Whose Children?
Is the government on the side of parents?
Latest articles
Moral Advance vs. Moral Retreat: Mexico and the U.S.
As President Trump refuses any federal role in delivering health care to the American people (we’ve got endless wars to pay for) Mexico remains on course to deliver a system of universal health care as a matter of right by 2030.
On May 7, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum (image left) pointed out an important difference between the two countries that helps account for the ironic discrepancy: “The United States values material things; Mexico its indigenous peoples.” The occasion was Sheinbaum’s visit to the indigenous Seri community in Sonora to officially open an …
Culmination
“Fly like an eagle, and run without tiring,” the chieftain said to Becky years ago.
Back then he was the youngest head of the tribe anyone could remember. An upright, energetic man he also became an ordained minister, bought the general store, then the two-pump gas station on Oak Street.
A few things have changed since then, most have not.
*****
Becky comes in the store to buy rice, bread flour, and milk. The shelves are almost picked clean. There are only two dented cans of tomato paste and a row of imported dreamcatchers hanging beside the register in plastic sleeves.
The neon …
Senate Adopts War Powers Act with GOP Support
Late in the afternoon as attention was focused on whether Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) would retain his House seat in Kentucky, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) offered SJ Res. 185 to the Senate floor for the eighth vote to require the 1973 Vote Powers Act.
The Resolution passed on a 50-47 vote with four Republicans voting in favor of War Powers while three GOP Senators did not cast their vote. The four Republicans were Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
A two-term incumbent, Cassidy had just been resoundingly defeated …
Rhetoric for Whom? Not for Palestine: Calling Out the Rhetoric Society of America
As scholars, teachers, administrators, and students in rhetoric and composition, an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that studies the power of language, discourse, and communication, we head to Portland, Oregon, this week to attend the biennial conference of the national professional academic association, the Rhetoric Society of America. I am thinking of the Rhetoric Society of America’s abysmal failures on Palestine.
Aghast and breaking at the unimaginable horrors being inflicted by Israel and the US on the occupied peoples and lands of Palestine that we were witnessing, over a hundred scholars, teachers, administrators, and students in the field of rhetoric …
Media Myopia As We Hurtle Towards Climate Oblivion
Any aliens who have been monitoring radio and television transmissions streaming outwards into space from Planet Earth over the past few decades will likely be intrigued, bemused, or simply horrified at humanity’s headlong drive towards climate catastrophe. No matter the urgent warnings from climate scientists, the power of billionaires, financial speculators, and corporations maintains a death-like grip on governments around the world. Amid the occasional flurry of big business greenwashing and government rhetoric about ‘climate protection’ and ‘eco-friendly’ initiatives, billions of people are being held hostage by the forces that are …
Mirrors of Greed: Elon Musk, OpenAI and the Tech Brat Battle
They are a disagreeable bunch, with disagreeable ideas to match. The querulous brats behind the drive for technological servility and plugged-in stupidity were always going to scrap over which dystopian vision they most prefer. Elon Musk thought he was onto something, hounding OpenAI and its current CEO, Sam Altman, for supposedly betraying one of those visions. In his $150 billion legal action, Musk alleged that Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman deceived him into investing in the company in its initial stages when salad green altruism was modish, and humanity mattered. The litigation was a prong in a broader …
Fallout from the (One-sided) Goon Show in Beijing
Now that the glaring face-to-face dissimilarities between the governments of the two most powerful nations on Earth have been fully exposed to the world on TV, we must prepare ourselves as best we can for what is to come.
Lives and economies depend on President Trump’s reactions to perceptions of how he and his ‘goontourage’ (‘goons’ in every sense of the word) performed and were received in Beijing.
We all know how difficult it is to predict what President Trump will do or say next. But, as with others, in this case, the general tenor of his response is bound to be …
Caitlin Taylor: Building a ‘Legible’ Food System
Caitlin Taylor believes that a sustainable food system needs “legible” infrastructure, which is why she proposes—not entirely in jest—building slaughterhouses next to farmers’ markets.
Architects and engineers usually strive to make infrastructure invisible—so functional and reliable that we forget about the countless systems that undergird modern life. We turn on a faucet without wondering where the water comes from and flush toilets without thinking about waste-treatment plants.
Most people probably prefer invisible infrastructure for beef production and poultry processing, but Taylor believes that the legibility of infrastructure—making systems visible and understandable—is crucial for justice and sustainability in food production.
“There is a …
Governments Love Secrecy, But the World’s Major Problems Are Not Secret
I’ve been reading Truth and Consequence: Reflections on Catastrophe, Civil Resistance, and Hope. It’s a collection of things Daniel Ellsberg wrote and didn’t publish. I come to it having read what he did publish, having spoken with him about some of it, having debated him — publicly and privately — on some of it, and generally and extremely admiring what he had to …
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
May Day is the most important public celebration in Cuba. This year, which marked the 100th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s birth, carried special significance in light of heightened US aggression. Over 5 million Cubans reportedly mobilized island-wide under the slogan “la patria se defiende” (the homeland must be defended). The largest demonstration took place in Havana in front of the US embassy.
The symbolism of International Workers’ Day was not lost on the White House. President Trump chose that day, May 1, to impose yet more sanctions on top of the already draconian illegal measures …
Taiwanese Frost at the China-US Summit Meeting
The tête-à-tête between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump was underwhelming. But that was not unexpected.
The White House readout began, “President Trump had a good meeting with President Xi of China.”
The readout from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs began, “President Xi noted that President Trump’s visit has been a historic and landmark one.”
Specific to the briefings by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on the China-U.S. Summit and Common Understandings was a matter most crucial to China: the status of the province of Taiwan as a part …
Europe Chooses Israeli Crimes over Original Peacemaking
Boycott it!
Eurovision once symbolised a Europe committed to peace, dialogue, and cultural exchange. It was not born as a glitter show. It was created in 1956 as a deliberate peace‑building project — a cultural instrument to rebuild trust in a Europe shattered by war.
EBU, the European Broadcasting Union own historical summaries describe Eurovision idea as:
“a symbol of European unity after the war”
“a cultural bridge between countries that had recently been enemies”
“a peace‑building experiment using television technology”
Academic research confirms this: Eurovision was an early experiment in reconciliation, …
Was China’s Greeting by the Beijing School Girls a Response to Trump’s “Minab Massacre”?
Given President Donald Trump’s expectations for a successful high stakes meeting on trade, AI and rare earth minerals during his first bilateral summit to China in nine years, he was accompanied by more than a dozen of the purportedly world’s greatest businessmen/women.
Prior to departure for China, President Trump had said that “Xi Jinping will NOT touch Taiwan while he’s in the White House” while just ahead of liftoff, a bipartisan group of Senators forwarded a letter to the President.
The letter suggested they had unrealistically high expectations for the President to …
Pricing, Problems, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup
The Great Fleecing Tournament
When dealing with the disorganised criminal outfit that is FIFA (the mafia comparison only goes so far), the titan governing body of world football, subpar service and offerings promise to feature. As gulled fans, corporate clients, media hacks and political worthies seek their place at the Men’s FIFA World Cup being held in the US, Mexico and Canada this June, the feeling of being burgled should not be far from their minds. A great tournament of fleecing is in the offing.
Take, firstly, the risks for those seeking to enter the United States to see the matches. Last month, over …
Self-Enslavement
Who is the user and the used of technology?
If You Don’t Use It, or Read It, You Shall Lose It: Press Freedom DAY
Surprisingly, this piece on World Press Freedom Day (a goddamned day?!@#?) ran in the local rag, now a weekly. The editor just continues to run my stuff, and I do get a few accolades, but again, “Why the hell don’t you just leave us alone …. Just leave this country you despise so much …. Don’t you have anything positive to write about?”
And, interestingly, there is a large population of college-educated folk in Newport and environs, andf an affirmed LGBTQA community. And a larger-than-national ratio of Jews living here. …
Trump Understands Nothing of China’s Culture
The Chinese have all the cards and the time, too
Go to this Fox News page and scroll the whole way down: President Donald Trump tells the world that his meeting with President Xi Jinping yielded a lot of very concrete political and economic results – of course, only where the Chinese side, according to him, agreed with him.
He does not mention the Taiwan issue, but Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says that it did not feature prominently in their talks and that the US policy on Taiwan has not changed.
Then go to …
Intent: The Road to Genocide
Use this interactive platform, created in partnership with Law for Palestine, to show the relationship between statements of genocidal intent by Israeli leaders and the conduct of the Israeli military in Gaza through four thematic chapters: civilian harm, starvation, destruction of infrastructure, and forced displacement. Under international law, the crime of genocide requires both intent to destroy a group, in whole or in part, and the actual execution of one or more genocidal acts. Israeli leaders have made — and …
Canada’s Denial of the Nakba During a Genocide
Friday, 15 May, marked 78 years since the Nakba (the Catastrophe) – the forced uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands in 1948. More than 70 massacres were committed, approximately 15,000 people were killed, and over 500 villages were depopulated and destroyed.
My father prepared a small bag where we put some basic stuff, believing that we would return after a few days. I took my school bag and my ball. We left everything else behind — our land, our home, our money and our dreams. We even left ourselves …
Kenyan Government Offers Red Carpet for Colonizers and a Bloody Nose for Anti-Imperialists
The Kenyan state has demonstrated a consistent and brutal willingness to deploy state terror against organized political dissent, targeting revolutionary leaders, working-class organizers, and anti-colonial voices with impunity. Past cases have laid bare the state’s methods: the violent abduction, torture, and illegal detention of Comrade Booker Ngesa Omole, Secretary General of the Communist Party Marxist Kenya, followed by the grotesque inversion of reality in which the victim of state torture was framed with fabricated assault charges. Today, as French President Emmanuel Macron co-hosts the France Africa Summit, rebranded as “Africa Forward 2026” in Nairobi with President William Ruto—announcing €23 billion …
Where Will Pashinyan Take Armenia in Case of Victory?
In a month, on June 7, 2026, parliamentary elections will be held in Armenia. The main struggle is expected to break out between Nikol Pashinyan, the leader of the Civil Contract Party, and the consolidated opposition forces. The race for power will be fierce and the Prime Minister’s party is unlikely to secure an absolute majority in Parliament.
This is the result of Pashinyan’s erratic rhetoric, the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, permanent unilateral concessions to Azerbaijan, attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as his breach of promises …
As Israel’s Use of the Rape Weapon Is Revealed, Media Tries to Frantically Cover It up
It’s tough to even write about the barbaric savagery of Israel — not just because the research seems to destroy your own humanity but also because it seems like the truth couldn’t possibly be the truth. No government could be this horrific. No military could be this repulsive. And yet they are.
Recently, the facts have begun coming to light about Israel’s use of systematic rape and sexual assault as a weapon. Even the normally pro-Israel, pro-genocide New York Times put out …
US-Israel Attacks on Ancient Christian Religious Artifacts
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that US-Israel’s conflicts are widespread and continuous throughout the Middle East as they have now initiated an unprovoked attack against Iran.
The reality of Israel’s antagonism can be found in its Greater Israel Plan which covets fragmenting Iran into multiple subdivisions as well as destruction of those Middle East states and neighbors which were once constituted as the Holy Lands: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and including significant parts of Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Israel’s war in Lebanon and the West Bank is assuming the similarities of Gaza’s genocide with the …
The United Arab Emirates Leaves OPEC
Exiting the Oil Cartel
Cartel members are not always a congenial bunch. Relations can get frosty and brittle over time. With the United Arab Emirates, membership of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has not been without its troubles, not helped by the increasingly snarky relationship it shares with the group’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia. To be part of such a group entails mindful restraint, an understanding about production targets and a curbing of individual initiative. The statute of the group states its goal: to “devise ways and means of ensuring the stabilisation of prices in international oil markets …
Remembering Their Names
May 15, marks the 78th anniversary of the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in 1948. This year’s commemoration comes amid the shadow of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, record settlement development in the West Bank, and the expansion of its military attacks into Lebanon and Iran, deepening a crisis that continues to devastate Palestinian and regional communities. The Nakba is not only a historical event, but an ongoing reality of displacement, dispossession, siege, and violence that persists across generations.
Why the World Needs China to Save More, Not Less
The G7 economists’ memo from March and the IMF’s April report on global imbalances arrived at the same prescription: China’s current account surplus is excessive and should be cut by boosting consumption.
The diagnosis is wrong. The world economy, especially emerging markets and developing economies, benefits from China’s high saving.
A current account surplus is the excess of national saving over domestic investment. The saving is not lost; it is exported abroad in the form of net capital outflows, with an equivalent increase of China’s financial claims on the rest of the world.
These claims add to …
The Abundance Paradigm
Why AI Forces a Rethinking of Mony Itself: Part 1
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) has long been proposed as a way to cushion the blow of jobs lost to automation. Under that model, everyone receives a modest monthly payment – enough to cover basic needs and prevent extreme poverty.
But Elon Musk has gone further. On April 16, he posted on X:
Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.
AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money
supply, so there will not be inflation.
Rather than a subsistence stipend, Universal High …
Eight Pivotal Facts about Covid-Period Excess Mortality
Summary
Eight pivotal facts about Covid-period (2020-2025) excess mortality are described:
Fact #1: The scale of excess all-cause mortality during the Covid period was 0.13 % of population per year
Fact #2: The Covid-period excess mortality was not caused by a spreading respiratory pathogen
Fact #3: Most Covid-period excess mortality in young adults and the youth is not assigned to respiratory conditions (COVID-19)
Fact #4: Excess mortality during the Covid period was highly heterogeneous, tied to imposed measures and medical protocols in specific jurisdictions and locations and in specific population groups
Fact #5: The …