As Israel celebrates seven decades and prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East, the reality in Gaza undercuts that self-image and instead testifies that Israel is a state that is both racist and violent. GAZA — As the U.S., U.K. and France bomb Syria, claiming to support its people but in reality adding misery to a country that has had more than its fair share of violence, the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is almost completely ignored by the international community. This is because the perpetrator of this seven-decade-long disaster is Apartheid Israel. Continue reading

APRIL 10, 2018 — The pending military intervention into Syria by the United States represents yet another case of unilateral illegality that continues the systematic assault on international law and morality that has characterized U.S. foreign policies since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when the United States found itself without any countervailing global power. The result for the people of the world has been unending military conflicts, destabilization and the destruction of whole nations. Continue reading

When I was in ninth grade, we learned in social studies that the Athabaskan tar sands in Alberta, Canada were a source of future resource wealth. Flash forward to 2018 and the tar sands oil has morphed into the Keystone XL pipeline issue. New technologies for extracting oil—shale oil extraction and fracking—are even more harmful to the environment than traditional oil wells, whether in the ocean or on the lands of Texas or New Mexico. We are living through a time when the effects of climate change increasingly affect our daily lives. Climate change does not just mean global warming. It means all kinds of extremes, extreme drought, extreme hurricanes, extreme flooding, extreme sustained cold temperatures. It means unusual winters of very cold or too much “above average.” It means more Harveys, Irmas, Marías are in store. Continue reading

Today memorializes the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King's death was undoubtedly one of the most horrific crimes of the century. 50 years later, while reflecting on his life, we must ask ourselves where are we in reference to what he stood and fought for? Examining many areas that Dr. King battled, we can first look at poverty issues. In 1968, only 10% of whites lived in poverty while almost 34%, if not more of blacks were also devastated. Before he died he began organizing a Poor People's Campaign to dramatize the plight of poor folks in America and to signify that as a collective voice they demanded change and action. Continue reading

APRIL 2, 2018 — A reported 17,000 Palestinians peacefully marched in Gaza on March 30 as they made their historic demand for a right to return to their ancestral lands when they were met by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) snipers who opened fire, killing 17 people and wounding about 1,500. The Great Return March was the beginning of a six-week long protest that was due to end May 15, the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) marking the day 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by the new state of Israel in 1947. Continue reading

Momentum toward war is escalating dangerously with new additions to the Trump war cabinet, John Bolton as national security adviser and Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. Bolton is a war criminal for supporting torture and lying to justify the Iraq war. He and Pompeo oppose the Iran nuclear deal. Pompeo is an aggressive war hawk who would rather seek regime change in North Korea than de-nuclearization. There is a bi-partisan march to militarization. After the Pentagon requested a record amount of spending on war, Congress almost unanimously added tens of billions to the military budget, which is now 57% of US discretionary spending. ‘Russiagate’ continues to foment hatred at Russia and President Putin, and the recent use of a nerve agent to kill a Russian émigré and his daughter in England are leading to talk of greater conflict with Russia. Continue reading