Global

I always looked at Sen. Bernie Sanders as the voice of reason and held him in high regards when it comes to the plight of the Palestinians. However, I was shocked and saddened that he had recently referred to Hamas as a terrorist organization. In March 2024 Sen. Sanders said that Hamas and Israel Crime Minister Netanyahu must go. (CBS News interview)

To Hamas or Jihad fighters, the people of Gaza are their parents, wives, sons, brothers and sisters. Those are freedom fighters and not a bunch of mercenaries like those serving in the Israeli Death Forces (IDF). If they were not present in Gaza, the IDF would have committed far worse crimes and killed more Palestinians than they already did.

Those courageous Palestinians fighters will not bow their heads or bend their knees except for Almighty God. Their logo is: “It’s jihad until either victory or martyrdom."

Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way for his third visit to Washington during the first six months of the second term of President Donald Trump. Bibi requested the visit because he clearly wants something and he never likes to hear anyone tell him “No!” The American Jewish community and the state of Israel working together are already mustering their substantial resources to give the Prime Minister anything he wants, whatever that might be. If necessary, the so-called Israel Lobby, which controls many aspects of what is referred to colloquially as the United States Government, has a unique ability to lay down a serious guilt trip on anyone who tries to interfere with their prerogatives. Their ability to persuade is frequently based on repeated invocations of a semi-mythical event called the “holocaust,” which has been and will continue to be a burden on all the rest of humanity forever.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in occupied Palestine, stands as a testament to the notion of speaking truth to power. This "power" is not solely embodied by Israel or even the United States, but by an international community whose collective relevance has tragically failed to stem the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Elon Musk is not in the car business; he is a pollution salesman.

As a car company, Tesla is effectively bankrupt. This past quarter Tesla’s reported profits were only $405 million, a profit shown only because he sold “emissions credits” to General Motors and other car companies to the tune of $595 million.

In other words, he’s not in the car business, but in the business of selling the right to pollute. He helps GM sell Chevy Tahoe’s that get 15 mpg.

That is because Musk is a master of conjuring money out of thin air, or more accurately, dirty air.

So, my dear green friends, when you buy a Tesla, you’re not reducing your carbon footprint by a quarter inch, because Musk is selling your good intentions to General Motors so they can pollute more. It’s like when the medieval Catholic Church sold indulgences, so your relatives didn’t have to go to hell.

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand's struggle with democracy resulted in three very different prime ministers in three days with Phumtham Wechayachai becoming the newest caretaker leader last week, after a court suspended former Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for alleged "ethical misconduct."

So, who is Acting Prime Minister Phumtham ("POOM-tom")?

Mr. Phumtham, 72, is a veteran politician who was a commerce minister and caretaker prime minister in 2024 and Ms. Paetongtarn's defense minister during 2025.

Some generals in the U.S.-trained military were wary of Mr. Phumtham when Ms. Paetongtarn appointed the civilian as defense minister, because in 1976 he joined an anti-military leftist student movement and was nicknamed "Big Comrade" for voicing speeches against the return of military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn.

When the military violently crushed the university students' protests -- officially killing 46 students amid estimates of more than 100 dead -- Mr. Phumtham fled into the countryside with hundreds of others who were welcomed by Thailand's hardened China-backed communist guerrillas.

How has Trump failed MAGA (and the rest of us)? Let me count the ways.

1. Russia-Ukraine:  King Trump promised to end the American Empire's proxy war against Russia, which he correctly blamed on Biden. Putin, cognizant of the facts that Russia is overwhelming Ukraine on the battlefield and that Trump's hates Ukraine's Zelensky, has refused to stop. Trump has only strengthened his hand. Meanwhile, King Trump has proved to be untrustworthy, meaning that to agree to stop the fighting with the necessary agreement that Ukraine would remain neutral is worthless under this King. Russia requires that Ukraine never be allowed in the Empires Military Alliance (NATO) and will require relief from economic sanctions. The Empire's promises have always been worthless, broken with each change of administration, but Trump cannot be trusted to keep his promises even in the short term since he can't remember what he said yesterday. Thus, Trump has failed on this major promise to MAGA.

If you think prescription drugs are getting more dangerous, you are right. Once upon a time if a drug were linked to dangerous side effects or deaths, it would simply not be approved. End of story. Now, the risks are transferred to the patient in the form of detailed warnings on the label and TV commercials.

This provides a false sense of security. Most patients still believe a doctor would not prescribe a drug if it weren't safe and doctors still believe the FDA would not approve a drug it weren't safe. In many cases, both have barely noticed the take-at-your-own-risk status of many prescription drugs which once would not have been approved.

The parade of injected biologic drugs that currently dominate the advertising "space,"–– Humira, Dupixent and Stelara––would once not have been approved because of their serious side effects like immunosuppression in light of the minor conditions they address. Some suggest the wide swath of citizens taking advertised biologics explained the US' Covid dramatic toll compared to countries with populations not on immunosuppressing drugs.