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The Unz Review •�An Alternative Media Selection$
A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media
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jesusrebel
Celebrating the Rebel Jesus
•�December 23, 2021
•�2,000 Words •�340 Comments • Reply
The media distorted parts of Jesus' message right from the start. The Gospels, and the first generation of Jesus' followers, effectively altered or hid his more radical teachings, and what has been preached from a million pulpits and that we still get from many today is a gross distortion. Jesus was not preoccupied with individual... Read More
Photo by Fibonacci Blue | CC BY 2.0
Who Are the “Alt-Right”?
On the Rise of Reactionary Hatred and How to Fight It
•�September 22, 2017
•�1,400 Words •�108 Comments • Reply
With the rise in public visibility of far-right-wing militants in the U.S. following the events in Charlottesville, much of the public is scrambling to understand just what this movement is and what forces are driving it. With much of the public discussing strategies for how best to fight right-wing extremism, the need for constructive solutions... Read More
On Schizophrenia
Father and Son Discuss Battling Mental Illness and the Art It Inspires
and •�September 15, 2017
•�3,700 Words •�5 Comments • Reply
My son Henry was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a 20-year-old art student in Brighton in 2002. He had tried to swim across the estuary at Newhaven that February and was rescued from the freezing water by fishermen and taken to hospital, unconscious and suffering from hypothermia. Henry was sectioned a year later and... Read More
Photo by sime simon | CC BY 2.0
The Russian Hacking Story Continues to Unravel
•�September 14, 2017
•�2,600 Words •�69 Comments • Reply
A new report by a retired IT executive at IBM, debunks the claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign by hacking Democratic computers and circulating damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The report, which is titled “The Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge“, provides a rigorous examination of the wobbly allegations upon which the... Read More
Photo by Mike Licht | CC BY 2.0
The United States of Manufactured Hysteria
•�September 1, 2017
•�1,500 Words •�70 Comments • Reply
Thank God for the Charlottesville Nazis! For a moment there, it was looking like we were actually going to have a few days to stop and reflect on the state of America without being subjected to some new form of manufactured mass hysteria. Seriously, just a few short weeks ago, as the corporatist ruling classes’... Read More
Photo by frankieleon | CC BY 2.0
A de-Putin-Nazification of America Update
•�August 18, 2017
•�1,400 Words •�65 Comments • Reply
So the de-Putin-Nazification of America couldn’t be going much better at the moment. In terms of emotionally manipulating people (and especially any heretofore wayward members of the American “left”) into forming a mindless, hysterical mob and running around like headless chickens branding anyone who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton a goose-stepping Nazi, this past week... Read More
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The de-Putin-Nazification of America
•�August 11, 2017
•�1,900 Words •�84 Comments • Reply
Sometime circa late July, as the hundreds of thousands of de facto vassals that cater to the needs of New York City’s simulated aristocracy were navigating the sweltering hell that subway system has recently become, approximately one hundred miles to the east, deep in the heart of Resistance territory, where villas rent for up to... Read More
Photo by Veni | CC BY 2.0
Did Hillary Scapegoat Russia to Save Her Campaign?
•�August 1, 2017
•�2,000 Words •�77 Comments • Reply
The “Russia hacking” flap has nothing to do with Russia and nothing to do with hacking. The story is basically a DNC invention that was concocted to mitigate the political fallout from the nearly 50,000 emails that WikiLeaks planned to publish on July 22, 2016, just 3 days before the Democratic National Convention. That’s what... Read More
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Democrats in the Dead Zone
•�June 23, 2017
•�1,500 Words •�58 Comments • Reply
This year the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to grow larger than ever. Oceanologists predict the lifeless expanse of water below the Mississippi River Delta will swell to an area bigger than the state of Vermont, an aquatic ecosystem despoiled by industrial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, oil leaks and the lethal effects... Read More
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Comey’s Lies of Omission
•�June 14, 2017
•�2,200 Words •�55 Comments • Reply
Donald Trump is not the target of an FBI investigation. Donald Trump has never been the target of an FBI investigation. The FBI is not investigating Trump for collusion, improper relations with a foreign government, treason or any of the other ridiculous things he’s been falsely accused of in the fake media. In fact, the... Read More
Photo by Jörn Schubert | CC BY 2.0
The Good Americans
•�June 1, 2017
•�1,600 Words •�56 Comments • Reply
The Pink Revolution of 2017, better known as Russiagate, is now more or less a fait accompli. Whether the corporatist ruling classes and their servants in Congress formally impeach him or force him to resign in disgrace, Donald J. Trump is being regime-changed, or at the very least effectively neutralized until he can be replaced... Read More
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Rosenstein and Mueller: The Regime Change Tag-Team
•�May 23, 2017
•�2,000 Words •�46 Comments • Reply
Let’s say you own a big US corporation but need help managing your domestic accounts. So you hire a bright, young man named Bruno who just graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters in corporate finance. And the first day on the job, you discover that Bruno has secretly employed a private detective who... Read More
Photo by Jake Cunningham | CC BY 2.0
Fast and Furious: Now They're Really Gunning for Trump
•�May 18, 2017
•�2,100 Words •�89 Comments • Reply
Here’s what I saw unfold in the media during the 24 hours from Monday to Tuesday afternoon (May 15-16). On Monday, I saw blaring headlines throughout the day on Twitter about how Trump had betrayed some “highly-classified” intelligence secrets to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during their meeting last week. I was busy and paid... Read More
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Invasion of the Putin-Nazis
•�May 17, 2017
•�1,600 Words •�72 Comments • Reply
So, here we are, a little over one hundred days into “The Age of Darkness” and the “racially Orwellian” Trumpian Reich, and, all right, while it’s certainly no party, it appears that those reports we heard of the Death of Neoliberalism were greatly exaggerated. Not only has the entire edifice of Western democracy not been... Read More
Photo by Jim Mattis | CC BY 2.0
The President Formerly Known as Hitler
•�April 21, 2017
•�1,300 Words •�60 Comments • Reply
So the President formerly known as Hitler has apparently pulled his head out of his ass and gotten with the global capitalist program. The ruling classes couldn’t be more relieved, as it was beginning to look like they were going to have to carry on with their totally ridiculous “Manchurian President” propaganda indefinitely, or deal... Read More
“FBI’s Comey, Not Russia, Tilted the Election Toward Trump”
Interview with Dennis Kucinich
•�April 3, 2017
•�1,000 Words •�14 Comments • Reply
MW: Should FBI Director James Comey be investigated for meddling in the 2016 presidential election? Dennis Kucinich, Former Congressman: The Director of the FBI is not beyond accountability. President Obama should have demanded Director Comey’s resignation immediately after Comey interfered in the 2016 Presidential election with his October 28, 2016 pronouncement of the discovery of... Read More
Photo by Robert Couse-Baker | CC BY 2.0
The United States of Cognitive Dissonance
•�March 23, 2017
•�1,500 Words •�68 Comments • Reply
It’s always extremely sad and confusing when a massive propaganda campaign, like the one we’ve been subjected to for about the last year, comes to a sudden and ignominious end. You wake up one morning, and the billionaire asshat that more or less every “respected” organ of the corporatist media has been telling you was... Read More
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The Trump Investigation
Essential Criminal Probe or Politically-Motivated Witch Hunt?
•�March 7, 2017
•�1,500 Words •�76 Comments • Reply
If Donald Trump is found guilty of illegal behavior in his connections with Russia, then he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But shouldn’t the same rule apply to Obama? Shouldn’t Obama be held responsible if he authorized an illegal investigation of the Trump campaign in order to destroy a political... Read More
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Obama’s Book Deal: The $60 Million Selfie
•�March 3, 2017
•�3,500 Words •�34 Comments • Reply
If you had any doubt that former community organizer Barack Obama sees his future as a corporate pitchman for the rich and famous (the Ricardo Montalban of the policy set), look no further than the deal that he and his wife, Michele, struck with Penguin Random House for a reported $60 million (which is a... Read More
The Berkeley Incident
•�February 3, 2017
•�1,000 Words •�22 Comments • Reply
Why did President Donald Trump fire off an angry and threatening tweet early Thursday morning following the violent protests that had broken out the night before on UC Berkeley campus? Here’s a copy of Trump’s tweet: Maybe the impulsive President was just angry that a controversial, rightwing speaker like Milo Yiannopoulos was unable to deliver... Read More
Game Over for the Democrats?
•�January 27, 2017
•�1,200 Words •�15 Comments • Reply
In 2008, the American people voted overwhelmingly for change. They never got it. Hence, Trump. To pretend there's no connection between Obama's failed presidency and the subsequent rise of Donald John Trump, is to ignore the obvious and shrug off responsibility for the situation the country is in today. Obama created Trump, the man didn't... Read More
Photo by Diego Torres Sylvester | CC BY 2.0
The Issue Is Not Trump. It Is Us
•�January 17, 2017
•�2,200 Words •�99 Comments • Reply
On the day President Trump is inaugurated, thousands of writers in the United States will express their indignation. “In order for us to heal and move forward …,” say Writers Resist, “we wish to bypass direct political discourse, in favour of an inspired focus on the future, and how we, as writers, can be a... Read More
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Ah, So Putin Didn’t Hack Those Emails After All
•�December 16, 2016
•�1,200 Words •�54 Comments • Reply
The neocon-driven propaganda campaign to prevent president-elect Donald Trump from taking office took an unexpected turn on Thursday when CBS posted an article claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally authorized the alleged hacking of the DNC. According to the report: As is true with earlier reports on the same topic, CBS fails to provide... Read More
The Corporate Media’s Assault on Free Speech
An Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair
•�December 13, 2016
•�1,000 Words •�8 Comments • Reply
Mike Whitney: CounterPunch was listed as one of the 200 websites that, according to the Washington Post, “wittingly or unwittingly published or echoed Russian propaganda”. The shadowy organization that leveled these claims is called PropOrNot, a group of researchers has made every effort to remain anonymous. Rather than wasting our time asking whether or not... Read More
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The Democrats “Russia Hacking” Campaign Is Political Suicide
•�December 12, 2016
•�1,100 Words •�107 Comments • Reply
The Democratic Party is doing incalculable damage to itself by shapeshifting into the party of baseless conspiracy theories, groundless accusations, and sour grapes. Hillary Clinton was already the most distrusted presidential candidate in party history. Now she’s become the de facto flag-bearer for the nutso-clique of aspiring propagandists at the CIA, the New York Times... Read More
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Manufacturing Normality
•�December 6, 2016
•�1,500 Words •�24 Comments • Reply
Sometime circa mid-November, in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s defeat (i.e., the beginning of the end of democracy), the self-appointed Guardians of Reality, better known as the corporate media, launched a worldwide marketing campaign against the evil and perfidious scourge of “fake news.” This campaign is now at a fever pitch. Media outlets throughout the... Read More
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Lenin Comes to the White House?
•�November 30, 2016
•�1,100 Words •�92 Comments • Reply
Donald Trump, commenting on the passing of Fidel Castro, branded him a mere “dictator”. Whatever the long-lasting results (and mistakes) of the Cuban experiment, History has already de facto recognized Fidel as one of the great revolutionary leaders of the modern – and postmodern – era. Trump – historical irony obliges – also has all... Read More
Photo by Jedimentat44 | CC BY 2.0. Credit: Counterpunch
Confessions of an Alleged ‘Russian Propagandist’: A Pentagon Hit?
•�November 28, 2016
•�2,300 Words •�21 Comments • Reply
ThisCantBeHappening.net didn’t make the Washington Post’s list of 200 news sites that are “purveyors of Russian propaganda” designed to “undermine Americans’ faith in democracy,” but an article by yours truly published on our site on September 29 which was picked up by CounterPunch.org and run the following day was cited as “proof” that CounterPunch is... Read More
Doomsday Election
•�November 8, 2016
•�2,200 Words •�16 Comments • Reply
This is what it must feel like to be on Death Row, to be waiting for the moment when the iron door clangs open for the last time and four burly guards escort you arm-in-arm to the room where your life will be extinguished. That same sense of dread hangs over the presidential election of... Read More
Memo to Comey: Keep Your Damn Hands Off Our Elections
•�November 4, 2016
•�1,400 Words •�47 Comments • Reply
Without a shred of evidence and against the expressed wishes of his superiors at the Department of Justice, the head of the nation’s most prestigious law enforcement agency announced the reopening of an investigation into the mishandling of classified material by Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. The surprise announcement was delivered last Friday by FBI... Read More
Photo by Diego Torres Silvestre | CC BY 2.0
Inside the Invisible Government
War, Propaganda, Clinton & Trump
•�October 28, 2016
•�2,400 Words •�70 Comments • Reply
The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the... Read More
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The Pathologization of Dissent
•�October 27, 2016
•�1,600 Words •�53 Comments • Reply
According to the mainstream media, in a recent speech in West Palm Beach, Donald Trump finally completely lost it. Sawing the air with his tiny hands in a unmistakeably Hitlerian manner, he spat out a series of undeniably hateful anti-Semitic code words … like “political establishment,” “global elites” and, yes, “international banks.” He even went... Read More
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Trump Unchained
•�October 19, 2016
•�1,600 Words •�125 Comments • Reply
When was the last time the media threw 100% of its support behind one party’s presidential candidate? What does that say about the media? Do you feel comfortable with the idea that a handful of TV and print-news executives are inserting themselves into the process and choosing our leaders for us? Is that the way... Read More
Oh, Say Can You See the Carnage?
Why Stand for a Country That Can Gun You Down in Cold Blood?
•�September 23, 2016
•�600 Words •�18 Comments • Reply
If black athletes in the NFL honestly think that African Americans who live under Old Glory are as ‘equally protected ‘as whites, then they should stand up during the national anthem and sing-along. But if they know that blacks aren’t getting a square deal, and that blacks can be gunned down at any time by... Read More
Can We Please Get Rid of the Pledge?
•�September 2, 2016
•�800 Words •�29 Comments • Reply
The Pledge of Allegiance is not an expression of patriotism. It is a loyalty oath that one normally associates with totalitarian regimes. People who love freedom, should be appalled by the idea our children are being coerced to stand and declare their support for the state. This is the worst form of indoctrination and it... Read More
Three Cheers for Kaepernick
Is Sitting During the National Anthem an Acceptable Form of Protest?
•�August 30, 2016
•�1,200 Words •�42 Comments • Reply
If you don’t think it takes guts to stay seated during the National Anthem, then buy a ticket for a major sporting event –let’s say, a baseball game– and refuse to stand up when the singing starts. Then you’ll see the fur fly. Then you’ll see how rankled people get when you don’t participate in... Read More
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Khizr Khan and the Triumph of Democratic Militarism
•�August 2, 2016
•�1,000 Words •�72 Comments • Reply
Against the wishes of her New York Democratic constituents, Hillary Clinton voted with Senate Republicans to invade Iraq. (It was a pivotal vote. Without Democratic support, George W. Bush’s request for this war of aggression would have failed.) Humayun Khan, 27, was an army captain who got killed during that invasion. Eight years later, the... Read More
Donald Trump and the Revolt of the Proles
•�July 18, 2016
•�1,500 Words •�15 Comments • Reply
Liberals and progressives love to point across the aisle and accuse their oppone
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Clinton’s Web of Deceit: She Lied and Lied Again
•�July 7, 2016
•�1,400 Words •�19 Comments • Reply
Hillary Clinton may or may not be a crook. That remains to be proven, though the sheer magnitude of the wealth that she and husband Bill have amassed since leaving the White House, and while she was serving as Secretary of State — nearly a quarter of a billion dollars earned by two people with... Read More
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The Silence of the Left: Brexit, Euro-Austerity and the T-TIP
•�July 1, 2016
•�1,400 Words •�18 Comments • Reply
The media in the United States have treated the British vote against remaining in the European Union (EU) as if it is populist “Trumpism,” an inarticulate right-wing vote out of ignorance at being left behind by the neoliberal economic growth policy. The fact that Donald Trump happened to be in Scotland to promote his golf... Read More
Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com
Our Revolution Rises to Smite Trump and Make the World Safe for Bipartisan Oligarchy
•�June 22, 2016
•�1,000 Words •�61 Comments • Reply
What did you hear Bernie say to his supporters last week, the night before the much ballyhooed People’s Summit in Chicago? Bernie’s biggest fan Jonathan Tasini nicely posted his remarks on the web here, so you can measure your memory of the live video online speech to the hard, cold truth of printed words. Mostly... Read More
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Trump vs. the Two Party System?
•�May 9, 2016
•�1,500 Words •�30 Comments • Reply
With his win last week in Indiana’s Republican primary, it appears increasingly likely that Donald Trump will now be the Republican nominee to run for president. However, Republican party elites are coming around only slowly to that prospect and are still having a hard time accepting that reality. They could still “shoot themselves in the... Read More
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Hillary: Wall Street’s Golden Girl
•�April 27, 2016
•�700 Words •�25 Comments • Reply
So it’s a go for Zeus to launch the thunderbolt. Neo-Athena – minus the wisdom – Hillary Clinton, Queen of Chaos, Goddess of War, Empress of the Perma-Smirk, will finally have her shot at the U.S. presidency. After the Battle of New York, she’s on top on number of votes; number of states; number of... Read More
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The (Un)Democratic Primary: Why We Need a New Party of the 99%
•�April 21, 2016
•�2,100 Words •�45 Comments • Reply
Despite a decisive victory Tuesday providing further confirmation of her likely nomination, in many respects Hillary Clinton emerges from the New York primary more damaged, her party more divided, than she entered it. What came to be called The Battle of New York has served only to further expose what millions of people in the... Read More
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PEW Explains Who Is Voting for Trump and Why
•�April 8, 2016
•�1,100 Words •�15 Comments • Reply
30 years of wage stagnation followed by one wealth-eviscerating asset bubble after another has drained the optimism from the collective American psyche. Most people now think things are going to get worse for themselves and their children. This pervasive pessimism shows up in other surveys as well, like this recent Gallup poll in which the... Read More
Spotlight Film. Credit: Counterpunch.
Oscar Hangover Special: Why “Spotlight” Is a Terrible Film
•�February 29, 2016
•�4,400 Words •�34 Comments • Reply
[I opened my most recent column with a very favorable mention of Spotlight, this year's Oscar-winning film, chronicling the unraveling of the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal by a team of investigative reporters from The Boston Globe. As it happens, someone suggested to me that the film's coverage of events was highly biased and inaccurate, and... Read More
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Bernie Sanders and the Failure of Propaganda
•�January 20, 2016
•�1,200 Words •�116 Comments • Reply
The independent senator from Vermont says the economic system isrigged against working-class Americans. He’s right. The electoral political system is a subsidiary of those who rule the economy. Which is why Bernie Sanders never stood a chance. The political system was rigged against him. And yet, despite the formidable institutional obstacles stacked against him, Sanders... Read More
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Speaking the Unspeakable
Why the Establishment Wants to Silence Donald Trump
•�December 17, 2015
•�2,200 Words •�86 Comments • Reply
The establishment so wants everyone else to unfriend Trump supporters on Facebook. There’s even an app to block them. That’ll teach them! Yes, Trump plays a bully boy and is appealing to populist (good), nativist, xenophobic, and racist sentiments (bad). Those things need to be meaningfully addressed and engaged, not for self-styled sophisticates to raise... Read More
Trump’s Triumph in Glitter City
•�December 16, 2015
•�200 Words •�25 Comments • Reply
In case you missed last night’s two hour steelcage GOP extravaganza, here’s the 26-second food fight between frontrunner Donald Trump and Jeb Bush that everyone is talking about. Not surprisingly, the topic was one that dominated the discussion all night: What candidate is best qualified to savage civil liberties at home while bombing the rest... Read More
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Swan Song for the Donald? GOP Party Bosses Plan to “Take Out” Trump
•�August 10, 2015
•�2,000 Words •�7 Comments • Reply
The people who own this country don’t like euthanizing one of their own. But they’ll do it in heartbeat if they think their world of privilege, patronage and power is at risk. Last Thursday, Donald Trump overstepped his bounds and crossed a line. In off-the-cuff remarks to a Fox moderator during the GOP presidential debates,... Read More
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