Week of June 14, 2019

We cannot keep publishing without your help. We have no paywalls or ads. Nor do we receive corporate or foundation funding. All we have is you to keep us publishing. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday Election 2016 manipulation involved same players as 9/11 By Wayne Madsen A growing collection of evidence indicates that three nations directly involved in coordinating the planning and carrying out of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States—Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—were also jointly involved in “hacking” the 2016 U.S. presidential election to bring about Donald Trump’s victory. The January 11, 2017 meeting in Seychelles—involving Blackwater founder Erik Prince, the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and top officials of UAE, Saudi, and Israeli intelligence—represented a de facto after-action overview of the 2016 election interference that covered successes of the operation. My abortion By Missy Comley Beattie Her face is like an image in a photograph, as clear today as it was years ago when I first saw her. The little girl, named Amber, was among my best friend J’s social work, foster care caseload. And I wanted to adopt her. What is so rare as a (fake news) day in June? By Frank Scott While the continued mental assault on what is left of public consciousness still features the idiotic fiction of Russiagate, or how the evil Putin arranged to trash our great American democracy and defeat holy mother Hillary on behalf of cursed father Donald, the month of June offered not one but two major fictional treatments of historic reality to further reduce innocent minds to enslaved mentalities. The fables of D-Day, celebrated every year in glorification of a war actually won by the Soviet Union but taught as America’s gift to the global marketplace, and the unholy terror alleged by evil China in the infamous Tiananmen uprising treated here as a story worthy of creation by Disney, Spielberg, Mother Goose and Ronald Reagan combined. The force that is ending freedom is lies By Eric Zuesse Every empire is a dictatorship. No nation can be a democracy that’s either heading an empire, or a vassal-state of one. Obviously, in order to be a vassal-state within an empire, that nation is dictated-to by the nation of which it is a colony. However, even the domestic inhabitants of the colonizing nation cannot be free and living in a democracy, because their services are needed abroad in order to impose the occupying force upon the colony or vassal-nation. This is an important burden upon the ‘citizens’ or actually the subjects of the imperial nation. Furthermore, they need to finance, via their taxes, this occupying force abroad, to a sufficient extent so as to subdue any resistance by the residents in any colony. Every empire is imposed, none is really voluntary. Conquest creates an empire, and the constant application of force maintains it. Every empire is a dictatorship, not only upon its foreign populations (which goes without saying, because otherwise there can’t be any empire), but upon its domestic ones too, upon its own subjects. Britain is out of control By Brian Cloughley One of the rallying cries of the Brexit movement, whose supporters want Britain to leave the European Union, is the slogan “Let’s Take Back Control”—meaning, in the words of The Atlantic magazine, they imagine that by quitting Europe “they would be returning power from Brussels back to lawmakers in Westminster and, by extension, to the British people themselves.” The “Vote Leave” group declared “We’ve lost control of trade, human rights, and migration” and there was an intensive and most misleading campaign waged to encourage the British people to believe that they had endured decades of unproductive cringing subservience to the EU. Tuesday When the journalists ganged up on Assange, they ganged up on themselves By Paul Craig Roberts Journalists did not appreciate the implications for themselves of the contrived and false indictment of Julian Assange by a corrupt US government. It was obvious to a few of us that the indictment by the US government, a government constrained by the First Amendment, of a foreign national for publishing leaked material, an action never before regarded as espionage or a crime, was the beginning of the end of any Western government ever again being held accountable by a free press. US billionaire tries to nullify Soviet role in WWII victory By Eric Zuesse On May 23, Russia’s RT headlined “Soviet Union oddly missing from US-made coin ‘saluting’ WWII Allies” and displayed a private firm’s, the Bradford Exchange’s, “commemorative” “WWII 75th Anniversary 24K Gold-Plated gold-plated” coin, which is being marketed as an ‘investment’, and which on one of its sides shows US Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and on the opposite side shows the flags of US, Britain, and France. The same old scare tactic about socialism By Robert Reich I keep hearing a lot about “socialism” these days, mainly from Donald Trump and Fox News, trying to scare Americans about initiatives like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal child care, free public higher education, and higher taxes on the super-wealthy to pay for these. A Father’s Day gift for myself: Activism My 2-year old will barely be the age I am now when the climate catastrophe comes, and that realization is taking a toll. By Peter Certo News about climate change has been so spooky for so long that it can feel like background noise. We find a way to carry on like normal, even when the news is disquieting. Morgan Library & Hudson Yards: Two NYC landmarks built off the misery of others By Jane Stillwater I clearly love everything about books—so imagine my delight when someone told me about the historic Morgan Library in midtown Manhattan. I was there in a flash. And it was awesomely beautiful too. Just imagine a vaulted sanctuary such as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel—only also lined with tiers and tiers of bookcases stuffed with rare and beautiful leather-bound books containing all the wisdom of the ages. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” I was in hog heaven! Wednesday The Trust Project: Big Media and Silicon Valley’s weaponized algorithms silence dissent Given the Trust Project’s rich-get-richer impact on the online news landscape, it is not surprising to find that it is funded by a confluence of tech oligarchs and powerful forces with a clear stake in controlling the flow of news. By Whitney Webb After the failure of Newsguard—the news rating system backed by a cadre of prominent neoconservative personalities—to gain traction among American tech and social media companies, another organization has quietly stepped in to direct the news algorithms of tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Beware the ‘Trump Trump Macoute’ By Wayne Madsen The re-emergence of the feared Janjaweed paramilitary forces in Sudan should serve as a wakeup call for every American who supports democracy and the rule of law. The Janjaweed emerged in 2003 in the genocide committed in the western region of Darfur to deal with black African tribes that opposed the regime of General Omar al-Bashir. After Bashir later began to loosen his tight grip on power, the Janjaweed paramilitary volunteers faded back into their regular jobs. However, in April, Bashir was ousted in a military coup by a junta led by Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and, more ominously, the Janjaweed commander, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as “Hemetti.” Medicare for All is coming because even the “insured” are not safe in this for-profit system So-called ‘experts’ tell us that Americans love this system and it would be too costly or too complicated to change it. But even those with private insurance or employee-provided coverage know this simply is not true. By Bonnie Castillo As the House Ways and Means Committee prepares to hold an influential hearing today on HR 1384, the Medicare for All bill authored by Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell, with 112 House co-sponsors, news reports every day remind us of why the bill is so necessary. Climate not conducive to Donald Trump’s peace plan Arab summit has announced its rejection of proposals that don’t conform to UN resolutions By Linda S. Heard It takes two hands to clap and neither side in this 70-year-long saga is shaking hands. Instead, naked hostility reigns largely engendered by the Trump administration’s biased approach serving the Jewish state. Bad enough that according to leaks there is no two-state or even one-state in the offing. Instead a demilitarised, non-contiguous Palestinian enclave on 30 per cent of the occupied West Bank has allegedly been proposed with its ‘capital’ on [occupied] Jerusalem’s outskirts. The 7 biggest failures of Trumponomics By Robert Reich Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress keep crowing about the economy, when in reality Trumponomics has been a disaster. Thursday How neocon billionaire Paul Singer is driving the outsourcing of US tech jobs to Israel Several U.S. tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Intel Corporation have filled top positions with former members of Israeli military intelligence and are heavily investing in their Israeli branches while laying off thousands of American employees, all while receiving millions of dollars in U.S. government subsidies funded by American taxpayers. By Whitney Webb WASHINGTON—With nearly 6 million Americans unemployed and regular bouts of layoffs in the U.S. tech industry, major American tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Intel Corporation are nonetheless moving key operations, billions in investments, and thousands of jobs to Israel—a trend that has largely escaped media attention or concern from even “America first” politicians. The fact that this massive transfer of investment and jobs has been so overlooked is particularly striking given that it is largely the work of a single leading neoconservative Republican donor who has given millions of dollars to President Donald Trump. Trump’s Middle East ‘deal of the century’ and his ‘Kosher Quartet’ By Wayne Madsen The June 25-26, 2019 “peace conference” scheduled for Manama, Bahrain and attended by the United States, Israel, a few Palestinian quislings, and sell-out Arab states is nothing more than a rubber stamp on the future virtual annexation of the West Bank by Israel. The so-called “peace plan,” which has been dubbed the “deal of the century” by Donald Trump, had no Palestinian input, but was crafted by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Trump’s “special envoy” for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz. Greenblatt and Friedman were formerly lawyers for the Trump Organization. Ohio’s ‘Chernobyl Socialism’ would hand $20 million to seven utility scammers By Harvey Wasserman A huge proposed bailout of two Chernobyl-in-progress Ohio nukes (plus two old coal burners) would put $20 million directly into the pockets of seven utility executives. Their bankrupt company last year spent $3 million “lobbying” the legislature. Global Warming morphs into the solar minimum By Renee Parsons Since Climate Change (CC) has been a constant of life on Gaia with the evolution of photosynthesis 3.2 billion years ago and has more complexities than this one essay can address; ergo, this article will explore CO2’s historic contribution to global warming (GW) as well as explore the relationship of Solar Minimum (SM) to Earth’s climate. Freedom Rider: The Central Park Five and the limits of suffering By Margaret Kimberley Corporate media green-lights films that ratchet up an emotional response without motivating anyone to action. Friday U.S. being set up for another hacked election in 2020 By Wayne Madsen After the surprise victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, the corporate media reported that it came as the result of faulty polls and a lack of Hillary Clinton’s campaigning in key battleground states, where she was believed to be ahead. The foreign meddling in the election was reported to be limited to the manipulation of social media and not much else. Trump regime formally requests Assange’s extradition to the US By Stephen Lendman A total of 18 charges against Assange, with reportedly more to come, are all about wanting truth-telling journalism the way it should be on vital domestic and geopolitical issues silenced. The omnipresent surveillance state: Orwell’s ‘1984’ is no longer fiction By John W. Whitehead Tread cautiously: the fiction of George Orwell has become an operation manual for the omnipresent, modern-day surveillance state. Kushner as a colonial administrator: Let’s talk about the ‘Israeli Model’ By Ramzy Baroud In a TV interview on June 2, on the news docuseries “Axios” on the HBO channel, Jared Kushner opened up regarding many issues, in which his ‘Deal of the Century’ was a prime focus. Speeding into the void of cyberspace as designed By Edward Curtin Speed and panic go hand-in-hand in today’s fabricated world of engineered emergencies and digital alerts. “We have no time” is today’s mantra—“We are running out of time”—and because this mood of urgency has come to grip most people’s minds, deep thinking about why this is so and who benefits is in short supply. I believe most people sense this to be true but don’t know how to extract themselves from the addictive nature of speed long enough to grasp how deeply they have been propagandized, and why.
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Week of January 21, 2019

Intrepid Report Newsletter
We cannot keep publishing without your help. We have no paywalls or ads. Nor do we receive corporate or foundation funding. All we have is you to keep us publishing. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate Monday Martin Luther King Day and the unspeakable By Edward Curtin As Martin Luther King’s birthday is celebrated with a national holiday, his death day disappears down the memory hole. Across the country—in response to the King Holiday and Service Act passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1994—people will be encouraged to make the day one of service. Such service does not include King’s commitment to protest a decadent system of racial and economic injustice or non-violently resist the U.S. warfare state that he called “the greatest purveyor of violence on earth.” JFK, MLK, Bobby & Leonard: Bad things happen when you color outside the lines By Jane Stillwater Did anyone else besides me watch that TV special on John F. Kennedy Jr the other night? Hmmm. Not sure what to think about it. Why are they showing it to us now? Maybe I’m being a bit paranoid (again) but it appeared to be the ultimate masterpiece of public-relations propaganda—American style. Would Trump have come after my family for being illegal? By Jack Balkwill My grandfather was an illegal alien. During the 1800s he travelled from England, where he was born, to Canada, which was British territory in those days, so he wasn’t required to have a passport. He travelled to the Canadian West, then crossed the border into Idaho, to be known, thereafter, as an American. The National Security Agency is a criminal organization By Paul Craig Roberts Years before Edward Snowden provided documented proof that the National Security Agency was really a national insecurity agency as it was violating law and the US Constitution and spying indiscriminately on American citizens, William Binney, who designed and developed the NSA spy program revealed the illegal and unconstitutional spying. Binney turned whistleblower, because NSA was using the program to spy on Americans. Another day, another disaster. And another, and another . . . It’s as if the country’s being run by Beetlejuice. By Michael Winship I’ve been trying to write something about the events of the past few days for the last week and a half, and every time I set out to achieve editorial brilliance, or at least try to keep typos and the splitting of infinitives to a minimum, something else wacky happens and it’s back to square one. I’d say it’s Sisyphean if only I knew what that meant. Tuesday Indefinite detention uncharged and untried a crime against humanity By Stephen Lendman These are troubled times. Rule of law protections don’t help. The US does whatever it pleases, operating by its own rules, inflicting harm on nations, groups and individuals, including its own citizens. Traditional 2019 State of the Union address fraught with security dangers By Wayne Madsen Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s request to Donald Trump to delay this year’s State of the Union address, scheduled for January 29, was based on advice she received from national security and counter-terrorism experts worried about a “Designated Survivor” scenario. The deep-pocket push to deep-six public schools The backstory to the showdown in Los Angeles between teachers and billionaires By Sam Pizzigati Back during the 1960s and 1970s, in cities, suburbs, and small towns across the United States, teacher strikes made headlines on a fairly regular basis. Teachers in those years had a variety of reasons for walking out. They struck for the right to bargain. They struck for decent pay and benefits. They struck for professional dignity. The indignity of work without pay Forty percent of conservative Republicans view the government shutdown as inconsequential By Leo Gerard In the midst of the longest government shutdown in history, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown last week launched a “Dignity of Work” listening tour. AI wants to reprogram you Driverless cars cost jobs and threaten pedestrians. Investors' advice? Just get out of the way! By Jim Hightower With chaos in the White House, worsening climate disasters, more wars than we can count, and a wobbling economy here at home, the last thing we need is another big challenge. But—look out!—here comes a doozy! Wednesdaay From the barracks to the courtroom: US ‘lawfare’ in action By Wayne Madsen Somewhere along the line in recent history, some US think tank in the employ of the Central Intelligence Agency must have come up with the idea that overthrowing governments in Latin America by military coups came with bad optics for the coup plotters. Often, democratically-elected Latin American leaders were demonized by a cabal of military officers who left their barracks and laid siege to the presidential palaces. After taking control of the national radio stations, these generals would announce they had seized control of the government to “protect” the people from “communism” or some other concocted bogeyman. Call for global ban as poll shows overwhelming public opposition to ‘horrifying’ killer robots Weapons that require no input from humans in selecting and killing targets undermine "the right to life and other human rights," critics say By Julia Conley World leaders have shown little leadership in moving to ban autonomous weapons that would require no human involvement when selecting and killing targets, but a new survey shows that the global population overwhelmingly opposes the development of such “killer robots.” High-profile human rights groups fail to condemn unlawful US mistreatment of Marzieh Hashimi By Stephen Lendman The silence of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, and other high-profile human rights groups over Mazieh’s unlawful arrest, detention and abusive treatment by the FBI is deafening. Tax dollars can buy happiness The deeper meaning of hygge—and why citizens of Denmark are so much happier than Americans By Leo Gerard Corporatists castigated two lawmakers in recent weeks for daring to offer economic Xanax prescriptions to cure rampant American economic anxiety. Trump’s assault on the rule of law By Robert Reich The “rule of law” distinguishes democracies from dictatorships. It’s based on three fundamental principles. Trump is violating every one of them. Thursday Mike Pence calls for coup d’état in Venezuela By Stephen Lendman Since Hugo Chavez established Bolivarian social democracy in Venezuela, a vibrant system, a model for other nations, the US plotted to replace it with fascist tyranny. Government shutdown to cause the suffering of the public is a violation of federal anti-terrorism law By Wayne Madsen 18 U.S. Code § 2331 specifically states that a national of the United States who commits an act dangerous to human life to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion is liable to be charged for violating federal domestic terrorism laws. Trump puts the white in the red, white and blue By Michael Winship WASHINGTON, DC—As the old saying goes, putting a shoe in an oven don’t make it a biscuit. Pompeo turns reality upside down By Philip M. Giraldi The speech made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the American University in Cairo on January 10 deserves more attention than it has received from the US media. In it, Pompeo reveals his own peculiar vision of what is taking place in the Middle East, to include the impact of his own personal religiosity, and his belief that Washington’s proper role in the region is to act as “a force for good.” The extent to which the secretary of state was speaking for himself was not completely clear, but the text of the presentation was posted on the State Department website without any qualification, so one has to assume that Pompeo was representing White House policy. The fall of Davos Man By Robert Reich The annual confab of the captains of global industry, finance, and wealth is underway in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. Friday Washington has appointed a president for Venezuela By Paul Craig Roberts After listening since 2016 to the American presstitutes complain, without providing a mere scrap of evidence, of Russia meddling in US elections, a person would think that the last thing Washington would do would be to meddle in other countries’ elections. Uncle Sam wants your DNA: The FBI’s diabolical plan to create a nation of suspects By John W. Whitehead Uncle Sam wants you. US blunders have made Russia the global trade pivot By Mathew Maavak The year 2019 had barely begun before news emerged that six Russian sailors were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Benin. It was perhaps a foretaste of risks to come. As nations reel from deteriorating economic conditions, instances of piracy and other forms of supply chain disruptions are bound to increase. False ‘victories’: Is the PA using the ‘State of Palestine’ to remain in power? By Ramzy Baroud The ‘State of Palestine’ has officially been handed the chairmanship of the G-77, the United Nations largest block. This is particularly significant considering the relentless Israeli-American plotting to torpedo Palestine’s push for greater international recognition and legitimacy. We don’t need a new deal; we need a whole new deck By Frank Scott The gap between the earth’s wardens of wealth and the nearly eight billion humans under their control has grown wider and more dangerous but is beginning to be understood by some as a systemic problem and not simply a matter of evil leaders and villainous followers. When people see and feel their futures ranging from problematic at best to non-existent at worst, we get the resultant turmoil and changes taking place in nations moving in many directions at once but all of them against established power over things as they are.
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INTREPID REPORT: Week of July 23, 2018

Intrepid Report Newsletter
We cannot keep publishing without your help. We have no paywalls or ads. Nor do we receive corporate or foundation funding. All we have is you to keep us publishing. We rely on you to help us pay our monthly expenses. So please Donate  Monday Trump and his supporters encourage violence By Wayne Madsen While mourning continues over the shooting deaths of five members of the staff of the Annapolis Journal Gazette, including four journalists, by a deranged pro-Donald Trump and neo-confederate-supporting madman, Trump doubled-down on his incendiary comments about the press, again referring to the media as the “real enemy of the people.” Trump also continues to bash the Democratic Party, claiming it has a “death wish.” Taking ‘wrecking ball’ to Endangered Species Act, Trump administration opens door for corporate attack on vulnerable wildlife If Interior Department's proposals are approved, "Zinke will go down in history as the extinction secretary" By Julia Conley Gutting the law that has protected the bald eagle, the American crocodile, the gray wolf, and countless other animals from extinction over the past four decades, the Trump administration gave its latest handout to corporate interests on Thursday when it unveiled sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Ethiopia’s peaceful revolution By Thomas C. Mountain The uniquely African Empire of Ethiopia has seen itself launched into a peaceful revolution that promises to transform one of the planets poorest countries into a modern people’s democracy. Pharma ‘screening’ is a ploy to seize more patients By Martha Rosenberg There is an old saying that if you keep going into a barber shop, eventually you will get a haircut. The same can be said of Pharma’s many health “screenings.” Israeli war on Gaza over kites? By Stephen Lendman Hamas is a legitimate political organization, not a terrorist group as falsely designed by Israel and Washington in deference to the Jewish state. Tuesday Stripping away local governmental powers: a global rising tide of fascism By Wayne Madsen Fascists love strong central government control. On the other hand, local autonomy represents good governance, something that is anathema to fascists. Today, around the world, local governments at the municipal, provincial, and regional levels are finding themselves under siege by central governments exercising what can only be described as fascist grabs for unitary executive power. Trump’s Space Force: Military profiteering’s final frontier ‘The heavens are going to be littered with radioactive debris.’ By Harvey Wasserman The commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump, has announced a new mission into the realm of martial excess. It is one is that will surely enrich the aerospace industry while spreading the global battlefield to a new dimension. As Trump tweets threats, warnings of his team ‘working in lock step to lay groundwork’ for war with Iran By Jessica Corbett Following weekend reporting that key members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet are leading a campaign to “foment unrest” in Iran, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s warning that a conflict between the two countries “would be the mother of all wars,” Trump turned to Twitter late Sunday with a message for Rouhani. Diabolical plot to extradite Assange to US By Stephen Lendman Ecuador granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum at its London embassy in August 2012. Israel—a blatantly apartheid state Jewish Nation-State Law leaves Palestinians in the lurch as hopes for an independent state fade By Linda S. Heard No people on earth have battled for their right to live independently and in dignity as long and hard as the Palestinians. The tragedy is they have been abandoned. Their traditional champions either have problems of their own or feel impotent against the joint might of the Jewish state and its backer, the United States, where states are passing laws defining criticism of the Israeli state as anti-Semitic. Wednesday Bannon establishing ‘Fascist International’ bureau in Brussels By Wayne Madsen Former Donald Trump White House strategist and 2016 campaign chairman Stephen Bannon has been active in Europe trying to stir up far-right political agitation. His latest move has been to announce the creation of an international organization of the far-right in Brussels, known simply as “The Movement.” It is not known where Bannon is getting the funds to start The Movement. In the past, Bannon has received generous subsidies from the billionaire father-daughter team of Robert and Rebekah Mercer. The duo funded Bannon’s former media enterprise, Breitbart News. The faulty logic behind the Zionist attack on BDS By Lawrence Davidson If you search the topic boycotts on Google you immediately realize how historically common they are. There are a lot to choose from, and one of the first listed is the 1769 boycott instituted by the First Continental Congress against Great Britain over the issue of “taxation without representation.” That makes a boycott against a perceived oppressive power an integral part of American heritage. Falsely blaming Hamas for Israeli high crimes By Stephen Lendman Blaming victims is longstanding US, Israel, and scoundrel media policy. More lies from the corrupt elite Don’t believe them By Paul Craig Roberts For two decades the offshoring of American jobs to Asia and Mexico has destroyed the careers and incomes of tens of millions of US citizens, the pension tax base for state and local governments, the federal tax base for Social Security and Medicare, and the opportunity society that once characterized the United States of America. We’re living a constitutional crisis By Robert Reich I keep hearing that if Trump fires Mueller, we’ll face a “constitutional crisis.” Or if Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify and Trump defies the subpoena, it’s a “constitutional crisis.” Or if Mueller delivers substantial evidence that Trump is guilty of colluding with Russia or of obstructing justice, and the House does nothing to impeach him, we have a “constitutional crisis.” Thursday Trump’s political vendettas another sign of creeping dictatorship By Wayne Madsen No one has been more critical of the policies of former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan when he was in charge at Langley than I. And this editor’s criticisms of former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden became very well known to him and his top aides at both agencies. Ditto with Susan Rice when she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under Barack Obama. An independent journalist in Eritrea By Thomas C. Mountain Officially I don’t exist. I am an independent journalist in the small east African country of Eritrea who. after 12 years here and over 150 internationally published articles, I find that officially I don’t exist. Freedom Rider: Blacks need to stop calling the enemy ‘we’ and ‘us’ By Margaret Kimberley It is a sad to see black people speak of themselves in the first person when referencing the United States government, its intelligence agencies, and war making apparatus. Two years of relentless war propaganda has conflated opposition to Trump with the interests of the ruling elites. Words such as “our allies,” “our intelligence community,” and “our democracy” should never come out of a black person’s mouth.” The desire to be rid of the racist-in-chief has caused a new epidemic of mental illness. Big Pharma is Murder, Inc. By Jack Balkwill Thousands of people have died from taking Big Pharma’s products as directed, with Big Pharma executives aware that their products caused sickness and death. Kafka on the border The administration has trapped immigrant families in a bureaucratic nightmare—and brought media hacks rushing to defend the indefensible. By Jim Hightower Insanity reigns. The inmates are now officially in charge of the national asylum. Friday No doubt about it: The Deep State is real and Trump is its latest tool By John W. Whitehead There are those who would have you believe that President Trump is an unwitting victim of the Deep State. Jewish Nation-State Law: Why Israel was never a democracy By Ramzy Baroud The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), Aymen Odeh, described the passing of the racist Jewish Nation-State Law as “the death of our democracy.” An unhappy birthday for Medicare and Medicaid As the iconic health programs turn 53, the GOP is advancing plans to privatize one and gut the other. By Martha Burk July 30 marks a very important anniversary in our modern political history. ‘The American Oligarchy’: A review By Chris Wright Consumers of left-wing media are well aware that America is an oligarchy, not a democracy. Everyone with a functioning cerebrum, in fact, should be aware of it by now: even mainstream political scientists recognize it, as shown by a famous 2014 study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page. Nevertheless, it is important to continue to publicize the oligarchical character of the United States, in order to delegitimize the institutions that have destroyed democracy (insofar as it ever existed) and inspire people to take action to restore it. Ron Formisano’s book American Oligarchy: The Permanent Political Class (2017) is a valuable contribution to this collective project. White Helmets: Something wicked is coming our way By Jane Stillwater What’s your worst nightmare? That you drive over a cliff after your brakes fail? That Jurassic World’s T-Rex chases you down the street? That you are forced to become a Republican (just kidding)—or that a former member of ISIS moves in next door?