by Phil Smith, Drug War Chronicle In a groundbreaking move a year ago now, Oregon voters approved decriminalization for personal use amounts of all illicit drugs, with Measure 110 passing with a healthy 59 percent of the vote. That made the state the first in the US to make this dramatic break with decades of […]
Is Belarus Going To Join Russia?
By Slava Tsukerman On November 4, 2021, an event took place, which was almost unnoticed by the world press, but presented by the Russian official press as big news. It was a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia (an organization created long ago, but having almost no […]
Can we learn from Rome’s experience?
EDITOR: The January 6th insurrection and other recent events makes this editorial from November 24, 2010 even more pertinent today. History students can sense “déjà vu all over again”, in the words of the great Yankee catcher and manager, Yogi Berra. The Watchdog senses that the USA started to decline around 1992 with the election […]
REF: A very apt title to a work of music
At times I envision composers getting together over drinks and laughing over the preposterous titles they give their works, as though the titles in any way have influenced the creations. But an outstanding exception to a linkage of music to events is Richard Strauss’s “Ein Heldenleben,” which translates as “A Hero’s Life” and refers to […]
REF: When Fascism came to Lancaster County
I recently encountered professor Timothy Snyder of Yale on MSNBC and ordered his very short book “On Tyranny”. For over sixty years I have tried to learn the meaning of “fascism”. I now understand my difficulties since it is more like a creeping cancer than an alternative form of government and, as we saw with […]
Boston Found a Scapegoat After 9/11
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/12/us/virginia-buckingham-boston-911.html by Robert Field I underestimated and questioned the hysteria following 9/11 and made the expensive mistake of so underestimating its effect that I blew $50,000 in launching the hitherto successful “Diamond Men” movie in over twenty theaters in the NYC region a few weeks later. When I sought to promote the movie by handing […]
Forgetting Putin’s Kiss
By Slava Tsukerman In order to understand what is happening today in Russia it is very interesting to observe what happened with the three vigorous former leaders of the most active pro–Putin movement of the beginning of this century. “Nashi” (Ours) was a political youth movement in Russia, created in 2006, which declared to be a democratic, anti-fascist, anti-“oligarchic-capitalist” […]
Russians Comment on Biden-Putin Summit
By Slava Tsukerman Official governmental Russian media and most oppositional media present the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva as the obvious Putin’s victory. “The United States agreed to a dialogue with Russia in Geneva due to concerns about a potential nuclear threat,” said Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Federation Council commission on information policy and […]
Top Professionals and Leading Businessmen Flee Russia
by Slava Tsukerman The outflow of scientists and highly qualified specialists from Russia has accelerated by five times over the past nine years. This was announced on April 20, 2021 by the Chief Scientific Secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Dolgushkin during the General Meeting of the Academy. According to him, the massive […]
REF: There is no precedent
Although those of us who follow current events from reliable sources knew better, I have empathy for the January 6 rioters who were not as well informed and heeded the call of the then president to disrupt certification of what they were told were false election results. When I grew up, it was a matter […]
A “gap” in my research for Professor Cipolla
After a gap year working in construction management between my freshman year at Oberlin, in the late 1950s I attended Cal Berkeley for my junior and senior year (although half of the senior year was spent at the Mexican National University in Mexico City.) For some reason that remains obscure to me, I was […]
Influence of Navalny on Russian Public
By Slava Tsukerman On April 26, 2021, state prosecutors in Moscow ordered all groups supporting Alexei Navalnyto immediately stop their activities. It seemed the government is starting a campaign aimed at eliminating all forms of protest movements in Russia. According to Wikipedia, “Alexei Navalny (age 44 years) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption […]
One Way to Get People Off the Streets: Buy Hotels
New York Times: For homeless people, a place to live is life changing to a degree that almost no other intervention can provide. The article is excellent and deals with recycling run down hotels that might otherwise be demolished for use as housing for the homeless. San Francisco and NYC are almost unique situations, but […]
REF speaks: I remain fearful at what may occur in the not distant future.
By Robert Field The visceral direction of the Right is a call to return to the USA of 1850, a nation of total white supremacy. Today we have a very different nation comprised of a citizenry and norms that were unimaginable back then. (And for white elders, it is hard to recognize and emotionally […]