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Author: By Paul Woodward

Does Pakistan’s Lawyers’ Movement hold lessons for the United States?

Does Pakistan’s Lawyers’ Movement hold lessons for the United States?

  Yes, Pakistan’s Lawyers’ Movement holds valuable lessons for the United States, particularly regarding the importance of judicial independence, the power of collective action, and the role of civil society in challenging political power. The movement demonstrates how a professional group can mobilize and exert significant influence on political and legal systems. Here’s a more detailed look at the lessons: • Importance of Judicial Independence: The Lawyers’ Movement in Pakistan highlighted the critical role of an independent judiciary in a…

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Former U.S. ambassador to the EU: This administration ‘wants to destroy the European Union’

Former U.S. ambassador to the EU: This administration ‘wants to destroy the European Union’

  Anthony Gardner, former U.S. ambassador to the EU, tells Channel 4 News: “It’s time for European leaders including [British prime minister] Starmer to realize that this administration actually wants to destroy the European Union. And that sounds pretty — some people will think that’s pretty exaggerated, but it’s not. I think that’s actually what’s going on and I think the UK has a fundamental interest in ensuring that the EU remains strong.” Consider the multiple lines of attack and…

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‘Putin’s brain,’ Alexander Dugin, celebrates Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment as DNI

‘Putin’s brain,’ Alexander Dugin, celebrates Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment as DNI

Alexander Dugin’s influence might be overstated, but hardly anyone close to the Kremlin will be disappointed to see someone who is so frequently describe as a “Russian asset” installed as Director of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard! You are simply awesome. pic.twitter.com/6eSbFQDsM8 — Alexander Dugin (@AGDugin) February 12, 2025 Dugin reposts: 🇺🇸 JOHN BOLTON: KREMLIN DRINKING VODKA OVER TULSI’S DNI NOMINATION “Putin couldn’t be happier—they’re drinking vodka straight from the bottle in the Kremlin tonight. A great day for Moscow. Tulsi…

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Speaking out in solidarity with FBI and other federal workers who are defending democracy

Speaking out in solidarity with FBI and other federal workers who are defending democracy

Yesterday, in response to my own sense of powerlessness while watching the ongoing assault on democracy led by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, I engaged in a quixotic gesture: I went down to my local FBI field office to offer a small token of public support. Not surprisingly, it isn’t possible to walk into an FBI office. Since the Oklahoma bombing, all such offices are well fortified. This office did have a kiosk in front of the main entrance where…

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Donald Trump is a product of American sadness — not its remedy

Donald Trump is a product of American sadness — not its remedy

If Donald Trump truly cared about the fentanyl crisis, he would focus on where the drug is being consumed rather than where it originates. Where sadness is endemic, there is hunger for relief, but instead of addressing the root causes of societal pain, Trump is implementing policies that will produce even more pain. In Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography (2014), Richard Rodriguez wrote: If you would understand the tension between Mexico and the United States that is playing out along our…

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A rubber-stamp president?

A rubber-stamp president?

If Donald Trump won’t be able to trumpet that the largest crowd in human history assembled to celebrate his resurrection, perhaps today’s Capitol Rotunda gathering marks the greatest assembly of billionaires Washington has ever seen. On Friday, January 20, 2017, Trump signed his first executive orders in the Oval Office shortly after his inaugural parade ended. Note that he needed his chief of staff to point out where on the order his signature was required:   Trump loves spectacles. But…

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Joe Biden starts reading Rashid Khalidi ‘four years too late’

Joe Biden starts reading Rashid Khalidi ‘four years too late’

After Joe Biden stepped out of Nantucket Bookworks on Friday, he and his son Hunter looked like they’d just been caught shoplifting: Maybe it was because Biden was clutching a copy of Rashid Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years War on Palestine. During his Thanksgiving visit to Nantucket, Biden said: I’m thankful for a peaceful transition of the presidency. And I’m thankful for the fact that, I think, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors and a…

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Hurricane Helene aftermath: Untold stories from the mountains

Hurricane Helene aftermath: Untold stories from the mountains

Since Hurricane Helene hammered Western North Carolina, media coverage of the aftermath has focused on the impact felt in Asheville. Having lived there from 2002 until 2020, I know the area very well. The stories from Asheville, Swannanoa, Black Mountain, and all the small towns dotted around Buncombe and the surrounding counties are heartbreaking. But beyond the towns, there are so many communities that are even smaller — places that might catch some momentary media attention because of an heroic…

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Don’t be fooled by Biden’s latest humanitarian initiative for Gaza

Don’t be fooled by Biden’s latest humanitarian initiative for Gaza

In his State of the Union speech, President Biden presented a plan to deliver aid by sea to the starving population in Gaza as a demonstration of American leadership: Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. No U.S. boots will be on the ground. This temporary pier would enable a massive increase…

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Email subscriptions

Email subscriptions

The first email subscription service I used for this site was through Feedburner. They was acquired and then abandoned by Google, so I switched to Mailchimp. Before long, they changed their terms of service and so I switched to MailerLite. Same thing. It’s taken me a while to sign up with yet another service, but now it’s up and running — this time I’m using follow.it Over the next few days I may need to make adjustments to the configuration…

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For the silent majority, it’s time to come out of hiding

For the silent majority, it’s time to come out of hiding

How can the silent majority find its voice? The phrase, silent majority, often conjures up an image of moderation and sanity — a population hemmed in from either side by the strident voices of extremists. The problem with this characterization is that it reinforces the self-imposed impotence of those who survey the political landscape while believing that as individuals, they have no capacity to be instruments of change. But the silent majority hasn’t been silenced. It is silent by choice….

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Photographing the unseen

Photographing the unseen

Some time ago, I added an Instagram widget to the sidebar here, adding some visual content to the minimalist design of this site. Anyone who’s interested to learn more about my photography and why I include it here, can do so by reading this.

Message to email subscribers – updated – again

Message to email subscribers – updated – again

July 4: Sorry for the recent interruption in email updates. They will resume on July 12. Meanwhile, I’m still updating the site as usual. June 10: Since starting War in Context and then Attention to the Unseen, everyone who signed up to receive email updates has received these via Feedburner (which was acquired by Google in 2007). Since its acquisition, Feedburner has suffered death by a thousand cuts — the latest of which is that they are about to end…

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On coups and cowards

On coups and cowards

By Paul Woodward, June 1, 2021 As often as Trump and his QAnon acolytes might bleat about “cancel culture,” they must also delight in the fact that even after getting kicked off the leading social media platforms, the mainstream media still provides them with a megaphone. It makes little difference how many times the words “lies” and “false” get inserted into the reporting, the message still gets telegraphed both in terms of its seditious content and just as importantly as…

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Updates while relocating

Updates while relocating

We just sold our house and now I’m about to hit the road in my 22-year-old truck, as I head hundreds of miles west with two cats and a dog to join my wife in our new location — new house yet to be found. During this period of instability, I can’t predict if or how often I’ll be updating this site, but once we get situated, it will back to normal (whatever that means).