to modify it. The inner meaning of the film reveals just how foolish the Amerikan public is and how susceptible many are to well thought out propaganda. Well, isn’t that how we really are folks?
Wednesday
Part 2 of 2
By Walter Brasch
Donald Trump says he watched the destruction of the World Trade Center, and saw “thousands and thousands of people [who were] cheering as that building was coming down.” Every non-partisan fact-checking site and news medium debunks Trump’s faulty recollection. But 9/11 burnished an image in his mind of terrorism by Muslims. His solution is to issue an unconstitutional moratorium against Muslims who wish to emigrate to the U.S.
By John W. Whitehead
The FBI is worried: foreign hackers have broken into two state election databases.
By Wayne Madsen
President Richard Nixon ordered the destruction of all US biological weapons in 1969. His White House declaration, Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs, declared that ”the United States shall renounce the use of lethal biological agents and weapons, and all other methods of biological warfare. The United States will confine its biological research to defensive measures such as immunization and safety measures.” With that and the ratification of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention by the United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain, the US biological weapons program came to an end. Or did it?
'Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed, because of course as Europeans we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands'
By Nika Knight
Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister said that the controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has “de facto failed,” admitting that negotiations between the U.S. and E.U. have completely stalled.
By Stephen Lendman
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the deplorable US/EU equivalent of TPP—corporate coup d’etats against the public welfare, ecosanity and fundamental freedoms if enacted into law.
Thursday
By Dave Alpert
Late last week, while dining in an Italian restaurant on the Upper Westside of Manhattan, my lady friend began reading a posting she found on Facebook. The theme of this posting was that a survey found that Russians and Romanians overwhelmingly expressed their desire to return to the “good old days,” when communism prevailed in their respective countries.
By Michael Winship
Cash and carry has become nothing more than standard operating procedure in politics and government, and it’s wrecking the republic. The whole system is rotten to the core, corrupted by big business and special interests from the seventh son to the seventh son.
By Wayne Madsen
Donald Trump has expressed the belief that the November 8 election could be rigged in favor of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. He has reason to be concerned.
By Richard John Stapleton
When Obama first ran for president in 2007 he told us he was out to improve the plight of we the people, not the corporations and the elite rich.
By Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Wolfowitz and the lies that he told in the high government positions that he held are responsible for a massive number of deaths and massive destruction in seven countries. Wolfowitz has announced his vote for Hillary Clinton. Does this make you feel reassured?
Friday
The media campaign attacking Russia is in high gear these days. Russia is accused of cyberwarfare, leaking poor Hillary’s emails, and now, of a slick disinformation campaign to undermine poor NATO, our bastion of peace.
By Paul Craig Roberts
Do you smirk when you hear someone question the official stories of Orlando, San Bernardino, Paris or Nice? Do you feel superior to 2,500 architects and engineers, to firefighters, commercial and military pilots, physicists and chemists, and former high government officials who have raised doubts about 9/11? If so, you reflect the profile of a mind-controlled CIA stooge.
By Ramzy Baroud
The Italian ‘activist’ was keen on that photo, as if her social media activism career was dependent on it. As if the misery of the poor Syrian child was not palpable enough in his dejected face and his rash-infested skin, she wanted to define a point of absolute misery for a perfect Instagram photo.
By John Chuckman
I read a piece that said Hillary, with her speech about racism and extremists taking over the Republican Party, was making a play for a one-party state. That seems rather an exaggeration, but it does contain an important bit of truth. I do indeed believe Hillary thinks along the lines of a one-party state as suggested, but without ever saying so directly, and she is not focused on the particular political party with which she is now associated.
By Linh Dinh
Felix lives on the 24th floor of Riverview, a subsidized complex for senior citizens. Once a dreaded housing project, it is now pleasant and safe. Most of Felix’ neighbors are black and Asian.
