Sunday, December 31, 2017

An Apology and Explanation

From Editor Robert Parry: For readers who have come to see Consortiumnews as a daily news source, I would like to extend my personal apology for our spotty production in recent days. On Christmas Eve, I suffered a stroke that…

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Reverberations from Trump’s Jerusalem Move

One ironic benefit from Donald Trump’s presidency is that the world is showing more independence against U.S. edicts, such as the recent rebuff of Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.…

Monday, December 25, 2017

Trump’s Continuation of US Interventionism

Criticizing his predecessors for misguided foreign wars, President Trump promised a break in that approach, but his National Security Strategy report indicates a shift more in rhetoric than substance, reports Dennis J. Bernstein.   By Dennis J Bernstein President Trump’s…

Saturday, December 23, 2017

UN Members Show Spine in Rebuffing Trump

President Trump and Ambassador Nikki Haley tried to bully the U.N. into accepting Trump’s decision on Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but – in a rare show of independence – most U.N. members pushed back, notes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.…

The Israel-gate Side of Russia-gate

While unproven claims of Russian meddling in U.S. politics have whipped Official Washington into a frenzy, much less attention has been paid to real evidence of Israeli interference in U.S. politics, as Dennis J Bernstein describes.   By Dennis J…

How To Betray Your Wife, Destroy Her Self-Worth, And Implode Your Marriage In One Easy Step

I maintain, porn or no porn, that husbands should still be treated with respect in their homes. Continue reading →

The post How To Betray Your Wife, Destroy Her Self-Worth, And Implode Your Marriage In One Easy Step appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Friday, December 22, 2017

The Strangelovian Russia-gate Myth

The Strangelovian palaver of Russia-gate is embraced by many liberals as some totem to ward off the vile Donald Trump, but this dishonest process only furthers the cause of American Empire and risks global destruction, says poet Phil Rockstroh. By…

Why Loss of Net Neutrality Hurts Democracy

The principle of every person having equal access to the Internet represented a strong pillar of modern democracy — and its removal represents another victory for profit-dominated plutocracy, as Dennis J Bernstein explains.   By Dennis J Bernstein Despite its…

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Intel Vets Tell Trump Iran Is Not Top Terror Sponsor

A group of U.S. intelligence veterans urges President Trump to stop his administration’s false claims about Iran being the leading state sponsor of terrorism when U.S. allies, such as Saudi Arabia. are clearly much guiltier.   MEMORANDUM FOR: The President…

Did Obama Arm Islamic State Killers?

Exclusive: A new study shows that U.S. government weapons ended up in the hands of Islamic State jihadists, but no one in Washington seems interested in how they got there or what President Obama knew, writes Daniel Lazare. By Daniel…

Dear Hollywood, These All-Female Remakes Are Dumb, Boring, Childish, And Demeaning

The trailer for the new all-female “Ocean’s 11” reboot was unveiled this week. The Hollywood Reporter called it "the capstone 2017 needed." Most regular people called it awful and stupid. Continue reading →

The post Dear Hollywood, These All-Female Remakes Are Dumb, Boring, Childish, And Demeaning appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Trump’s Gross Hypocrisy on Yemen War

Exclusive: The Trump administration’s hypocrisy was on clear display when it denounced Iran over an ineffectual Yemeni missile that landed in Saudi Arabia while the U.S. aids the Saudi slaughter of Yemeni civilians, says  Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall Political…

Delusional Self-Interest in Trump’s Jerusalem Move

President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital let him boast about his courage but he ignored both international law and U.S. interests in delivering this gift to the Israel Lobby, as Lawrence Davidson explains. By Lawrence Davidson It is…

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

If You’re Angry About Getting A Tax Cut, Feel Free To Send The IRS A Personal Donation

The GOP's tax reform plan has provoked seething outrage across America. Over half of the population opposes the bill, which will cut their taxes and allow them to keep more of their own money. Continue reading →

The post If You’re Angry About Getting A Tax Cut, Feel Free To Send The IRS A Personal Donation appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Let’s Try Saving Sex For Marriage. Clearly, The Other Way Isn’t Working.

If husband and wife are committed to each other and concerned with the other's happiness, sex will be not only a great joy but fulfilling and even edifying. It will bring them closer together. Continue reading →

The post Let’s Try Saving Sex For Marriage. Clearly, The Other Way Isn’t Working. appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

The Church In America Is Dying And It Isn’t Because Your Cashier Said ‘Happy Holidays’

I’m a Christian. I’m as culturally conservative as they come. But I can only roll my eyes when I hear about the so-called “War on Christmas.” Continue reading →

The post The Church In America Is Dying And It Isn’t Because Your Cashier Said ‘Happy Holidays’ appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

The Other Side of the Post’s Katharine Graham

Hollywood loves to make heroes of The Washington Post for the rare moments when it has stood up for journalism – while forgetting the blood-soaked cases of the Post spreading lies to justify wars, writes Norman Solomon. By Norman Solomon…

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

In Case You Missed …

Some of our special stories in November dealt with logical and evidentiary failings of the Russia-gate investigation and President Trump’s bombing of Syria over a dubious chemical-weapons attack.  “Rearranging the Watergate Myth” by James DiEugenio, Nov. 1, 2017 “The Legacy…

Monday, December 18, 2017

5 Questions Every Man Should Ask On A First Date To Weed Out The Man-Hating Feminists

A feminist writer named Lara Witt — who has said “whiteness is evil” and I’m sure a bunch of other crazy stuff that I can’t see because she blocked me on Twitter — went viral this week with an article titled “10 Things Every Intersectional Feminist Should Ask On A First Date.”

She opens her piece with this explanation:

“As a queer femme of color, I keep close relationships with people who go beyond allyship; they’re true accomplices in the fight against white supremacy, queerphobia, and misogyny. If you’re not going to support marginalized folks, then we can’t be friends, let alone date. The personal is political.”

By my count, there are as many made-up words in that paragraph as there are sentences. An impressive accomplishment, and somehow she manages to maintain that pace throughout the entire thing.

In case any man is curious about the interrogation he may face should he attempt to date the kind of woman who uses words like “allyship” and “queerphobia,” here are the questions:

Continue reading …

The post 5 Questions Every Man Should Ask On A First Date To Weed Out The Man-Hating Feminists appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

The Most Effective Way To Destroy Your Husband, Ruin Your Marriage, And Encourage Infidelity

There is more than one way to cheat on your spouse — or, I should say, cheat your spouse. And it seems that many husbands are being cheated by their wives in a way that is no less damaging and no more justified than being cheated on. This form of “cheating” is all the more common because our culture tells women that men aren’t owed anything in the first place. You can’t cheat them out of something you were never supposed to give them, after all.

But a husband is owed something, and his wife is obliged to provide it. He is not only owed it; he needs it.

That is: respect.

A wife who belittles her husband, cuts him down, nitpicks him relentlessly, holds her affection — both physical and emotional — as a ransom, nags him endlessly, criticizes him constantly, humiliates him in public and to her friends and in front of the children, and will not allow him to take a leadership position in the home, cannot be terribly surprised when he begins to withdraw. And if he cheats — which would be a great and indefensible evil, no matter how cold and domineering his wife may be — it cannot be said that he was the first. She cheated him; she lied to him, by promising to respect him and treat him like a man, only to turn around and treat him like a child.

Men have a deep desire for respect. It is truly a catastrophe that we are not raising our girls to understand and appreciate this fact. Instead they learn, often from their own mothers, from the media, from television, advertisements, academia, and so on, that men are worthless oafs who should be handled accordingly until they prove themselves worthy of better treatment. “My husband will be respected if he earns it,” the wife declares. “Let him do the chores I assign to him, let him accomplish everything I require, let him dance to my tune, and then perhaps I’ll reward him like a circus animal with little pellets of respect.”

This is not the right approach.

Continue reading …

The post The Most Effective Way To Destroy Your Husband, Ruin Your Marriage, And Encourage Infidelity appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

No, We Aren’t ‘Stealing From The Poor’ By Allowing The Rich To Keep More Of Their Own Money

Liberals have informed me that the GOP tax plan will “take from the poor and give to the rich.” Let me state from the start that I am passionately opposed to such a plan. I do not believe that the government should be stealing money from the wallets of our poor and putting it into the bank vaults of the wealthy. In fact, I would find this morally deranged, unsustainable, and criminal. I’ll do you one better: a government that enacts this kind of system ought to be violently overthrown.

It’s a good thing we don’t have that kind of system and we never will.

When liberals claim that the Republican tax plan will “steal from the poor” and “give to the rich” what they mean is that the rich will be getting a tax break and the poor and middle class will not. This is untrue even when phrased correctly. The middle class will, in fact, receive a tax break that isn’t any smaller, proportionally, than the break given to “the rich.” But let’s put that to the side for the moment and examine this notion that we are somehow “giving” to the rich by not taking what is already theirs.

To begin with, we have to establish one thing: rich folks already pay far, far, far more than their fair share of the taxes. The top 1% — Bernie’s dreaded millionaires and billionaires — pay 40% of all federal income taxes. The top 5% pay 60%. The top 10% pay 70%. The top 25% pay 86%. The entire bottom half of income earners are responsible for chipping in a whopping 3%. The poor pay no income taxes at all and receive a refund that exceeds the amount withheld.

So, while the well-off carry almost the entire tax burden, the poor turn a profit. I myself have been poor, or nearly poor, earning around 17 grand a year from a full-time job, and I well remember getting free money come tax day. Indeed, it was a shock to the system to achieve a little more success in life (though I still am certainly not rich) and learn what it’s like to actually pay taxes. It’s not fun. And the government takes such a massive chunk that, if they took much more, it would almost defeat the purpose of earning the money in the first place.

What more do you want? What sort of maniac could look at the percentage breakdowns and come to the conclusion that the upper brackets aren’t paying enough? They’re paying almost all of it. Should they pay literally all of it? Should they pay 500% of taxes so that everyone in the bottom 50% gets a $5,000 annual bonus? What’s the end game here?

Continue reading …

The post No, We Aren’t ‘Stealing From The Poor’ By Allowing The Rich To Keep More Of Their Own Money appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Questioning the Russia-gate ‘Motive’

A key pillar of the Russia-gate affair is the assumption that Russia’s leaders wanted to stop Hillary Clinton and boost Donald Trump, but the Kremlin’s views on last year’s election were much more nuanced, writes Gilbert Doctorow. By Gilbert Doctorow…

Saturday, December 16, 2017

A Report to Our Readers

From Editor Robert Parry: Since we started Consortiumnews in 1995 at the dawn of the modern Internet, the threat to serious independent journalism has never been greater than it is today. Whatever one thinks of the Russia-gate imbroglio, what is…

Trump’s Misuse of Intelligence on Iran

Bowing to Israeli-Saudi desires, the Trump administration is abusing the U.S. intelligence process to whip up a war fever against Iran, much like George W. Bush did on Iraq, reports ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar The…

Friday, December 15, 2017

Protecting the Shaky Russia-gate Narrative

Exclusive: The New York Times continues its sorry pattern of falsifying the record on Russia-gate, giving its readers information that the newspaper knows not to be true, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry If Russia-gate is the massive scandal that…

The Scary Void Inside Russia-gate

Despite a lack of evidence at its core – and the risk of nuclear conflagration as its by-product – Russia-gate remains the go-to accusation for “getting” the Trump administration, explains Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen. By Stephen F. Cohen The…

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Lavishing Money on the Pentagon

Exclusive: It seems like it’s always Christmastime at the Pentagon where the stockings are full and budget-cutting is for those domestic social-program guys, as Jonathan Marshall explains. By Jonathan Marshall Wise parents who celebrate Christmas advise their young children not…

What’s at Stake in Honduran Election

Protests continue over the disputed Honduran presidential election after a solid lead by a progressive was wiped out amid gross irregularities and the right-wing incumbent was declared the winner, reports Rick Sterling. By Rick Sterling For seven months in 1969,…

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

The Foundering Russia-gate ‘Scandal’

Exclusive: Taking on water from revealed FBI conflicts of interest, the foundering Russia-gate probe – and its mainstream media promoters – are resorting to insults against people who note the listing ship, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The disclosure…

Trump’s Illegal Syrian Mission Creep

Even as the Islamic State’s “caliphate” in Syria collapses, the U.S. government is keeping about 2,000 soldiers in-country despite lacking any legal right to be there, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar discusses. By Paul R. Pillar The other day…

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Silencing of Courageous Documentaries

Historically, documentaries have told important truth in powerful ways and often challenging powerful groupthinks, but such brave films are becoming an endangered species, explains John Pilger. By John Pilger In the U.S., I first understood the power of the documentary…

North Korea’s Understandable Fears

By escalating threatening rhetoric — and staging provocative military maneuvers — President Trump may believe he can intimidate North Korea into capitulation but history would tell you something else, writes David William Pear. By David William Pear Like Pavlov’s dog,…

Trump, N. Korea & the Phony ‘Terror List’

Seeing what happened to the leaders of Iraq and Libya, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un won’t surrender his nuclear bombs – and getting put on the U.S. “terrorism list” won’t change that, as Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland explains. By Ivan…

Trump’s Lethal Decision on Jerusalem

President Trump has won praise from Christian Zionists and many staunch supporters of Israel for declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital, but critics say it only makes peace a more distant goal, reports Dennis J Bernstein.   By Dennis J Bernstein Protests…

Monday, December 11, 2017

Our National Panic Over Bullying Is Not Helping Bullied Kids. It’s Making Everything Worse.

Keaton Jones is the most famous middle schooler in the country. He’s also the most infamous. His story went mega-viral after his mother, Kimberly, filmed her son describing the bullying he faced from his peers at the lunch table. Through his tears, Keaton looked into the camera and explained that his bullies make fun of him for his nose, call him ugly, tell him that he has no friends, and pour milk on him. It’s a sad and personal story that, for some reason, Keaton’s mother wanted millions of people to hear. And they did hear it. And they felt really bad for Keaton.

For like five minutes.

The video was shared millions of times. Basically all of the celebrities in the country came out in defense of the young man. Every famous person from Snoop Dogg to Katy Perry to Justin Bieber to Mark Hamill lined up to send an inspirational message of support. The story especially resonated with athletes, as Lebron James and sports stars from across the spectrum chimed in. Keaton now has a standing invitation to attend dozens of different games and other special events. Or had, anyway.

A GoFundMe for Keaton has already raised over $50,000. There is now a scholarship fund in the works, in addition to the GoFundMe. It’s not clear why the kid needs 50 grand or how that will help with the bullying, but never mind. Sean Hannity promised to call the school himself to sort out the problem. He publicly called for the firing of “people” if the situation isn’t “fixed,” despite not knowing a single thing about the situation, aside from what he saw in a two-minute video from one of the kids involved. But nobody objected. Keaton was the hero of the moment.

And the moment passed in a hurry.

With fame comes scrutiny, which is why we should always be suspicious of parents who want fame for their kids. Literally nothing good can come of it. And, for Keaton, nothing did. Within hours, internet detectives had researched Keaton’s family and found a “racist” post on Kimberly’s Facebook page. Then rumors began to circulate that Keaton was bullied for making racist remarks to his classmates. The backfire began quickly and inevitably.

Continue reading …

The post Our National Panic Over Bullying Is Not Helping Bullied Kids. It’s Making Everything Worse. appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Russia-gate’s Litany of Corrections

Exclusive: As much as the U.S. mainstream media insists that the Russia-gate scandal is growing, what is undeniably growing is the list of major corrections that news outlets have been forced to issue, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The…

National Democrats Resist Reforms

Still refusing to face why Donald Trump and the Republicans won in 2016, the national Democratic Party rebuffs proposals from progressives to make the party more democratic and less corporate-dominated, writes Norman Solomon. By Norman Solomon With the Democratic Party’s…

Saturday, December 9, 2017

The Corruption of College Athletics

The U.S. likes to view itself as the epitome of sports integrity, but beyond its own professional and amateur doping scandals, there is the institutionalized corruption around U.S. college athletics, reports Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson There is an old…

Friday, December 8, 2017

When Washington Cheered the Jihadists

Exclusive: Official Washington helped unleash hell on Syria and across the Mideast behind the naïve belief that jihadist proxies could be used to transform the region for the better, explains Daniel Lazare. By Daniel Lazare When a Department of Defense intelligence…

Capitalism’s Failure of the Flesh

A bitter irony of modernity is that the age-old dream of freeing people from work’s tedium has been answered by the rise of robots, but capitalism has turned that “freedom” into a barren life with little left to lose, writes…

Missing the Significance of Israel-gate

Amid the U.S. mainstream media’s hyping of Russia-gate, there has been much less attention given to what some call “Israel-gate,” evidence that Israel was wielding much more behind-the-scenes influence, reports Dennis J Bernstein.   By Dennis J Bernstein President Trump’s…

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Trump’s Scheme to Carve Up Palestine

President Trump’s big idea for Israeli-Palestinian peace was the “outside-in” plan in which Israel’s new Saudi allies would squeeze the Palestinians until they accepted a bogus “state,” as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains. By Paul R. Pillar Donald Trump…

Russia-gate’s Reach into Journalism

The investigation to somehow blame Russia for Donald Trump’s election has now merged with another establishment goal of isolating and intimidating whistleblowers and other dissidents, as Dennis J Bernstein describes. By Dennis J Bernstein The Russia-gate investigation has reached into…

Franken’s Opportunism on the Iraq War

Sen. (and former comedian) Al Franken was a rising Democratic Party star before sexual harassment allegations brought him down to earth, but was he really ever a progressive hero, asks William Blum at Anti-Empire Report. By William Blum Poor Al,…

Year-End Fund Goal Set at $50,000

From Editor Robert Parry: We are setting our Year-End Fund Drive target at $50,000, an amount needed to continue our independent  journalism which has been challenging misguided conventional wisdom for 22 years. You can donate by credit card online (we accept Visa,…

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Roy Moore and the Triumph of Partisanship

Partisanship has reached such extremes in U.S. politics that Republicans are prepared to brush aside multiple allegations that Roy Moore preyed on teen-age girls to keep a Democrat from winning in Alabama, writes Michael Winship. By Michael Winship Amid all…

Sucking Liberals into a New Cold War

Out of fury against President Trump, many liberals have enlisted in the ranks of the New Cold War against Russia, seeming to have forgotten the costs to rationality and lives from the first Cold War, warns William Blum. By William…

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

The Tangled Threads of Russia-gate

Exclusive: Once a Washington groupthink takes hold, as it has in the fervent belief about Russia-gate, respect for facts and logic fly out the window since all these important people can’t be wrong, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry A…

Monday, December 4, 2017

Apparent Election Theft in Honduras

Eight years ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended a coup in Honduras to prevent a possible second term by a progressive president, but the U.S. now sits by as a right-wing president looks to steal a second term, says…

How Russia-gate Rationalizes Censorship

Special Report: The Russia-gate hysteria has spread beyond simply a strategy for neutralizing Donald Trump or even removing him from office into an excuse for stifling U.S. dissent that challenges the New Cold War, reports Joe Lauria. By Joe Lauria…

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Cherry-picking Toward War with Iran

In trying to rally American hostility toward Iran, CIA Director Pompeo and other U.S. officials are engaging in the same kind of distorted intelligence that led to the catastrophic Iraq invasion, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R.…

Edward R. Murrow’s Timeless Warnings

As the Russia-gate hysteria expands, it is coming to resemble the McCarthyism of the 1950s, except this time liberals and progressives are promoting the insidious “guilt by association,” as Michael Milillo describes. By Michael Milillo Does the American government requiring…

Honduras Again in the Balance

The initial Honduran election returns looked promising for the progressive challenger but the vote count has since stalled and the authoritarian incumbent sent troops into the streets to stop protests, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.   By Dennis J Bernstein…

Friday, December 1, 2017

The Scalp-Taking of Gen. Flynn

Exclusive: The Russia-gate prosecutors have taken the scalp of ex- National Security Adviser (and retired Lt. Gen.) Flynn for lying to the FBI. But this case shows how dangerously far afield this “scandal” has gone, reports Robert Parry. By Robert…

America’s Military-Industrial Addiction

Polls show that Americans are tired of endless wars in faraway lands, but many cheer President Trump’s showering money on the Pentagon and its contractors, a paradox that President Eisenhower foresaw, writes JP Sottile. By JP Sottile The Military-Industrial Complex…