Was Mossad observing a Free Palestine march in Greenwich Village today?
Oct 4, 2025 –
Here are photos from the Free Palestine march in Greenwich Village today.
“Murdoch: the last interview” gets half the story about the corrupt media mogul but misses important parts
A journalist is interviewing Rupert Murdoch about his life. Except it is more than it seems. I figured it out midway but it doesn’t really matter to say it now: it’s his conscience. Which doesn’t exist. Otherwise, the interviewer is quite hokey.
Council on Foreign Relations event where “human rights” doesn’t include fighting Gaza genocide
Sept 26, 2025 – The corruption of the U.S. government-aligned “human rights” establishment was excruciatingly on display at the Council on Foreign Relations today.
What South Africa President Ramaphosa learned in anti-apartheid fight led him to Intl Court of Justice case against Israel
Sept 25, 2025 – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says he learned from the fight against apartheid in his country that the legal route is the way to go to combat apartheid by Israel.
He said that replying to a question I asked at the Council on Foreign Relations Tuesday, September 23, 2025.
On Gaza & Ukraine: Canadian PM Mark Carney is either a fool or a Deep State operative
Sept 22, 2025 – At the Council on Foreign Relations today I heard Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney show how delusional and out of touch the political-corporate elite is with world events. Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada, then of the Bank of England. He bragged about cutting capital gains and income taxes, all boons to the very rich. But on to foreign policy, Gaza and Ukraine.
“Twelfth Night” at the Public becomes woke and skewers Shakespeare
The Public Theater’s production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” is a disappointment.
First surprise, the event starts with a Chinese woman who arrives on stage. She tells a story of how she came to New York a decade ago, her kid had problems (maybe autism, I forget), she went to school to help out. They thought she was so good they hired her. Please tell me what her ten-minute personal history had to do with Shakespeare!!!! Is this a woke satire? No, I think it was serious. For whatever its purpose.
Are Bellingcat and the OCCRP ‘Independent’ Media?
Aug 12, 2025 – Two major western propaganda operations, self-described international investigative news outfits that distribute stories picked up by major media across the globe, list their addresses at the same Amsterdam letterbox company that provides no space, just answers phones and forwards mail. They are the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP, and Bellingcat. Both organizations are funded by the US, UK and other Western European (and NATO-aligned) countries. They both run “news” stories that promote the political interests (mainly by portraying Russia as an enemy civilization) of their western funders which are then picked up by other western media outlets.
“Ava: The Secret Conversations” is a cry of pain by a 1940s pre-feminist Hollywood movie star
“Ava: The Secret Conversations” is the story of Ava Gardner, a Hollywood glamor girl pre-feminism. Elizabeth McGovern, the playwright and actor, is brilliant recreating a woman who somehow knew something was wrong with how the system and men treated her, but couldn’t quite figure it out. Women today would see her dialogue as a feminist cry of pain.
“Taiwan Season: Trace of Belief” displays vivid stylized Asian movements, myths and forms
Dance programs always tell you what movements really mean. Poetic descriptions. But of course what matters is how you react to the movements.
So this production by “Taiwan Season: Trace of Belief” at the Edinburgh Fringe choreographed by Hsieh Yi-Chun is inspired by memories of temple processions and personal memories, including faith in a changing world, collective ritual vs individual will. Okay to see the dance through that prism. But I just love this company’s dance, which I have seen before at Avignon.
“Mrs. Roosevelt Flies to London” a dramatic vivid absorbing portrait of a great American woman
This biopic, written and performed by the masterful and accomplished British actress Alison Spilbeck at the Edinburgh Fringe, tells the story of the extraordinary Eleanor Roosevelt. To keep the interest of the British audience as this tours the UK, it is built around a wartime visit she made to London.
“Ordinary Decent Criminal,” compelling political theater, asks who are the real criminals?
Mark Thomas is a British political actor. That means that the plays he performs in usually have strong social justice content. Sometimes in solo plays he brilliantly creates multiple characters. That is the case in “Ordinary Decent Criminal,” Written by Ed Edwards, directed by Charlotte Bennett, whose ironic title is explained near the end.
“Miles” tells the life and music of the jazz great
“Miles” at the Edinburgh Fringe is about the great jazz musician, his art and his life, Written and directed by Oliver Kaderbhai, it is not only a biography but a fascinating exploration of Miles Davis’s music with details that will fascinate jazz fans and musicologists. (Helps to know about flats and sharps.)
“Make It Happen” brilliant take-down of corrupt capitalism by Brian Cox as ghost of Adam Smith
It’s a bankster thriller, doing to big-time financial charlatans what the play “Enron” did for corporate thieves. And more than that, it takes direct aim and hits the apparition of the capitalists’ god, Adam Smith. James Graham’s “Make It Happen” at the Edinburgh Theater Festival is a guidebook for how financial skullduggery works. And, directed by Andrew Panton, more entertaining than you’ll see on any financial pages.
“The Insider” a searing financial thriller about world’s biggest stock market western treasuries heist
Ever hear of the Cum-Ex scandal? Hint, it’s not about sex, it’s about money. There is so much financial corruption it’s hard to keep the stories straight. Eyes glaze over. And the mainstream media working with western governments generally lets the malefactors off the hook. (“Oh, so complicated!”)
“Vagabond Skies – The Van Gogh Musical” is a vivid homage to the painter’s life and art
This musical about the iconic painter Vincent Van Gogh at the Edinburgh Fringe brings a new political understanding as you see him at a workers protest.
Music, lyrics and book by Tony Norman, director and choreographer Sarah Dormady.
“Monstering the Rocketman” a riveting indictment of British tabloids that targeted Elton John
It’s a 1980s British tabloid story. “The Sun” (a Murdoch rag) sells 5 million copies on cheap paper whose ink comes off on 12 million readers’ hands. It also soils their brains. The foul-mouthed editor brags that he picks governments. And it is the venue for a stunning play by accomplished playwright-actor Henry Naylor. (It got one of the “Fringe First” awards given by “The Scotsman” to the five best plays out of more than 3,000 the first week of the Edinburgh Theater Festival Fringe.)
“Triptych Redux” adds sound and light to fluid ethereal dances
Australian choreographer Lewis Major at the Edinburgh Fringe presents an elegant, fluid, ethereal series of dances. In slow movements, bodies in black twist, bend, dip and turn to sounds that sometimes sound like a xylophone or the high notes of a piano, sometimes contemporary, sometimes classical.
“Casablanca: The Gin Join Cut” is clever witty take on the iconic film
Rick’s Bar (at the Edinburgh Fringe) features a chanteuse in gold gown (Jerry Burns), a fine jazzy voice filling the room with “You must remember this… As time goes by.”
A guy in a white suit murmurs, “Here’s looking at you kid.” He is Rick Blaine (Gavin Mitchell), owner of Rick’s Café. It’s 1941 and we’re in Vichy-occupied Casablanca. (Morocco was controlled by colonial invader France. So, the Nazis did not occupy Casablanca, but were there at the suffrage of their collaborators.)
When prominent media figures concerned about “disinformation” mean bloggers, Russians, Chinese, never mainstream U.S. press
The Council on Foreign Relations had an event called “Challenges to Global Press Freedom,” Monday, July 21, 2025. Much of it dealt with “disinformation.” I wanted to ask a question about the impact of mainstream media writing disinformation, especially in view of revelations by Tulsi Gabbard of fake stories about alleged Russian influence in the 2016 election. And which MSM continues to disparage. As I was not called on (I am a known critic of “acceptable” views), I sent this to two of the speakers, Graciela Mochkoifsky, Dean, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and Richard Stengel, political analyst at MSNBC, former editor of Time, former State Department Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (ie the U.S. propaganda agency).
Conman: The Story of William Browder
July 8, 2025 – In 2012 an explosive story resulted in a U.S. law which blocked visas and froze the assets of dozens of Russians accused by William Browder, a U.S.-born investment fund manager in London, of having organized or abetted the murder of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who he said had accused Russian government officials of complicity in the theft of $230 million from the Russian Treasury.
“I Do” satirizes manipulation, or how to marry to get ahead in New York
“I Do” is a clever, too quirky to be really dark, but almost-dark video series by French writer/ director/ actor Nathalie Schmidt who subtly and comically skewers the talent for manipulation that imbues American culture. (And, of course, others, too.) Zoe Bloom (Schmidt) is a French singer who needs a green card and is looking for a husband to get her one. She seeks to get / persuade/ manipulate Americans to marry her but discovers they are just as good, in fact, superlative at the art.
Jean Smart creates powerful mind pictures of woman struggling against patriarchy in “Call Me Izzy”
“Call Me Izzy” is a feminist play about a rural Southern woman abused by her husband. But it’s not depressing. Jean Smart is brilliant as Izzy, stifled in a small Louisiana railroad town, her life a struggle between freedom and submission. The play is chilling but also invigorating, because Izzy finds solace and power in her identity as a poet. It is a solo performance, with Smart’s narrative telling the story.
Pres. of European Parliament shows CFR how “liberals” abet Israeli genocide in Gaza
June 12, 2025 – Roberta Metsola, from Malta, the president of the European Parliament, spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations June 9th and talked effusively about the Parliament’s support for “the values of liberal democracy.” She dismissed the Parliament’s failure to act to stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
“The Ungodly,” when conspiracy theorists murdered innocents
The villains of this play were early conspiracy theorists who used techniques that have never gone out of style: viz the U.S. 1920s Red Scare, the 1950s McCarthy time and of course today when people with “wrong” ideas are jailed or deported. It’s where the phrase “witch hunter” comes from. The Red Rose Chain, a nonprofit theater in Ipswich, England, presented a chilling theatrical recollection of this time at 59E59 Theaters.
“Real Women Have Curves” is fine for politics, but it’s a killer for health.
This play is about body image and politics. I’ll take the politics first. A group of Latinas at a dress-making workshop in Los Angeles succeed in a challenge to produce a big turnaround of dresses that a buyer wants because another producer suddenly failed. I like that. I want women to get ahead. And I like Estela (Florencia Cuenca), the feisty factory manager.