TIME: Marco Rubio may or may not be ready to hold the most powerful job in the world, but one thing is clear: He’s certainly prepared to run for it, at least in the modern Republican Party. If there was any doubt on that score, it was settled during an interview on ABC News on Sunday, when he checked one of the most important boxes on any GOP hopeful’s job application: declaring that he did not, could not, would not, believe that climate change is real. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our […]
Cliven Bundy Is The Exploding Racist Cigar That Just Went Off In The Tea Party’s Mouth
CLIVEN BUNDY: “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids—and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch—they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” […]
SMUS: This Land Is Your Land
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Can anyone give me an update on how the native Americans are making out in their negotiations with the federal government on getting their original land holdings returned? Yeah, that’s what I figured — about as well as today’s Palestinians are progressing with getting THEIRS back. But I guess that’s how it goes when the land in question was originally doled out to the ancestors of its present occupiers by no less a grantor than Jehovah himself. One could almost be forgiven for thinking all of this is simply a bad dream were it not, in fact, such a completely despicable […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Democracy, Just Do it!
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY The next time you hear pissing and moaning — from your mouth or others’ — about the plutocratic state of U.S. politics, you might want to ask the bellyacher(s) about their voting record. If the answer turns out to be “seldom or never cast ballots,” you have just spotlighted the person(s) responsible for drowning the American dream. And just to be certain there’s no confusion: I’m not just saying they’re PART of the problem; I’m saying that each and every one of them ARE the problem! Statistics show that if Liberals/Progressives lose a preponderance of elections […]
LISTEN: The Flaming Side Of The Moon
THE FLAMING LIPS new digital release, FLAMING SIDE OF THE MOON is live now in digital form. Designed as an immersive companion piece to the original 1973 album, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, listeners are encouraged to listen to the new LIPS album while listening to DARK SIDE at the same time. FLAMING SIDE OF THE MOON was also carefully crafted to sync up perfectly with the 1939 film, THE WIZARD OF OZ. For ideal listening conditions, fans are encouraged to seek out the original Alan Parsons’ engineered quadraphonic LP mix of DARK SIDE, but it will work with the album on any format. Available now through all participating digital outlets. […]
SMUS: There IS A Class War, And We’re Losing
Illustration by POASTERCHILD BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Question: Do you think it’s good for the American “democracy” to have 10% of its citizens own 75% (and growing more disparate by the minute) of its wealth? I’d prefer to direct this question to the leader of the Republican party, but of course there isn’t one. So far the selection process is only in the I-hate-everything-Obama-likes-more-than-you-do stage which still leaves that most pinnacled of all plutocratic dunce caps searching for a head. So, for the present I guess I’ll have to settle for addressing my query to all of those grand old dragons vying for the cone-shaped hat. Your phony “trickle ‘up’” economics and […]
CRIME & PUNISHMENT: Talking Drones, Snowden, O.J. And How To Solve The Israeli-Palestinian Riddle With Super-Lawyer Alan Dershowitz
Illustration by ALEX FINE,/font> BY JONATHAN VALANIA Famed criminal defense lawyer, retired Harvard Law School professor and cable news gadfly Alan Dershowitz will be at the National Constitution Center tomorrow to debate the legality and ethics of drone strikes on American citizens. In advance of tomorrow’s debate, we got Mr. Dershowitz on the horn. DISCUSSED: When it’s OK for the President of the United States to order the assassination of an American citizen; his theory of a “Continuum Of Civilianality; why he is advocating for the court-supervised use of torture in so-called ticking time bomb situations; Zionism and how to […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Uncle Bill’s Annual PTD (Punishment They Deserve) Pronouncements
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Come gather round children wherever you roam, it’s that time again, when the high and the mighty get what they have comin’: poetic justice for all. Vladimir Putin – 20 years house arrest at 1800 Market St., San Francisco, CA, USA Chris Christie – Placed in stocks between lanes at New Jersey entrance to George Washington Bridge until his BMI drops below 25. John Boehner – Until inauguration day, 2017, must exclaim loudly “Hell yes you can!” whenever questioned about any Democrat proposal. Mitch McConnell – From now on the ONLY utterance he’s allowed when […]
Q&A: John & Bonnie Raines, Burglars For The Citizen’s Commission To Investigate The FBI
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in 1971, John Raines, a religion professor at Temple, and his wife, Bonnie, [pictured, below right, with their children circa 1968] were part of an eight-member group of anti-Vietnam War protesters who dubbed themselves The Citizens’ Commission To Investigate The FBI and broke into the FBI office in Media, PA, and left with 1,000 documents that revealed, for the first time, the details of a massive domestic FBI spying operation known as COINTELPRO. Thus setting in motion a chain of events, not the least of them the death of J. Edgar Hoover, that lead to […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Common Corps
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Familiar with Common Core? Don’t fret. It’s not altogether necessary that you be acquainted with all of its intricacies and implications in order to appreciate this contrarian’s point of view, but for the sake of your children and grandchildren I HIGHLY recommend that you become so ASAP. And when you do, please keep in mind that regardless of all of Common Core’s promised furtherances and rewards, this purported “earthshaking advance” in education has in large part been promoted and designed by individuals and corporations that stand to reap considerable financial gain through its implementation. With […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: As Simple As Black & White
Illustration by BEN HEINE BY WILLIAM C. HENRY When did Republicans elect to delete the term “compromise” from their lexicon? When did they resolve to bar words like “cooperation” and “consensus” from discussion? When did they decide to excise words like “reasonable” and “equitable” from their collective mind-set? When did they engender such callousness toward sentiments like “compassion” and “empathy”? In fact, when was the last time you heard terms like “common good” or “shared sacrifice” roll from the tongue of a McConnell, a Boehner, or any other current member of America’s Right Wing elite? Have today’s Republicans become so […]
BEING THERE: Street Fighting Man
Independence Square, downtown Kiev, Ukraine, 12:25 PM by DEN DIDENKO KYIV POST: Fisticuffs, beatings, shootings, fires, vandalism, tear gas, Molotov cocktails and smoke bombs have all featured in EuroMaidan, the anti-government protests that seek to dislodge Ukraine’s top officials. But these incidents do not add up to a nation that has descended into chaos or civil war. To the contrary, the radical aggressors of EuroMaidan respect public order for the most part and calibrate their actions to keep the focus on their mission: ousting President Viktor Yanukovych’s regime. That means that while the activists are happy to seize a police […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Pacific Rim Job
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Have you been following this latest push for “freer” markets and longer yachts for the prime beneficiaries? It’s been dubbed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and it’s all the rage among the one- and two-percenters. Word has it that leaked details already have top yacht builders like Lurssen, Feadship, and Oceanco champing at the helm, and big-time PR firms like Edelman, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, and Ogilvy snapping up all available Indulgences (it’s rumored that demand for corporate reputation protection and enhancement services will rise like a Bay of Fundy tide once the truth about the TPP comes […]