William Astore on the Myths We Tell Ourselves

October 14, 2017

John Kelly, President Trump’s chief of staff and a retired Marine Corps general, held a press conference on Thursday to deny he’s quitting or that he’s about to be fired. In passing, he referred to two common myths in America that go almost completely unexamined. (By “myth” I mean a defining belief, held in common, […]

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The Baseless Myth of the Poor, Propagandized Catalans

October 13, 2017

One of the staple talking points of Spanish unionists is that the poor people of Catalonia live trapped in a information bubble that does not allow them to hear or see anything that is not nationalist propaganda, a propaganda, they say, designed to promote a hatred of Spain. Sounds terrible doesn’t it? But are things […]

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‘Russiagate’ And The Decline Of Journalism – Ron Paul interviews Robert Parry

October 12, 2017

With each passing day, the mainstream media keeps printing and repeating ever more bizarre theories about Russian attempts to control not only our voting, not only our political system, but even our relationships with each other. They are trying to “sow seeds of dissent and confusion” in American society, we read almost daily in the […]

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Mario Vargas Llosa Is the Perfect Poster Boy for Spanish Unionism

October 11, 2017

Last Sunday in Barcelona, the forces opposed to allowing any change in Catalonia’s political status within Spain staged a rally in Barcelona. Given the clear minority position of such hard-core unionists (defined here as people who neither want a vote on, nor a negotiation about, the matter of greater Catalan self-determination) within in the Catalan […]

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Did Trump Call for Ten Times More Nukes?, asks Ron Paul

October 11, 2017

The media is having a field day with a supposedly leaked report that President Trump called for a ten-fold increase in US nuclear weapons in July. That is the occasion of Secretary of State Tillerson calling the president a “moron,” according to the media. It’s all supposed to point to how ridiculous President Trump is […]

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Ron Paul on Horrific New Revelations on CIA Torture

October 10, 2017

The CIA has been forced to declassify some 270 memos from its secret torture facilities in Afghanistan. The story these memos tell is horrific and jolting. The people tortured were not terrorists. They were suspects. Some may say this is all ancient history, but consider the current president’s view on torture. He said he’s torture […]

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The US War in Afghanistan Is Now 16 Years Old. Trump Has No Plans to End It.

October 9, 2017

On October 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. The war is now 16 years old — and that’s not even counting the decade of U.S. intervention in the country during the Cold War. Donald Trump once advocated the “speedy withdrawal” of U.S. troops from that country. As president, however, he’s gone in the opposite direction, […]

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A Nobel Prize for Sanity?

October 8, 2017

The Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a wonderful tribute to the many millions of people around the world who have struggled over the years against the insanity of nuclear weapons. Congratulations to the courageous and far-sighted organizers who founded the campaign! And Congratulations to all who are […]

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What’s Good and What’s Missing in the 702 FISA Reform Bill

October 6, 2017

My colleague Pat Eddington has already taken a first pass at the newly unveiled legislation aimed at reforming Section 702, the controversial foreign intelligence surveillance authority that empowers warrantless surveillance of foreigners outside the United States. While Pat focused primarily on the defects of the bill, I’d like to start by briefly surveying what I […]

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USA LIBERTY Act – Making Spying on You Permanent

October 5, 2017

With Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act set to expire at the end of the year, Congress is scurrying to find a way to preserve the post-9/11 authority for the government to conduct mass surveillance of US citizens’ communications. They have come up with another Orwellian bill, the USA LIBERTY Act, which would fix […]

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