Global

BANGKOK, Thailand -- U.S. Homeland Security helped Thailand confiscate
"numerous infants," including Caucasian and Chinese, and arrest an
American woman and others who allegedly paid Thai females to be
artificially inseminated for customers in foreign countries.

At least one baby, born premature in Thailand four months ago, was
suffering a brain hemorrhage requiring hospitalization in Bangkok,
officials said.

"An investigative lead on an American citizen, with numerous infants
in her care, turned into a large-scale transnational organized crime
investigation," the U.S. Embassy in Thailand's Homeland Security
Investigations Country Attache Leonard Mancuso said on February 26,
responding to a request for details.

"In a coordinated effort between Homeland Security Investigations
(HSI), the Thailand Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the
Royal Thai Police (RTP), and other government and non-governmental
organizations, Thai authorities arrested an American citizen and her
employees in connection to an ongoing investigation of alleged illegal

Witness For Peace Southwest Invites You To Join The:   COLD WAR TRUTH COMMISSION

A Day of Education, Testimonials & Action

Come Spend The Day While We Put: “THE COLD WAR ON TRIAL” 

Sunday, March 21st - 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM (PST)

Here Are The Speakers We Have So Far:

Medea Benjamin, Daniel Ellsberg, Kathy Kelly, S. Brian Willson, David Swanson, Norman Solomon, Peter Phillips, Jeff Cohen,

Ann Wright, Peter Kuznick,  Roy Bourgeois, Bruce Gagnon, Joel Andreas, Gerald Horne, Matthew Hoh,

David Vine, Mickey Huff, Eric Mann, Jodie Evans, Gerry Condon, Carl Boggs, Jim Lafferty, John Parker 

Marcy Winograd, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Alice Slater, Michael Novick, Carley Towne, Ed Rampell & Others.

A much anticipated American foreign policy move under the Biden Administration on how to counter China’s unhindered economic growth and political ambitions came in the form of a virtual summit on March 12, linking, aside from the United States, India, Australia and Japan. 

Is it possible that the country is truly rebuilding itself . . . from the soul up?

Deb Haaland has been confirmed as head of the Department of the Interior. A Native American congresswoman and, as she describes herself, 35th-generation New Mexican, has been given the reins of the department that has essentially been at war, not simply with her people but with the planet itself and, therefore, all of us, pretty much since its inception. That is to say, the department’s values are those the European colonialists brought with them to the new continent: steal the land from those who live there, then proceed to exploit it.

The Lorax speaks for the trees.

Trump canceled him.

Trump’s Zombie Cultists are in a snit about Dr. Seuss. They whine about questioning his older books over issues of racism, sexism, and antisemitism. They moan about a “cancel culture.”

WE CALL BS!!!!

Theodore Seuss Geisel’s sixty-plus books have sold more than 700,000,000 copies worldwide. They are uniquely brilliant …charming, funny, irreverent, sassy, thought-provoking. They preach tolerance, fellowship, responsibility, good will, creative thinking … all the stuff Trump and his disciples so clearly hate.

Anti-authoritarian (Yertle the Turtle) and anti-materialistic (The Grinch Who Stole Christmas), Seuss provoked (like Mad Magazine), some of the first out-of-the-box excursions for millions of readers, young and younger.

Like early Disney, the Marx Brothers’ Day at the Races, and other ancient icons, some of Dr. Seuss’s early works have cringe-worthy passages with racist and sexist imagery.

Recent statements made by US officials suggest that Washington will continue to pursue a hardline policy on Venezuela. The new Biden Administration, however, needs to urgently rethink its approach.

US State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, remarked on February 3 that he “certainly” does not “expect this administration to be engaging directly with (President) Maduro.” Namely, Price expects that the Biden Administration will adhere to the strategy of its predecessor, which is predicated on completely ignoring the current government in Caracas. 

Many Palestinian intellectuals and political analysts find themselves in the unenviable position of having to declare a stance on whether they support or reject upcoming Palestinian elections which are scheduled for May 22 and July 30. But there are no easy answers.

The long-awaited decree by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last January to hold legislative and presidential elections in the coming months was widely welcomed,  not as a triumph for democracy but as the first tangible positive outcome of dialogue between rival Palestinian factions, mainly Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas. 

As far as inner Palestinian dialogue is concerned, the elections, if held unobstructed, could present a ray of hope that, finally, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories will enjoy a degree of democratic representation, a first step towards a more comprehensive representation that could include millions of Palestinians outside the Occupied Territories. 

Undaunted, the pandemic can’t stop the Pan African Film Festival and in that immortal show biz tradition, the show must go on! Albeit virtually, as this year in order to stay cinematically safe, America’s largest and best yearly Black-themed filmfest since 1992 is moving online and starting later than usual, kicking off on the last day of Black History Month. 2021’s 29th annual Pan African Virtual Film + Arts Festival is taking place from Feb. 28 – March 14.

I am a big fan of the work by actor/director/writer Nate Parker, which powerfully expresses Black consciousness and militancy in movies such as: 2012’s Red Tails about the heroic Tuskegee Airmen who were antifascists before Antifa; 2007’s fact-based The Great Debaters, which proved Blacks can excel academically and Denzel played a suspected Communist; and 2016’s The Birth of a Nation, which Parker directed, co-wrote and starred in as Nat Turner, who led America’s bloodiest uprising against slavery (see: The Last Shall Be First in "The Birth of a Nation" - Progressive.org).

“The United States of America has open wounds.”

Ever since its founding, the United States has been attempting to build a society around those wounds, on the belief that hyped-up language — “all men are created equal,” and so forth — can paper over deep wrongs. If you put the ideal in writing, you can ignore its absence in real life.

Fukushima Daiichi’s multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns started ten years ago. They are not over. They are not even close to over. Nuclear disasters don’t ever end. The radioactive danger slowly decays over decades, during which it needs constant safety management until radiation measurements are below “acceptable levels.” That’s still not safe.

Fukushima continues to be a low-level nuclear disaster, as it has been for ten years. The initial explosive accident has been mitigated, but the danger has never been fully contained. Recent news from Fukushima is hardly reassuring.