Blog Archives

Jeffrey Sachs: The Untold History of the Cold War, CIA Coups Around the World, and COVID’s Origin

5/29/2024

Jeffrey D. Sachs
is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs is the President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is the author of many best selling books, including The End of Poverty and The Ages of Globalization. Here he is with probably the smartest and most accurate assessment of the Ukraine war, and American foreign policy more broadly, ever caught on tape.

The interview begins at 9:49 minutes into the live stream.

0 Comments

For George on Memorial Day

5/27/2024

0 Comments

Gene Marx

I have thought a lot about George lately, one of my ghosts from a past that has been lucky enough to span decades. Luckily, George has never been a triggered recollection, just a benign spectral from my misdirected youth. For now, just call him George, though his full name and rank are etched in black granite in Constitution Gardens in Washington, DC, on Panel 26E, Line 48.

George - www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces

A George reminiscence might show up anytime, but on Memorial Day weekend, count on it, with self-isolation rock the perfect soundtrack. I was listening to Buffalo Springfield, the Stones and Creedence last week from a favorite Vietnam era remix and there he was. Ageless, innocent, 19-years old.

Our lifelines barely crossed, only once as a matter of fact, in the summer of 1965. We were the essence of "bottom-rung", both stuck in McDonald's hell, slogging out our last summer at minimum wage before we had to take LBJ’s draft seriously. Neither of us were Fortunate Sons, just navigating the grinds of adolescence, topped off by the daily preoccupations and upheavals of a foreshadowed war in Vietnam.

Aside from the shared angst of uncertain futures we had virtually nothing in common. Hometown parents and teachers must have loved George, a reserved, hard-working math-club type, straight A student, from a no-frills Catholic family. Two years older, my life was his parallel universe in miniature. An unbridled college freshman, I was committed to not much more than the next weekend and a draft-deferred GPA at Louisiana Tech. Nevertheless, George looked up to me.

After hours of flipping burgers and scraping grease, our idle conversation occasionally touched on our tenuous prospects, like this one time. “Hey, George, thought about where you’re going to college?” A National Honor Society and California Scholarship Federation standout like George should be able to write his own ticket.

Read complete article on Substack.

0 Comments

Global Strike for Gaza

5/9/2024

0 Comments

Ousman Noor

Tomorrow, on Friday 10 May, people in cities around the world will take part in a Global Strike for Rafah. They won’t work, purchase any goods or services, or make any transactions on debit or credit cards – delivering a shock to the global economy that will hopefully compel political leaders to act to ensure a permanent ceasefire and prevent genocide.

Earlier this week, American rapper Macklemore released Hind’s Hall, a clarion call to people worldwide to throw off the shackles of oppression and unite for a free Palestine. He invites us to cut the strings that allow politicians and companies to dictate how our societies function.

HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA. pic.twitter.com/QqZEKmzwZI
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 6, 2024

Let us deliver the call now, demonstrate our collective ability to organize a global strike and #RiseForRafah this Friday.

0 Comments

History Rhyming with a Vengeance, or 1968 Redux

5/1/2024

0 Comments

History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Mark Twain

Pro-Palestinian protestors occupying Hamilton Hall - Getty Images

Today marks a historic occasion. By seizing control of Hamilton Hall, students at Columbia University have anchored in historical memory the nexus between the horrors inflicted in Vietnam that was the hallmark of my generation with the horrors inflicted in Gaza that is the hallmark of the new generation. It is testament to the majesty of these young people that they have risked their futures for the sake of a poor, powerless people halfway around the world in order to uphold that sacred principle that every life is worthy and the murder of none shall pass in silence. As Abraham Lincoln famously quoted, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." The right of the people of Gaza to live is an eternal truth. May the young soldiers in Hamilton Hall be honored and blessed for not countenancing, come what may, its extinguishment.

Norman Finkelstein

0 Comments