By Slava Tsukerman Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has begun. The world press is full of publications about it. Here are some quotes from New York Times: “President Vladimir Putin called on Ukrainian soldiers to put down their arms. He said that those who try to interfere with Russia’s actions ‘must know that Russia’s answer will […]
The Russian Figure Skating Drama at the Winter Olympics
By Slava Tsukerman Lately Russian news doesn’t stop bringing surprises. It seems nothing can create more discussions in the media then expectations of the possible war with Ukraine. But unexpectedly there is another subject that triggers as much controversy and discussions in Russia. This subject is the doping scandal at the Winter Olympics, involving Russian […]
Is Russian Attitude To Possibility Of War With Ukraine Changing?
By Slava Tsukerman There is a new trend in Russia: the known hawkish hard-line official personalities are unexpectedly openly turning against Putin’s politics. A recent sensation was on February 6: there was an open letter to President Vladimir Putin from Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, which went viral. Ivashov is one of the most hardline politically active […]
Learning from just waiting
by Robert Field Perhaps the most important business lesson of my life came when I was thirteen years old. During the summer, my father assigned me to work at his satellite furniture store on Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia, which was about thirty feet horizontally and fifty feet vertically from the Frankfort Elevator, at that location […]
Tsukerman: Militaristic Mood In Russia is Growing
By Slava Tsukerman January 30, 2022 Militaristic tone of the Russian media is growing. More and more the Russian conflict with Ukraine is presented there as a Russian conflict with the “aggressive” USA and NATO. On January 28, an anchor of one of the main political programs of Russian TV “60 minutes”, while covering the […]
On the Evolution of African-Americans
By Robert Field Post-Darwinism insinuations that African-Americans were inherently inferior to Caucasians were clearly refuted by the brilliance and careers of such luminaries as Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, later Paul Robeson and thousands of others that were referred to as the “Ten Percent.” Nevertheless over my long life (84 […]
Militaristic Mood in Russia
by Slava Tsukerman Lately, Russian state propaganda seems to actively heat up the militaristic frame of mind in Russian population. On December 21, New York Times published an article “How the Kremlin Is Militarizing Russia”. Since then the militaristic mood of the Russian media has grown. On December 21, the blogger Igor Yakovenko summarized the […]
REF: Is Scott Martin a gutless candidate for governor?
by Robert E. Field LNP, Dec. 11, 2021: “State Sen. Scott Martin is officially entering Pennsylvania’s 2022 race for governor Saturday, launching a campaign he hopes will rise above a crowded and well-funded Republican field by leaning on his relatability as a parent and small business owner and on his solid conservative legislative record… “Another […]
Drug treatment specialist reports on unsupervised drug treatment during COVID outbreak
by Andrew Byrne, MD of suburban Sydney, Australia 1. Changes to opiate treatment programs during Covid – benefits for some, harms for others. 2. Buprenorphine alone or with naloxone: Which is safer? (Kelty et al.) 3. Harm reduction and diazepam prescribing in opiate programs. 4. Microdose transfers from methadone to buprenorphine – the ‘Bernese’ method […]
Oregon Drug Decrim is Slashing Drug Arrests, Massively Funding Services
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 […]