A blog about a criminal enterprise
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
The Ultimate Blowback Universe
A Planet Boiling With Unintended Consequences
By Tom Engelhardt
You want to see “blowback” in action? That’s easy enough. All you need is a vague sense of how Google Search works. Then type into it phrases like “warmest years,” “
Remarks at Saint Mary’s Hall, San Antonio, Texas, March 1, 2018
Accompanying Powerpoint.
Thank you for inviting me. What I contended in the article that got me invited here was that one of the biggest taboos in the United States, one of the behaviors treated most as a heresy, as a violation of national religion, is disrespect for the U.S. flag, the national anthem, and the patriotic militarist exceptionalism that accompany those icons.
We’ve just seen a school shooting in Florida by a young
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
What company gets the most money from the U.S. government? The answer: the weapons maker Lockheed Martin. As the Washington Post recently reported, of its
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Despite the dystopian fantasies about nuclear terror and destruction that hit popular culture in the Cold War era and those “duck and cover”
By Dave Lindorff
The howling in government and the corporate media and among many liberals about an alleged Russian information war, with bots, trolls and fake news being placed in social media to mislead and incite Americans against each other, might lead one think, like Sen John McCain, that we are practically at war with Russia. Yet it’s all actually pretty silly. After all, our own government has been playing this game for decades, both abroad,
The power of mass demonstrations to mobilize activism and move those in positions of power is minimized, first and foremost, by those opposed to popular power. Do not listen to them. Make them listen to us!
Can you give two days to stop the slaughter of innocents and the shameless profiteering from their blood? If you can give more, so much the better. But by giving two days, you will guarantee that others will give more. You will be part of building the necessary momentum, the key ingredient in
| Display at a national education conference in Washington DC March, 2016 |
The distraction machine I call the demagogue with bad hair ventured into new territory this week by claiming that teachers could ward off assault weapons if they themselves were adept at using firearms.
Teachers unions and prominent educators immediately denounced the idea of arming teachers.
Experienced teachers pointed out that teenage students could be expected to access teachers’ guns, dedicated teachers said they would resign rather than be trained for concealed carry, and jokesters responded
I asked my Facebook page which high school teacher they’d least like to have had a gun in their desk. Go read their answers.
I’d elect those people over any recent president or any current member of Congress.
These bursts of public discussion with dashes of sanity thrown in that follow each particularly media-covered mass-shooting are always encouraging. And it’s especially encouraging to have young people being allowed to have a say.
But let’s be clear about the limitations of what’s happened
Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said, “There are two races of men in the world, but only these two – the ‘race’ of decent men and the ‘race’ of indecent men. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society.”
This is a powerful conclusion from a man who witnessed the very best and the very worst of humanity. He gives us a valuable lens to look at the world as we try to make sense of what’s going on around us.
Yet we easily forget Frankl’s
http://troymedia.com/2018/02/15/social-change-starts-within/
As we look at the world, it’s very easy to give up hope. We see a lack of integrity in politicians and obscene wages for business leaders, and we fear for the future of our planet.
Some try to tell us that the path to progress is to change the system. If we can overthrow the corrupt establishment, they tell us, we can form a new regime that’s just and equitable. The problems are caused by “those other people.” If we replace them,