Global

Colonialism is hardly a thing of the past – it’s alive and vibrant as ever . . . from the Middle East to Western Europe to the United States to India and God knows where else. And it can be profitable as hell, at least for the right industries.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

This is true especially if you belong to a wealthy, heavily armed nation – because your enemies are everywhere, clustering at your borders or, even worse, daring to claim possession of their ancestral land and inconveniencing your possession of it.

No one had expected that one year would be enough to recenter the Palestinian cause as the world’s most pressing issue, and that millions of people across the globe, would, once again rally for Palestinian freedom. 

 The last year witnessed an Israeli genocide in Gaza, unprecedented violence in the West Bank, but also legendary expressions of Palestinian sumud, or steadfastness. 

 It is not the enormity of the Israeli war, but the degree of the Palestinian sumud that has challenged what once seemed to be a foregone conclusion to the Palestinian struggle. 

A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed.

 A narcissist is person who has an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration, sexual gratification, applause and a lack of empathy for others.

A paranoid person or group exhibits excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of other individuals or groups.

 A megalomaniac is a pathological egotist, someone with a psychological disorder who exhibits symptoms like delusions of grandeur and an obsession with greatness, power or wealth.

A xenophobe is a person who is fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or of people from different countries or cultures.

A demagogue is a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.

I predict that Israel will create an “October Surprise”event attack with the intent of swinging the election to Trump prior to the November election. The term October Surprise originated after Iran took American Embassy personal hostage in 1979 after overthrowing tyrannical Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In that event, the Reagan campaign committed treason by negotiating with Iran to hold the American hostages until after Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter by offering them a better deal for badly needed airplane parts and other military equipment. History sometimes repeats itself. Expect Israel to attack Iran in a big way during this month of October. This will force Kamala Harris to take a position, losing either Muslim voters or Jewish voters in the process.

Many of us know the pain of paying steep tolls, especially when a turnpike is taken over by a private company.

Now imagine you live in one of our hemisphere’s most impoverished countries. Do that and you’ll get a glimpse into how unfair trade deals help make life unlivable in many countries — and force countless people to seek a living in countries like the United States.

When a private company suddenly put up toll booths in the middle of a taxpayer-funded highway, local residents in El Progreso, Honduras were furious.

They knew the new fees would also hike the price of food, bus fares, and their daily commutes — and that making it in their country, where roughly half of the population lives below the poverty line, was going to become unbearable.