In 1988 authorities began their investigations into the allegations that important people from business and government were involved in child sex trafficking. It turned into a scandal. The investigations ended in 1990 when it was concluded that the allegations were unfounded. The ‘Franklin Scandal’ was mostly isolated to Nebraska. Despite victims coming forward, and witnesses confirming that businessman Lawrence E King held parties that featured the abuse of minors, it was a political hot potato. Many claimed it was a cover up. Prominent conservative politicians attended the sex parties,...

There was a study in April, 2024 that showed the IDF attacks between 7th October and 22nd November of 2023 on hospitals, schools and water infrastructure in Gaza were not “random.” The IDF response to the 7th October terrorist attack was absolute. Revenge on a people. Sympathy for the Israeli government concluded, “there needed to be a response.” The Palestinians, most of them youth, were decided as guilty. It had been stated on numerous occasions, because decades earlier they had elected Hamas. There had been no elections since. The Hamas regime needed to go, if the people won’t do it. They...

It is hard to be up to date with any coverage for an ongoing war, especially in the social media age. Things move fast, the information that is real, verified, takes time to be confirmed and understood as factual. Lies, deception and sensationalism spreads fast, it’s produced cheap and nastily with the single purpose of engagement or to manipulate perspectives in those crucial moments of world opinion. Right now, in it’s war on Iran, the US and Israel are engaged in a battle for optics and the decapitation of the Iranian regime. The genocide in Gaza, attacks on Lebanon and Syria and now the...

God Save The King! It’s a public holiday and that is enough for many of his subjects to rejoice for. The magical exuberance and privilege to have a sitting regent, whose majestic reign stabs back to times when warlords, bandits and pirates took land, rallied warriors and pillaged the land until they themselves realised that the real booty and bounty is to be found in the permanency of government. Taxation. And, the God granted right to rule, to subjugate the peasantry. To bless useful and otherwise wealthy men as lords, to own populations, as slave, serf and then in time citizen subject. To...

In the past those of us distant from war could only see it in the print media and television. It was curated with the intent to gain sympathy, or conceal the brutality of those who we were supposed to be sympathetic for. As censored as it was at times graphic, though it was just in fragments. Now, we have an endless stream of images and video. If we dare to see them. War is a peculiar thing, it allows for the most horrible to occur on a grand scale. It is precisely because of the scale of such acts and who is committing them, that the insufferable horror continues on. Despite the savagery...

In his appearances on shows like Dick Cavett’s, Norman Mailer often showed himself to be an immense ego. Especially while seated across from his ever contrasting, literary sparring partner, Gore Vidal. Mailer as curmudgeon and as one audience member yells, “chauvinistic,” was there to declare himself as his generations Hemingway, the ‘literary champion’ of the world. The master of American letters. Mailer was a great writer, he knew that and demanded the world know it as well. From an era when the writer was held in regard, many then read, television shows often had authors on to debate and...