The ‘Kosher Nostra’ Nation
Brief: Having now called an election in April, it seems clear Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s rationale for the early poll is to avert possible indictment for alleged corruption. Always something of a political ‘chancer’ whom few would accuse of lacking chutzpah, even for the estimable “Bibi” this is an audacious gamble. Either way, win or lose (and we might opine, guilty or innocent), very little is likely to change for the better in the way the state of Israel comports itself on the international stage. With that in mind, this is as good a time as any to take a deeper look at this increasingly militarily aggressive and geopolitically opportunistic nation, which like its current leader, has long been a law unto itself. Australian writer Greg Maybury pays a visit of sorts to the Wailing Wall.
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The ‘Kosher Nostra’ Nation
Brief: Having now called an election in April, it seems clear Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s rationale for the early poll is to avert possible indictment for alleged corruption. Always something of a political ‘chancer’ whom few would accuse of lacking chutzpah, even for the estimable “Bibi” this is an audacious gamble. Either way, win or lose (and we might opine, guilty or innocent), very little is likely to change for the better in the way the state of Israel comports itself on the international stage. With that in mind, this is as good a time as any to take a deeper look at this increasingly militarily aggressive and geopolitically opportunistic nation, which like its current leader, has long been a law unto itself. Australian writer Greg Maybury pays a visit of sorts to the Wailing Wall.
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The Great American Perpetual Motion War Machine
Brief: The so-called ‘military-industrial complex’ ushered in by the passing of the 1947 National Security Act is a luxury America and the world can no longer afford. The unprecedented threat posed by the over-privileged belligerents infecting U.S. military doctrine with their unbridled hegemonic ambition is redolent of that of the British Empire in the years leading up to the Great War in 1914. With Donald Trump advocating massive upgrades of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and full-spectrum dominance likely to remain integral to American foreign and national security policy making, we ponder the past, the here and now, and an unthinkable, yet, still avoidable future.
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The Werewolves of Washington
The death of Fidel Castro offers us an ideal opportunity to reflect not just on the profound geopolitical import of Cuban-American relations. In the process we acquire a timely insight into how badly the Washington establishment gets it all so demonstrably and disastrously wrong. As we enter unmapped terrain in U.S. foreign policy, Greg Maybury looks at that relationship and what lessons might be learned, and why all things Cuba and Castro still infuriate U.S. political elites on both sides of the political divide.
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Of Privilege, Plunder and Immoral Reward
Brief: The outcome of the 2016 presidential election will keep pundits across the political spectrum looking to explain the rise to the Oval Office of the most improbable candidate in American political history for some time to come. This will especially be the case for those who either never saw it coming or decried its possibility however remote that might have seemed. But there is one single factor that stands out as the root cause, and it has little to do with Donald Trump: Neoliberalism. Greg Maybury asks: Could this be the beginning of the end of the increasingly anti-democratic, rapacious, anti-social, and destructive ideology that infuses this now utterly discredited doctrine of privilege, plunder and immoral reward?
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A Clean Break from Israel (What America Needs Most)
Brief: America’s interminable meddling and interventions in the Middle East has wreaked havoc upon the region. Although the U.S. was the principal curator of the chaos, it seems gradually more people are recognizing it’s the region’s resident hegemon Israel that’s been the real driver of the turmoil and violence that defines the region. Greg Maybury reports on what is arguably the most portentous geopolitical issue of our time.
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Chilcot’s Can of Worms – Anatomy of a Catastrophe
When it comes to the arms business...there's no end to the good news from the Middle East. Take the [Obama] administration's proposed new 10-year aid deal with Israel. If enacted as currently planned, it would boost U.S. military assistance to that country by up to...
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Hillary Clinton’s House of Cards
'My accomplishments as Secretary of State? Well, I'm glad you asked. My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know. The remnants of prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused...
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A Last Best Hope (The Obama Promise)
'Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.' 'Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.' 'Washington is broken. My whole campaign has been premised...
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Anarchists Amok in The Era of Normalcy
'If the purpose of the US judicial system...is to ensure that all factual evidence surrounding an alleged crime or crimes be accurately and fairly presented so that the jurors can properly assess the best semblance of the truth...this trial was a complete travesty of...
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The Monkey Trial and the Human Error
'It can be personally gratifying for one to have a small cult following of course; but it should be incumbent upon one to avoid—if only for reasons of personal health, safety and future well being—any utterances, movements or actions that might inadvertently incite...
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A Confederacy of Hegemons — Episode Two
'The heroes, the wise men, like the new moon have their waxing and waning. Men will say, "Who has ever lived with might and with power like him?" As in the dark month, the month of shadows, so without him there is no light. O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your...
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