Louis Farrakhan 'far right'? CNN thinks so
rt.com | 2019-05-04
In the wake of another social media purge, CNN host Alisyn Camerota described Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as a 'far right' figure on air. Did somebody hand her the wrong script? | …
rt.com/usa/458340-farrakhan-far-right-cnn/
Pro Guaido supporters harass journalists, anti-war activists outside Venezuela's US embassy (VIDEOS)
rt.com | 2019-05-04
Journalists covering the standoff at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington DC have been harassed by a group of Juan Guaido supporters, who demand that the 'Embassy Civilian Protection Collective' vacate the diplomatic building. | …
rt.com/usa/458339-venezuela-embassy-standoff-continues/
Lee Camp ponders Pompeo's CIA lies & Guaido's embassy-storming goons (VIDEO)
rt.com | 2019-05-04
American comedian Lee Camp dove into this week's most eye-catching headlines, tearing apart bizarre comments made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and weighing in on right-wingers laying siege to the Venezuelan Embassy. | …
rt.com/usa/458372-lee-camp-venezuela-assange-nyc/
Who is General Barr? Senators seem to not know how to address an attorney general
rt.com | 2019-05-04
Lawmakers had plenty of questions for US Attorney General William Barr about his assessment of Robert Mueller's report on the 'Russia collusion' probe, but some seemed at a loss as to how to address him. | …
rt.com/usa/458338-who-is-general-barr-senators/
Lindsey Graham Wants Aircraft Carrier to Confront Russians and Cubans in Venezuela
Tyler Durden | theantimedia.com | 2019-05-04
(ZH) — No, it doesn't appear to be mere hyperbole, considering it's the well-known neocon uber-hawk senator from South Carolina, who like the late John McCain would never waist precious opportunity to put the USA firmly on the war path. Addressing recent reports that Cuba and Russia have sent troops to Venezuela to prop up embattled President Nicolas …
MSM melts down as Trump talks Venezuela with Putin… and 'feels same way'
rt.com | 2019-05-04
America's most trusted talking heads are in meltdown mode, once again accusing Donald Trump of taking orders from Vladimir Putin, after the US leader was seemingly too soft with the Russian president in a recent phone call. | …
rt.com/usa/458367-media-meltdown-trump-putin/
One hundred years since the May 4 movement in China–Part One
wsws.org | 2019-05-04
The May 4 movement which erupted in 1919 was part of a broader intellectual ferment, profoundly influenced by the Russian Revolution, that led to the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/04/may4-m04.html
The Calm After the Storm in Venezuela: Opposition and Government Measure Support in Streets
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-05-04
It would seem that the April 30th coup effort by Juan Guaidó backfired and energized the Chavista base while it demoralized the opposition. Mike Fox reports from Caracas…
therealnews.com/stories/the-calm-after-the-storm-in-venezuela-opposition-and-government-measure-support-in-streets
Whiteness Explainer for Dummies
Johnny E. Willliams | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-05-04
Examining whiteness is of utmost importance if Americans truly wish to live in a just and peaceful society. To realize this possibility, self-identified 'whites' — and their collaborators from among the racially oppressed — must reckon with their attachment to whiteness. Whiteness was the central concern of sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois in his …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/05/whiteness-explainer-for-dummies/
Activists at Venezuelan Embassy Under Threat From Violent Mobs
consortiumnews.com | 2019-05-04
Activists who have been living in the Venezuelan embassy in Washington have called on the State Dept. and Secret Service to stop violent mobs from attacking them. Activists who have been living inside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington are reporting… Read more ?…
consortiumnews.com/2019/05/03/activists-protecting-venezuelan-embassy-under-threat-from-violent-mobs/
Chavez the Radical XXI: socialism must be created at the grassroots level
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-05-04
In this installment of Tatuy TV's "Chavez the Radical," Chavez discussed the role of the commune in the construction of socialism in Venezuela. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/05/04/chavez-the-radical-xxi-socialism-must-be-created-at-the-grassroots-llevel/
It's only a coup if the U.S. Government says so
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-05-04
Media side with Trump cronies rather than common sense in labeling coup a 'protest'. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/05/04/its-only-a-coup-if-the-u-s-government-says-so/
SoCal Nukes Still Causing Problems * Years After Shutdown
Michael Steinberg | indybay.org | 2019-05-04
The San Onofre nuclear plant in SoCal shut down in 2012, but it's still causing big problems.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/05/02/18823103.php
US-China trade talks enter final phase
wsws.org | 2019-05-04
One of the main sticking points is agreement on the procedure by which US tariffs imposed on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods would be lifted if a trade agreement is reached.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/04/chus-m04.html
Can We Trust Billionaires to Save Democracy?
Robert Scheer | truthdig.com | 2019-05-04
There's no denying that Nicolas Berggruen, the German American billionaire founder and president of the private investment company Berggruen Holdings as well as the think tank Berggruen Institute, has benefited from a global capitalist system that has fueled historic inequality. But even he can see how broken the current economic and political systems in place in the West are, so he's come up with a plan to try to revamp democracy as we know it. | Think of it as "universal basic capital instead of universal basic income," Berggruen tells Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer in a discussion about the billionaire…
truthdig.com/articles/can-we-trust-billionaires-to-save-democracy/
Water, Water, Water: War Against Humanity
Paul Haeder | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-05-04
Capitalism is broken. It is like a gun pointed at the heart of the planet. And it's got these characteristics which mean that it will essentially, necessarily destroy our life support systems. Among those characteristics are the drive for perpetual economic growth on a finite planet. You just can't support that ecologically. Things fall apart. …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/05/water-water-water-war-against-humanity/
Japan's emperor abdicates throne
wsws.org | 2019-05-04
The far right in Japan, which includes Prime Minister Abe and most of his cabinet, is pushing for the emperor to resume the pre-war role of linchpin of a repressive, militarist regime.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/04/japa-m04.html
America's Blueprint for Global Domination: From "Containment" to "Pre-emptive War". The 1948 Truman Doctrine
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2019-05-04
Image: President Harry Truman | First published by GR on September 7, 2014 | We bring to the attention of our readers the writings as well as an analysis of George F. Kennan (1948) which constitute the foreign policy cornerstone of the …
globalresearch.ca/americas-blueprint-for-global-domination-from-containment-to-pre-emptive-war-the-1948-truman-doctrine/5400067
White People Will Be Rubbed Out Along With Their History
Paul Craig Roberts | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-05-04
Recently I wrote of the failure of white liberals to realize the consequences of their good intentions toward preferred minorities. The cost of this miscalculation rises by the day. Now white people in America are to be stripped of their history, because white history traumatizes preferred minorities. At George Washington High School in northern California …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/05/white-people-will-be-rubbed-out-along-with-their-history/
Washington political warfare intensifies with lawsuits, looming contempt charges
wsws.org | 2019-05-04
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would handle impeachment proceedings, warned that "the system of not having a president as a dictator is very much at stake."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/04/barr-m04.html
Pointing to Disastrous History of US Intervention, Sanders Warns Against Military Action in Venezuela
Jake Johnson, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-05-03
"I will do everything I can to see that U.S. troops do not get involved in a civil war in Venezuela." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/abrams_pompeo_0.jpg…
commondreams.org/news/2019/05/03/pointing-disastrous-history-us-intervention-sanders-warns-against-military-action?cd-origin=rss
The Coming of American Fascism, 1920–1940
Chris Wright | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Fascism is usually thought of as a quintessentially and almost exclusively European phenomenon, as having begun with Mussolini, culminated with Hitler, and been eradicated in World War II. The U.S., in particular, is thought to have been largely immune to it, given the absence of mass movements similar to Nazism or Italian Fascism. But there…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-coming-of-american-fascism-1920-1940/
The Ends of Arms Control
John Feffer | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
My first trip to Washington, DC to do something other than protest on the streets was to interview for a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship, which brings young people to the nation's capital to work on arms control and disarmament. It was 1987, around the time that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-ends-of-arms-control/
Making (and Raising) Babies in the USA
Ron Jacobs | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
In recent months, statements by two very different politicians regarding the act of bearing and raising children have caused a fair amount of controversy. The first comment was from Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who remarked that many people in her generation were hesitant to bring children into a world facing possible climate catastrophe. Her comment was…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/making-and-raising-babies-in-the-usa/
The Secret Campaign for 2020: Where the Democratic Candidates Stand on Foreign Policy
Ted Rall | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Americans vote their pocketbooks. It's the economy, stupid. Absent a war or recent terrorist attack, conventional wisdom believes that voters prioritize domestic issues. Right now, conventional wisdom is correct. According to the latest Pew Research poll, the five most important issues for Democrats are healthcare, education, Medicare, poverty and the environment. So it's not surprising that the major Democratic…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-secret-campaign-for-2020-where-the-democratic-candidates-stand-on-foreign-policy/
A Border Crisis of Our Own Making
Jean Stokan | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
For more than 30 years, I've led faith-focused delegations to Central America — and since 2016, to U.S.-Mexico border communities. We've taken nuns, bishops, rabbis, and grassroots congregants to learn about realities rarely covered in the news. This April our delegation visited El Paso, Brownsville, and McAllen, Texas, as well as Juarez and Matamoras, Mexico.
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/a-border-crisis-of-our-own-making/
The Pentagon, Brussels and London Have Georgia on Their Minds
Brian Cloughley | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
The British Defense Secretary, Gavin Williamson, was fired on May 1 to a chorus of derisive approval for leaking the contents of discussions at a meeting of the UK's National Security Council. There can be no surprise that he leaked, because every politician does that; but there was moderate surprise that he should have been pursued…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-pentagon-brussels-and-london-have-georgia-on-their-minds/
The Last Kentucky Derby
Lee Hall | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
This Saturday, May 4th, is Derby Day in Louisville. Twenty-two horses will be forced to race so that a record purse of $3 million may change hands. None of that money will go to preserve the habitat of untamed horses. Most betters never learn what a horse in natural habitat looks like. Nor will a…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/the-last-kentucky-derby/
Environmental Crisis, Oil Geopolitics and the Trump Diversion
Rob Urie | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
America in 2019 is a very strange place. The problems of the age: looming environmental calamity, the threat of nuclear annihilation and accumulating class tensions, keep being shoved to the side through diversionary tactics. No sooner had a range of left programs been consolidated under the banner of a Green New Deal than establishment Democrats…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/environmental-crisis-oil-geopolitics-and-the-trump-diversion/
Predator Cops, Guilty of Sex Crimes Against Women and Children, Are a Menace to Society
John W. Whitehead | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
"Sexual predation by police officers happens far more often than people in the business are willing to admit." –Former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper How could this be happening right under our noses? That's what readers wanted to know after my column went viral about the extent to which young children are being bought and…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/predator-cops-guilty-of-sex-crimes-against-women-and-children-are-a-menace-to-society/
What Past Civil Wars Tell Us About the Future of Syria
Robert Fisk | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
When Syrian government soldiers first recaptured the small village of Deir Hafar from Isis in 2017, they found the black-painted but hurriedly abandoned Islamic "court" strewn with piles of documents. These hundreds of pages contained terrible proof of how the Syrian civilians there had behaved under at least three years of Isis occupation. I arrived in…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/what-past-civil-wars-tell-us-about-the-future-of-syria/
Dare to Know: the Paradox of Greek History
Evaggelos Vallianatos | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Growing up in the 1940s in a Greek village was neither a baptism in Greek culture nor an indoctrination to nationalism. This was because "modern" Greece has been going through the suffering of centuries of foreign occupation and official neglect and often ignorance about the country's unrivalled ancient civilization. Greek history was interrupted by barbarian…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/dare-to-know-the-paradox-of-greek-history/
Trump vs. Congress and Our Constitution
Ralph Nader | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Donald Trump is the most impeachable president in American history. Many Democrats, however, are running away from the word "impeachment" for tactical political reasons. Some Democrats say they have a sworn duty under the Constitution to present articles of impeachment for a vote in the House of Representatives, regardless of the refusal by the Republican…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/trump-vs-congress-and-our-constitution/
Is 5G Worth the Risks?
Iishana Artra | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
In recent months there's been a lot of talk about 5G — the next generation of wireless technology. 5G is being touted as a necessary step to the 'internet of things' — a world in which our refrigerators alert us when we're low on milk, our baby's diapers tell us when they need to be…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/is-5g-worth-the-risks/
To Be Hopeful in Bad Times
Kenn Orphan | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/to-be-hopeful-in-bad-times/
Lou Reed: That Which Does Not Kill Us Can Radicalize Us
Bruce E. Levine | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
While not as well-known as "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Perfect Day," and not one of the classics he wrote for the Velvet Underground (such as "Heroin" and "I'll Be Your Mirror"), Lou Reed's "Kill Your Sons," about his electroconvulsive "therapy" (ECT) as a 17-year-old, gives voice to an event that majorly radicalized him…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/lou-reed-that-which-does-not-kill-us-can-radicalize-us/
Someone Tell Krugman: We Don't Even Have a Paper Democracy
Paul Street | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
I am as horrified as Paul Krugman at the authoritarian threat posed by Donald Trump and his supporters, but in different ways, with a different understanding. Listen to Krugman's following dialogue with Anderson Cooper on CNN last week: Cooper:…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/someone-tell-krugman-we-dont-even-have-a-paper-democracy/
Elections in Spain: Regime Maintenance Disguised as Democratic Vitality and the Possibility of Change
Thomas S. Harrington | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
In last Sunday's Spanish elections, Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) considerably expanded its presence in the country's Parliament, while the Popular Party (PP), which for more than two decades has quite purposefully and successfully driven the country's arena of "thinkable thought" toward the hard right, had its poorest electoral showing in years. The other big…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/elections-in-spain-regime-maintenance-disguised-as-democratic-vitality-and-the-possibility-of-change/
Black Women Political Prisoners of the Police State
Linda G. Ford | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
The Rev. Joy Powell says she was "raped, railroaded and bamboozled" by police. Her crime? Being a poor black woman who faced off against the police–protesting their violent brutality against black people in Rochester, NY. Once she defied them, she was warned, then targeted and framed for serious crimes. A few weeks ago, Australian Julian…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/black-women-political-prisoners-of-the-police-state/
Sri Lanka, ISIL and Religious Tribalism
Gary Leupp | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Sri Lanka has been a primarily Buddhist land since King Ashoka's son Mahinda preached there in the third century BCE. At present 70% of the population is Buddhist, 13% Hindu, 10% Muslim and 7% Christian. (Surely there are secular people, atheists, Marxists, etc. but these are historical communities and identities.) It has been a site…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/sri-lanka-isil-and-religious-tribalism/
Roaming Charges: Biden in Plain Sight
Jeffrey St. Clair | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Joe Biden will never again be more popular than he was the day before he entered the presidential race. Still his residual appeal, a misbegotten nostalgia for the Obama years, vaulted Biden 20 points ahead of his nearest Democratic Party rivals in a Quinnipiac poll taken a few days after Biden's announcement (in a creepy video) and his first campaign gigs, where, despite decades of service in the legislative ranks of Wall Street, he cunningly wrapped himself in the union label.
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/roaming-charges-biden-in-plain-sight/
Of Autocrats and Uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa
Rebecca Gordon | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
"Al-Shebab," said my student Jerry early in the fall 2010 semester. "We're calling our small group al-Shebab. It means 'The Youth.'" From his name alone, I wouldn't have guessed his background, but he was proud of his family's Egyptian roots and had convinced his classmates to give their group an Arabic name. As usually happens…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/of-autocrats-and-uprisings-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/
Big Corporations Pay No Income Tax, Unlike You
Pete Dolack | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Telling you that Donald Trump lied, or that the one percent continue to succeed in their incessant class warfare, ranks in the astonishment department with being told the Sun rose in the east this morning. Do we really need more evidence? Necessary or not, more evidence continues to be delivered. The latest delivery comes courtesy…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/big-corporations-pay-no-income-tax-unlike-you/
Pelosi's Trump Problem and Ours
Andrew Levine | counterpunch.org | 2019-05-03
Part One Since long before Donald Trump oozed out from the New York tabloids and Atlantic City casinos into the mainstream of American politics, the United States has had no genuine center left political party. What it has had instead is a feckless Democratic Party that is as much a capitalist tool (apologies to Forbes…
counterpunch.org/2019/05/03/pelosis-trump-problem-and-ours/
Austria's Far-Right Government Wants to Hobble Critical Media
Jordan Stancil | thenation.com | 2019-05-03
Austria's Far-Right Government Wants to Hobble Critical Media…
thenation.com/article/austria-far-right-media/
German government backs attempted right-wing coup in Venezuela
wsws.org | 2019-05-03
In a joint press release with the far-right Brazilian government, the German Foreign Ministry gave its unconditional backing to the criminal attempted coup in Venezuela.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/05/03/maas-m03.html
'Dystopian approach': SEC gives blessing to MasterCard's idea of cutting off right-wingers
rt.com | 2019-05-03
Blocking payments to individuals or groups by financial service firms impedes freedom of speech in a free society, journalist Ben Swann has told RT, following reports that MasterCard is allegedly on course to censor the far-right. | …
rt.com/usa/458267-mastercard-human-rights-censorship/
Anti-War Voices on Both Sides Warn of Coming CIA Provocation to Kill Guaidó, Blame Maduro
Whitney Webb | mintpressnews.com | 2019-05-03
With Guaidó rapidly losing momentum and credibility after Tuesday's failed coup, López and his U.S. backers may turn on their own if they think it will benefit or energize their cause or if it could be used to set the stage for foreign military intervention.
mintpressnews.com/anti-war-voices-warn-of-cia-provocation-to-kill-guaido-blame-maduro/258178/
MintCast Episode 2: Failed Coup in Venezuela, Forgotten US Atrocities in the Koreas, and Joe Biden's Race Problem
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2019-05-03
MintCast co-hosts Alan MacLeod and Whitney Webb discuss current events in Sri Lanka, France and Venezuela and also delve into U.S. efforts to hide the real history of the Korean War, as well as Joe Biden's history of teaming up with notorious American racists.
mintpressnews.com/mintcast-episode-2-failed-coup-venezuela-forgotten-us-atrocities-koreas-joe-bidens-race-problem/258154/
Trump's "Troika of Tyranny" Meddles in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-05-03
Under the guise of protecting human rights, the Trump administration is illegally meddling in three countries it has dubbed the "troika of tyranny" — Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed, "Miami is home to countless Americans, who fled the prisons and death squads of the Castro regime in Cuba, the murderous dictatorships of Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela, and the horrific violence of the 1980s and today und…
truthout.org/articles/trumps-troika-of-tyranny-meddles-in-venezuela-cuba-nicaragua/