May 2018

I would like to announce the publication of my new book entitled “The Information Explosion”. This book discusses the role of information in evolution, and especially in the evolution of human culture. Articles and book chapters that I have previously written on this subject are incorporated in the text in modified forms, but more than half of the material is new. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from this link. Reformed teaching of history Human nature has two sides: It has a dark side, to which nationalism and militarism appeal; but our species also has a genius for cooperation, which we can see in the growth of culture. Our modern civilization has been built up by means of a worldwide exchange of ideas and inventions. It is built on the achievements of many ancient cultures. China, Japan, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, the Islamic world, Christian Europe, and the...

By David Swanson May 29, 2018 “Memorial Day is a time to remember, appreciate, and honor the selfless patriots who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to freedom. At a time when our country seems so divided, we must not forget that it is because of their service and sacrifice that we live in the most free and prosperous nation on Earth.” Congressman Tom Garrett It would be difficult to count all of the lies in the above statement. It’s about the U.S. Memorial Day on May 28, 2018. Let’s just highlight a few. Originally published at David Swanson’s “Let’s Try Democracy” – May 28, 2018 Let’s start with “most free.” The British-based Legatum Institute, which ranks the United States 18th in overall “prosperity,” ranks it 28th in “personal freedom.”(1) The U.S.-based Cato Institute ranks the United States 24th in “personal freedom” and 11th in “economic freedom.”(2) The Canadian-based World...

  President Barack Obama was not a war criminal despite US involvement in wars in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and against ISIS. His predecessor George W. Bush was. Apart from anything else his administration tortured captives. Was the former British minister, Tony Blair, the closest ally of Bush, also a war criminal? And should he now be prosecuted and tried for war crimes? Did Blair lie over the reason for going to war with Iraq – the supposed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction that he alleged Iraq possessed? It depends on how you define lie. If you define lie as saying this cat is white when in fact it is black he didn’t on the big issues. But what he did do was give the impression the cat was assuredly white when it was in fact a sort of dark greyish white. As far as the public could tell from...

A review of the evidence points to Israeli and MEK disinformation, not an open-and-shut case. By Gareth Porter May 25, 2018   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at UN in 2012. (You Tube)   Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has set the stage for another Iran crisis, has opened a new round of domestic political struggle, as Democrats in Congress, the anti-Trump television networks, and the tattered remains of the old anti-war movement try to push back. But that effort has a fatal weakness at its core. It concedes to Trump and opponents of the Iran deal an effective argument: that the Iranians have been lying when they say they’ve never had a covert nuclear weapons program. Originally published by The American Conservative here The theme of Iran’s duplicity has been the emotional core of the assault on the JCPOA....

  About an hour after President Trump had announced another US withdrawal – this time from the Summit with North Korea on June 12 – I commented on RT (formerly Russia Today) and got quite a long time until we were broken off by Trump appearing in the White House lawn to speak about it.      

  Can you smell the whiff of smoke? You surely can. But the gunfire? Not yet. But it must start soon if the battle has any chance of success. President Donald Trump has to be faced down. Not only because of his sabotage of the Iran nuclear deal but also because of his attack on Europe’s export of steel and aluminum which breaks all the rules on tariffs set by the World Trade Organisation. This man should not be allowed to get away with his gross disturbance of the world political and economic order. Donald Tusk, the President of the Council of the European Union, said boldly last week, “Who needs enemies when you have friends like this?” Who indeed? Trump is, as David Goodhart wrote in Foreign Affairs, “a living fossil, the sort of ‘ugly American’ common enough in earlier eras”. Trump is leading America into a dark tunnel...

    By Farhang Jahanpour May 22, 2018 Mike Pompeo’s declaration of war on Iran makes the world less safe Speaking at the Heritage Foundation this morning, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo practically declared war on Iran. His unprecedented threats against Iran went even beyond what President Trump had said in the past. Commenting on the speech (full transcript here), JStreet wrote: “With their decision to violate the historic JCPOA arms control agreement, the president and his ‘war cabinet’ have created a strategic disaster of their own making and undone the major accomplishments of the previous administration. They have made the US, Israel and the world less safe.”   Short history of Iran’s nuclear activities: 1957 to the JCPOA After 12 years of intensive talks, initially between Britain, France and Germany (the EU-3), and finally between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany (P5+1),...

  Lund, Sweden, May 21, 2018 Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s speech, held at the Heritage Foundation can be seen and heard here at The Transnational. And here is State Department’s full transcript. Here are some TFF Associate comments on it:   Stop the war on Iran now! By Farhang Jahanpour, TFF Board Speaking at the Heritage Foundation this morning, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo practically declared war on Iran. His unprecedented threats against Iran went even beyond what President Trump had said in the past. Commenting on the speech, JStreet wrote: “With their decision to violate the historic JCPOA arms control agreement, the president and his ‘war cabinet’ have created a strategic disaster of their own making and undone the major accomplishments of the previous administration. They have made the US, Israel and the world less safe.” Let us review what the US administration is demanding. After 12...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will chart the way forward in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.   Click here, scroll down to the video Full transcript here BREAKING NEWS After the Deal: A New US #Iran Strategy. This speech equals a declaration of war. The US and #Pompeo here raises demands that no country could ever accept. Therefore, it means war in a variety of ways including military action against Iran – sooner or later. The US hatred of Iran is irrational beyond words and built on lies. This Hitlerist foreign policy speech is obscene and should – must – be met by complete, worldwide condemnation. Click here, scroll down to the video and if you are only interest in the demands, Mr. Pompeo starts listing them around 13 minutes into the video.

  05161064508822-future-transatlantic-alliance-trump-iran-deal/”>”Hard Facts” at Sputnik Radio, May 16, 2018.    

  – are worried stiff that this will lead to war between Iran and Israel, in which Trump will feel moved to intercede if Israel is being badly hurt. Such a war will not only cause immense damage to Iran it will, unlike when in 1973 Israel fought the combined Arab armies to a standstill well away from its borders, inflict an enormous amount of damage inside Israel. Despite the so-called iron-dome that protects Israel against rockets, enough will get through to cause immense loss of life. Europe doesn’t want to live cheek by jowl with that kind of inflammable neighborhood. It doesn’t want to see more chaos, as after the US military intervention in Iraq which helped trigger the civil war in Syria and gave birth to ISIS. The long-established unity of purpose and liberal, democratic, ideology is being incinerated by the day. Putting America first has meant elbowing...

  Juan Cole May 14, 2018 The move of the Trump administration of the US embassy to Jerusalem is intended, according to the president, to signal a recognition of the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. This move is controversial because Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem is not recognized in international law. The 1947 partition plan suggested in the UN General Assembly for what should happen in the British Mandate of Palestine after the British decamped did not have the force of law, since it was never endorsed by the UN Security Council.   Originally published on Informed Comment here But even the UNGA partition did not award Jerusalem to the 500,000 European Zionist settlers brought into Palestine by the British colonial authorities as part of their long-term plan to divide and rule the Middle East. (In 1799 General Bonaparte invaded Ottoman Palestine and only found about 3,000 Jews...