Mahler's Prodigal Son

The abject failure of the West to take Turkey to task for increasing activities more consistent with a dictatorship than a democracy, clearly demonstrates politics, at its worst, in action.    This piece from counterpunch explains.... "This interview was published in the Istanbul daily BirGun, on 25 March 2016. Onur Erem the journalist interviewing Tariq Ali has already been charged in court with insulting the leaders of the state, but the Judge ruled that the reference to Erdogan as a ‘tinpot dictator’ by Tariq Ali was within the limits of political debate. However, referring to the Prime Minister Davutoglu as a ‘joker’ was ruled unacceptable. Erem could face 14 months in prison, but he has appealed and is awaiting a final ruling. Meanwhile, newspapers are being banned by the regime and journalists harassed and imprisoned. Turkey is a member of NATO and currently being paid billions by the European Union to keep the Syrian refgugees and not let them travel to EU co...

From truthdig : Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, we’re looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth celebrating. "When a United States detention center is hundreds of miles off the coast, it can be difficult for Americans to imagine the plight of the people who have been held there for the past 15 years. The harrowing accounts that we have all heard about torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, blur together, creating an unshakeable malaise, partly because we hear more often about the methods of torture than about the suffering of the human beings who experience the terror tactics. Perhaps this is why the articles of Pardiss Kebriaei, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, can unexpectedly move us to tears. In a 2015 Harper’s Magazi...

Americans pride themselves as having all sorts of freedoms people in other countries don't enjoy.    There is freedom seemingly to say whatever one wants thanks to the US Constitution, etc. etc.    How, then, to reconcile those freedoms with this piece of outrageous legislation just passed into law in North Carolina .....which is #101 in discrimination. "North Carolina just wrote, passed, and signed into law the most anti-LGBT measure of the past decade—and it was all based on a lie.  The state has undone not just local ordinances protecting transgender people, but all LGBT nondiscrimination provisions across the state. Literally overnight, people in Charlotte and across North Carolina can now be fired from their jobs for being gay, turned away at hotel chains for being gay, and even forced to show their genitals to a police officer if the cop thinks they might be transgender. And unlike in Georgia, where a constellation of businesses has arrayed ...

From BloombergBusiness : "From the supporters of Donald Trump to the street protesters of southern Europe, voters around the world are mad as hell. Inequality, immigration, and the establishment's perceived indifference are firing up electorates in a way that's rarely been seen before. As these charts show, the forces shaping the disruption of global politics have been building for years and aren't about to diminish." Go here to see relevant facts and figures - which lend more than credible and compelling support for the above.

If one wanted to gain an insight into the people around a politician advising him or her - and this case a presidential contender in the USA, Ted Cruz - look no further than this piece from The Intercept .    It very much looks the "team" that Cruz has demonstrates that this politician's views are just as extreme as those of his nemesis Donald Trump. "GOP presidential contender Ted Cruz has unveiled a foreign policy team full of conspiracy theorists and arch-neoconservatives who support policies just as belligerent as those of Donald Trump. While Cruz has been supported by some Republican figures (most recently, Sen. Lindsey Graham) who consider him a relatively moderate alternative to Trump, the foreign policy advisers he has assembled show him to be running as an extremist.  Read the complete list here - but one "sample".... "Frank Gaffney: Gaffney is the president of the famously Islamophobic Center for Security Policy. He has developed a num...

Credited to John Spooner, The Age

Patrick Cockburn is a well known, and respected, political commentator and author.    Here, in a piece in Counterpunch, he makes more than compelling points how politicians, worldwide, have avoided being blamed for the terrorism we see around us. "The capture of Salah Abdeslam, thought to be the sole surviving planner of the Paris massacre, means that the media is focusing once again on the threat of terrorist attack by Islamic State. Questions are asked about why the most wanted man in Europe was able to elude the police for so long, even though he was living in his home district of Molenbeek in Brussels. Television and newspapers ask nervously about the chances of Isis carrying out another atrocity aimed at dominating the news agenda and showing that it is still in business. The reporting of the events in Brussels is in keeping with that after the January (Charlie Hebdo) and November Paris attacks and the Tunisian beach killings by Isis last year. For several day...