Racial Nightmare

It has been more than 30 years since a rape and attempted murder occurred in New York City that became known as the Central Park Jogger case. The crime itself was indescribably vicious; the miscarriage of justice that followed—with five African American and Latino boys who became known as the Central Park Five framed for the crime and sent to prison—remains a blight on the criminal justice system. The five boys spent years behind bars, losing their youth in the process. Eventually, their convictions were vacated after the actual perpetrator confessed in jail. His confession was supported by irrefutable DNA evidence. When the teens were first arrested, Donald Trump, then a New York real estate developer, actively campaigned for the death penalty for the young defendants, taking out full-page ads in all of New York City’s major newspapers. To this day, ignoring all evidence, President Trump maintains that they are guilty.--AG and DM

I watched this earlier in the week.  It is, as the authors of this piece say, essential viewing. A liberal use of Trump's racism fits nicely into the narrative, and excellent acting by the young cast is inspiring.


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A Return from Holiday

I've been on holiday.  I visited most of the other planets in our solar system and some far away beyond your imagination. Anyway, I'm back now, no wiser, but perhaps healthier. Like any cheap political philosopher in memory, I failed to glean much from the lies humanoids tell each other. Next year I think I'll go to Spain and call it good.


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Killer Mike (Reagan)

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Life During War Time

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A Day in the Life

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Maddie Scherr

The women's team at Oregon has the best class in the nation coming in next year, including a 5' 11" wing player who has Sabrina-like mad skills.

The Lady Ducks made it to the Final Four this year.  With the No. 1 2020 recruiting class coming together like it is, something is definitely cooking in Eugene.

Check it out.


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The Doomsday Machine

By 1969, as the war progressed under Richard Nixon, I saw such evil in government deceit that I asked myself, “What can I do to shorten a war that I know from an insider’s vantage point is going to continue and expand?” When the Pentagon Papers were released in 1971, the extent of government lies shocked the public. The retaliatory crimes Nixon committed against me out of fear that I would expose his own continuing threats—including nuclear threats—ultimately helped to bring him down and shorten the Vietnam War --DE

Up close with Daniel Ellsberg.


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The Talented Mr. Fish

In a nutshell.


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Sickening

The militarizing of empathy is repeatedly employed by mainstream media in their airing of heartstring-pulling stories of soldiers’ surprise homecomings. There are the soldiers dressed in disguises: like the father, after a year in Afghanistan, arriving home in a fire truck, decked out in firefighting gear and gas mask.  Kneeling before his two daughters, he took off his gas mask, and the surprised daughters cried out, “Daddy!,” and hugged him, “with tears of joy,” much to the delight of a gathered crowd.--Rev. WA.

All too true.

You can't even watch a damn sporting event these days without the militarization angle.  The over sized flag on the floor, the fatigues and medals flashing under the lights. The insistence on our "heroes" protecting us from some menace drawn up by Wall Street and the Pentagon. The bullshit piling up like the bodies of all the innocent in the foreign countries the U.S. thinks it is wise to invade and annihilate.

All in all, it's a sickening scene.


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U.S. Warlords

These are dangerous men with a dangerous agenda--Vijay Prashad


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Read Paul Street's Amazing Extravaganza Highlites!!

STEP Right Up! Step Right Up! It’s Uncle Sam’s Authoritarian Carnival, Featuring the Amazing American Quadrennial Electoral Extravaganza, the Greatest Show in the World!--PS

Read all about it!




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The Deaf, Dumb and Blind Dems

Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders are against impeachment, as are their media flacks.

They insist that the way to win the White House back in 2020 is to win Trump voters back, and that the way to do that is to veer as far to the right as the party can go without losing its base altogether.

They are surely right about the importance of winning back Trump voters – especially older, white men in de-industrializing and rural areas. But they are almost certainly wrong about how best to do it.--AL

Andrew Levine with his usual spot on analysis.

The Weekend Edition in full.


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The Agony of the Cree

The Cree have been under relentless assault since the arrival of the European colonialists in the 1500s. Now the 500 inhabitants of the Cree reserve, where many live in small, boxy prefabricated houses, are victims of a new iteration of colonial exploitation, one centered on the extraction of oil from the vast Alberta tar sands. This atrocity presages the destruction of the ecosystem on which they depend for life. If the Cree do not stop the exploiters this time, they, along with the exploiters, will die.--CH

The genocide continues.

Closer to my home, big news decades in the making.

Good lord we suck as a society!


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Dave Zirin Interview

For those who know and understand the issues in today's wide, wide world of sports, an interview with the disruptive Dave Zirin.







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Biden Redux

Big media will try like hell to put the guy in, but Joe Biden is who we thought he was.










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