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Diego Garcia Smells Like War

Diego Garcia Smells Like War

A significant amount of US military power has been on the move over this past week, including several B-2 strategic bombers which have landed at the US military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean just over 2,000 miles southeast of Iran. According to press reports this is the most significant B-2 presence on the Island in nearly half a decade. In addition flight trackers are showing increased activity by at least nine KC-135R refueling aircraft in the region. Several C-17 cargo planes...

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Some New Tales from the Darkside

Some New Tales from the Darkside

The news cycle over the past week has been dominated by reports and analysis of the Signal group chat involving top national security officials discussing aspects of the recent air strikes which have been directed against the Houthis in Yemen. There are four basic issues that are being examined by both the media and by elected and appointed government officials. First is the apparent ignorance of ordering the strike at all since the panel appeared not to know very much about the target or why...

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Who Gives Two Hoots About the Houthis!

Who Gives Two Hoots About the Houthis!

Yesterday we noted that the ascension to NATO of the Balkan Five (Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania) and the Baltic Three (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) amounts to some kind of bad joke. Their combined active military forces total just 66,000 servicemen, which is exactly equal to the combined 66,000 man police forces of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Likewise, their combined defense budgets are $8 billion annually or about the level of...

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Making Our Rights Disappear: The Authoritarian War on Due Process

Making Our Rights Disappear: The Authoritarian War on Due Process

“If Trump can disappear them, he can disappear you.”—Robert Reich The war on due process is here. No trials. No hearings. No rights. Just indefinite detention and secret deportations. This is the fate that awaits every one of us, not just immigrants (legal or otherwise), if the government’s war on the Constitution remains unchecked. More than two decades after the U.S. government in its post-9/11 frenzy transported individuals, some of whom had not been charged let alone convicted of a...

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A Brief History of the Freedom of Speech

A Brief History of the Freedom of Speech

“I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”-- Voltaire (1694-1778) When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he included in it a list of the colonists’ grievances with the British government. Notably absent were any complaints about infringement upon speech. In those days, speech was as acerbic as it is today. If words were aimed at Parliament, all words were lawful. If they were aimed directly and personally at the king -- as...

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The High Price of War with Iran: $10 Gas and the Collapse of the US Economy

The High Price of War with Iran: $10 Gas and the Collapse of the US Economy

Israel is currently in turmoil, marked by widespread protests demanding Netanyahu's resignation. Critics accuse him of prolonging war for political gain, while his dismissal of top security officials and ongoing attacks on the judiciary have further intensified the unrest. Meanwhile, Washington DC’s drumbeat for war never stops. It’s always at the expense of a decent and secure standard of living for people in this country and abroad. The Trump Administration, after the series of heady...

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It Wasn’t a Leak, It was a Devious ‘Charlie Foxtrot’

It Wasn’t a Leak, It was a Devious ‘Charlie Foxtrot’

Charlie Foxtrot is a polite euphemism for a crude military term — Clusterfu*k. That describes the first scandal of the Trump Administration. Somehow, whether deliberate or accidentally, a Zionist journalist by the name of Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal chat by Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz, or by someone who worked for Waltz. Goldberg suddenly found himself part of a group chat of Trump’s top defense, diplomatic and intelligence officials. The...

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Trump and Putin Begin Addressing Cumulated Geo-strategic Debris… Amidst Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran

Trump and Putin Begin Addressing Cumulated Geo-strategic Debris… Amidst Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran

The phone call on 18 March between Presidents Trump and Putin has happened. It was a success, insofar as it allowed both sides to label the result as “positive.” And it did not lead to a breakdown (by virtue of the smallest of concessions from Putin – an energy infrastructure truce) – something easily it could have done (i.e. devolve into impasse – with Trump excoriating Putin, as he has done to Zelensky), given the fantastical and unrealistic expectations being woven in the West that this...

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Scorch Marks in the Sand

Scorch Marks in the Sand

Javelin, Stinger, M-777 howitzer, HIMARS, Excalibur, Switchblade, all manner of electronic warfare gizmos and counter-battery radars, Bradley IFVs, Stryker, Leopard, Challenger, Abrams, Patriot, JDAMs, HARMS, Storm Shadow, ATACMS ... I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Oh, yeah … remember in early 2022 when the unveiling of the Bayraktar strike drones was hailed with great fanfare? They were predicted to be the bane of the Russian army. Instead, it was a major embarrassment for the Turks. Javelin,...

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Shut Down the Department of Education!

Shut Down the Department of Education!

President Trump’s executive order from last week titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” could help bring about a major step toward restoring constitutional government and improving education. The executive order directs that the secretary of education, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local...

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Does the US military even know why it’s bombing Yemen?

Does the US military even know why it’s bombing Yemen?

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Fox News last weekend that the U.S. military had launched operations against the Houthis in Yemen because "ships haven't been able to go through for over a year without being shot at." He then said that in December-ish (not giving a specific date) that "we sent a ship through, it was shot at 17 times." Military sources who spoke to Military.com are puzzled because there were two attacks they know of in December against a merchant vessel and U.S....

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Voice of America Has No Place in a Free Society

Voice of America Has No Place in a Free Society

Statists are up in arms over President Trump’s decision to terminate the Voice of America and other U.S. government propaganda outlets that fall under the control of a federal entity called the U.S. Agency for Global Media. USAGM also encompasses Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Martí. Statists are saying that these propaganda outlets have long been great promoters of freedom. Harkening back to World War II, they say that Voice of...

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‘Independent’ anti-Russia outlet Meduza faces collapse after US funding slashed

‘Independent’ anti-Russia outlet Meduza faces collapse after US funding slashed

Alexey Kovalev, a self-described “Russian journalist currently living in exile for fear of persecution back home,” had spent much of his career at Meduza, the leading opposition media outlet in Russia. Since leaving the paper under mysterious circumstances in the summer of 2023 and relocating to London, Kovalev has split time writing commentaries for Foreign Policy and attacking reporters at The Grayzone, whom he has falsely painted as Russian assets, while calling for their...

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Perilous Times for Personal Liberty

Perilous Times for Personal Liberty

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.”-- Rev. Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) The history of human freedom is long, tortuous, and not gratifying. It consists essentially in governments trampling the...

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Putin Gives Trump a Meaningless Concession, But Sticks to June 2024 Position

Putin Gives Trump a Meaningless Concession, But Sticks to June 2024 Position

The much anticipated phone conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin took place on Tuesday, as expected. There was quite a bit of propaganda flack flying about prior to the call… for example, the Ukrainians told the NY Times that Trump was going to concede Russia’s right to control Odessa. It was also rumored that Putin might relinquish control of the Zaporhyzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). That didn’t happen. The White House account of the meeting emphasized that Trump...

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Using Medicalization to Suppress the Exercise of First Amendment Rights

Using Medicalization to Suppress the Exercise of First Amendment Rights

A repugnant tactic of authoritarianism is categorizing people’s desire for or exercise of freedom as illness that government should suppress. An example of this was the deeming of dissidents in the Soviet Union as mentally ill to justify their detention and punishment. In America, there has long been resistance against an effort to similarly have the United States government medicalize the exercise of gun rights as a means to circumvent the constitutional protection of the right to bear arms...

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