Essays in Contemporary History and Politics <– this is a link to the eBook My book’s title is taken from the first article in the list below. It is dedicated to Sita Ram Mali, and my students and colleagues from Ramjas College from when I taught there, during the years 1974 to 1994 Dear readers:… Read More Closing the Circle
October 4, 2025 I was scheduled to give a talk at the National Press Club of Australia on October 20 called “The Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists.” It was to focus on the amplification of Israeli lies in the press, which most reporters know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel. But,… Read More Chris Hedges: The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israel lobby, cancels my talk on our betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
This officially sanctioned system of privileges will breed resentment among those who have spent their lives in those institutions and have a potentially demoralising impact in the long term. A “substantial set-up grant” only makes the funds available. Procurement is another story altogether. Shobhit Mahajan A recent newspaper report (IE, October 22, ) mentions that… Read More Reversing the American brain drain: Is the Indian government’s scheme enough?
‘What’s happening in Gaza and the occupied territories is not Judaism – it’s a horrific religious and fanatic mutation. We must stand against it, speak truth to power, and refuse to be silenced‘ An open letter, signed by at least 460 Jewish and Israeli intellectuals, celebrities and political figures, calls on the UN and heads… Read More Hundreds of prominent Jews and Israelis urge world powers to hold Israel accountable ‘for Gaza atrocities’
By David Bromwich Here’s part of the way that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently defended his decision to stop production of the F-22 Raptor, the U.S. Air Force’s giant boondoggle of a fighter jet. “Consider,” the secretary of defense said, “that by 2020, the United States is projected to have nearly 2,500 manned combat aircraft of all kinds. Of… Read More How serial war became the American way of life (2009)
By Nick Turse / TomDispatch Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to unleash the armed forces on more American cities during a rambling address to top military brass. He told the hundreds of generals and admirals gathered to hear him that some of them would be called upon to take a primary role at a time when… Read More On the Precipice of Authoritarian Rule
How are professors hired or fired? It’s based on their knowledge productivity—this is how the idea of the “knowledge worker” and “knowledge economy” emerges. This is the thing that really interests me as a philosopher: that the gold standard, the epistemic norm is expertise; it’s no longer wisdom or something broader that everyone is thought… Read More Can the Humanities Be Saved?
the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction … no longer exists: Hannah Arendt NB: The author asks: If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live… Read More A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0
Dragged by her hair, incessantly punched and kicked, stripped naked, wrapped in an Israeli flag, sexually humiliated in her own language (lilla hora, “little whore;” hora Greta, “Greta whore”), threatened with gassing (revealing detail, this), uniformed guards all the while taking “selfie” photographs as they stand next to her laughing and jeering: What is this about,… Read More This is how the ‘most moral army in the world’ treated Greta Thunberg / The Liberal Abandonment of Greta Thunberg
NB: The USA emerged as the leading global hooligan after World War 2. Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Chile, Iraq, Afghanistan: a long story, documented by Alfred McCoy. Venezuela is the latest chapter in American empire building. It will meet the fate of their intervention in Vietnam. Their Armed forces know how they had to leave in… Read More Trump’s saber-rattling in Venezuela / Venezuelan Coup Leader María Machado Vows To Privatize Oil: US Corporations Will ‘Make a Lot of Money’
After the truth-shower 