Associated Press on Monday revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) “secretly obtained two months of telephone records of [its] reporters and editors”, denouncing it as a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into the news gathering process. In a letter sent yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder, AP’s President, Gary Pruitt, detailed that the …
Murder is our national sport. We murder tens of thousands with our industrial killing machines in Afghanistan and Iraq. We murder thousands more from the skies over Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen with our pilotless drones. We murder each other with reckless abandon. And, as if we were not drenched in …
Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker calls poverty America’s “new growth industry.” The state of today’s America is deplorable. In his latest May 3 analysis, economist John Williams said “April “employment and unemployment data were nonsense: the economy remains in serious trouble.” About 23% of Americans wanting work can’t find it. …
The perversity of the modern conservative mind is displayed in two studies published last week. Those studies illustrate the extent to which the right wing has become the ideological sock puppet of Big Oil and the GOP’s army of right wing Christian fundamentalists oil industry foot soldiers. A peer reviewed …
The deadly influenza virus H7N9 was first detected in China this March. “When we look at influenza viruses, this is an unusually dangerous virus for humans,” said Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) assistant director-general for health security. The new H7N9 avian influenza has infected more than 120 Chinese and taken …
Astana, Kazakhstan: Most people wouldn’t bother going half way around the world for their fifteen seconds of fame. Ok, so maybe there was little fame to be found but, it was still worthwhile to spend two days flying back and forth to attend the two-day annual Eurasian Media Forum in …
Fiscal and Monetary policies since the financial crisis and the protracted recession that began in 2008 have failed to generate a sustained recovery of the U.S. economy—except for big banks, big corporations, investors and speculators, and the wealthiest 10 percent households. All have benefited significantly from record profits growth and …
What’s ongoing resembles post-9/11 events. Fear-mongering, lies and misinformation replace truth and full disclosure. Muslims became public enemy number one. Who’ll suffer most with them this time? Vital information is suppressed. Fingers point the wrong way. Innocent victims are blamed for state-sponsored terror. More on that below. National emotions are …
I started writing on Patriots day in Massachusetts, the State holiday commemorating America’s revolutionary war in one of the cities in which it began. It was also the anniversary of the Waco FBI massacre aimed at right-wing fanatics and the demolition of the Murrah federal office building in Oklahoma City …
By Dr. Jack Rasmus Copyright 2013 Obama’s bargaining strategy and tactics with regard to deficit cutting over the past three years have proven to be an unmitigated disaster. From the idea of seeking a ‘grand bargain’ with Teapublicans in the House of Representatives in May 2011, to the debt ceiling …
By Jack Rasmus Wednesday, April 17, 2013 It’s now been more than a week since the Cyprus banking crisis erupted, and patterns are beginning to appear for the Eurozone and greater global financial system that are of some interest. As predicted by this writer in a commentary on the Cyprus …
When it comes to sex- we talk about it. We argue about it. We read about it. We joke about it. We listen to music about it and we view sexually explicit movies and television programs. So with all of this “exposure” one might come to the erroneous conclusion that …
Most people yearn to have loving, healthy and successful relationships with family and friends. And for those who are looking for romantic love, the majority can tell you exactly what they want in a partner, line by line. However, unless we ourselves are emotionally, psychologically and psychiatrically healthy, we …
There is a new psychiatric illness in this country that has yet to be included in the DSM IV- the psychiatric Bible of mental health practitioners. I have coined the term ‘plastic surgery obsessive-compulsive disorder’ as the newest psychiatric diagnostic category. People who are afflicted with this illness have …
Most of us would rather read a good mystery or thriller instead of a research study. So, let me report the latest verdict on the state of marriage counseling. According to the latest studies it is a complete waste of time, money and energy! Yet, based on my professional experience over the past …