BuzzFlash Bids a Fond Farewell
(Photo: Wally Gobetz / Flickr)
WILLIAM RIVERS PITT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Dear BuzzFlash readers,
Eighteen years ago, in the infancy of the progressive internet and the aftermath of Bush v. Gore, an activist named Mark Karlin started a website called BuzzFlash where all the important news of the day could be collected in one easy place. It was a fairly new thing at the time, a labor of love, and a vital one. For many, BuzzFlash was a lifeline to sanity in those dark and lonely days.
Today, after 18 great years, BuzzFlash is closing up shop for good.
Authentic Compassion and Public Policy
MARY COLLINS AND SARAH GARLINGTON FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
It is never easy to balance the range of social values in our complex society, nor can compassion be the sole value guiding policy decisions. Dignified debate about policies, evidence and national character are required. This includes challenging the misuse the term, its false meaning and its linkage to policies that are more accurately characterized as cruel. Without this corrective, a false sense of shared cultural values predominates.
Murder in the Consulate: The West's Love Affair With Bone-Saw Monarchs
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Photo: April Brady, Project on Middle East Democracy / Flickr)
NAZMUS SAKIB FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
After two weeks of outright denial and rejections, the Saudi government has finally acknowledged that it has indeed killed one of its citizens in a consulate in a foreign land -- Istanbul, Turkey, on October 2. The unfortunate victim is journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an ex-Saudi royal insider who later turned into a moderate critic of many of the blunders the new regime that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has unleashed in the last three years.
The Birth of the Military-Industrial Complex Monster
(Photo: Mark Vitullo / Flickr)
TIM DUFF FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
In his farewell speech on January 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the "military-industrial complex." The birth of this monster can be traced to National Security Council document 68 (NSC-68), submitted to Harry S. Truman in April 1950. The document was top secret then and remained so until 1975. Its main author was Paul Nitze, a prosperous and highly educated investment banker unknown to the general public. As noted by David Callahan in his book, Dangerous Capabilities: Paul Nitze and the Cold War, Nitze summarized an elite consensus that, in effect, turned the United States decisively away from its New Deal social programs and toward an endless military buildup.
Unity: Not the American Way
(Photo: Tristan Bowersox / Flickr)
BRYAN ADELINE FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
A near-constant refrain from all sides of the American political spectrum is a call to unity. For the pundit class, the refrain often takes on the hand-wringing form and furrowed confused brows of flabbergastment over why Donald Trump does not rise above the partisan filth that he wallows in and instead use his prodigious salesmanship skills to manifest this unity that seems just ready and waiting to burst forth fully-formed upon the national scene.
But you know what? F--k unity. Unity is anti-democracy.
White Christian Evangelicals Ignore Trump's Accelerated Attacks on Immigrants
(Photo: countrygirl0 / Flickr)
BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Despite the assassination of eleven Jewish men and women at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue -- the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history, pipe bombs sent to Democratic Party politicians, CNN, George Soros and actor Robert DeNiro by an avid Trump supporter, the murder of two elderly African Americans by a white supremacist, and the incredible uptick in anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim incidents since his election, President Trump continues to traffic in fear and loathing. And despite his recent calling for troops to be sent to the border to stop the ginned-up "invasion" of refugees coming from Central America, white Christian evangelicals, who make up about 25-26% of the electorate in midterm elections, are sticking by their man.
A Pair of Army Rangers Warn Their Fellow Soldiers: Trump Is Lying
The US border at Nogales. (Photo: GothEric / Flickr)
RORY FANNING AND SPENSER RAPONE FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
To All Active Duty Soldiers:
Your Commander-in-chief is lying to you. You should refuse his orders to deploy to the southern US border should you be called to do so. Despite what Trump and his administration are saying, the migrants moving North towards the US are not a threat. These small numbers of people are escaping intense violence. In fact, much of the reason these men and women—with families just like yours and ours—are fleeing their homes is because of the US meddling in their country’s elections.
Mass Murder and American History
ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Mass shooting deaths from 1995 to 2017. Doctorrads / WikiCommons
“Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
This is bigger than hate, this latest mass shooting, last weekend, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which, oh my God, 11 more innocent souls died at the hands of a home-grown terrorist.
The president’s anti-immigrant tweets may have been in grotesque synchronicity with the killer’s: “Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. . . . This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” And they no doubt fed the climate in which Robert Bowers acted, but this is bigger than Donald Trump. He may be the trigger, but the weapon has been ready and waiting for a long time.
#MeTooIndia: After Scandals Erupt, Is the Country's Future a Feminist One?
AGNEYA SINGH FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
The Indian edition of the global #MeToo phenomenon blossomed with the formidable beauty of a Venus flytrap in early October. The fountainhead of the movement can ostensibly be attributed to a decade-old case of sexual abuse that occurred in the Indian film industry of Bollywood.
Beware of the Real Gremlins This Season
(Photo: Mike Mahaffie / Flickr)
JIM HIGHTOWER ON BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
As we enter another long season of direful winter darkness, we are beset by back-to-back waves of spooks. First come the little costumed goblins on Halloween, seeking sweet treats from us to ward off any trickery they might pull. Cute. But then, only six days later — eeeeeeek! — here come the real spine-chilling horrors of the season: Office-seeking politicians of the extreme right demanding votes on Election Day.