My idea of a Norwegian was always some cheerless Social Democrat in a knit sweater whose greatest joy in life was comparing the price of beer in Prague (cheap) to the price of beer in Krakow (even cheaper). Then I read the just-released new edition of Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground, a cult classic that first appeared in 1998. (more…)

The eXiled has set up an emergency “deficit crisis” website calling on America to restore President Eisenhower’s top tax rate on the wealthiest 0.1% Americans: RATFOCR. Everyone agrees that the Golden Age for America’s middle-class was under President Eisenhower, when the top tax rate reached 91% for the wealthiest Americans. That’s 91%, folks. And look at how the economy performed: (more…)

UPDATE: We’ve set up a “FOC the RATS!” website, click here.

Mark Ames unveiled on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show the long-awaited answer to waffentwerp Grover Norquist’s anti-tax crusade: It’s called Real Americans For Tax Reform. [Read the transcript of “Manifesto” below the video.]

Folks, we all agree that the American middle class’s Golden Age was during the Eisenhower presidency of the 1950’s. And we also know that the top tax rate under Ike for the richest Americans was 91%. That’s 91%. Repeat: The rich paid 91%. So if America is going to be great, we must tax great.

Already, Real Americans for Tax Reform has formed a coalition with the Foundation On Constitutional Reform to create a new mega-movement of grassroots activists called RATrFOCRs. The goal: To force every single Democratic Party candidate to sign a pledge to raise taxes on the top .1% riches Americans, so that they pay the same tax rate they would have paid under President Eisenhower, during the Golden Years for America’s middle class. In other words, the richest Americans would have to pay a 91% tax rate again. Sure, it’d mean the rich would have to take a bit of a haircut, but if Ames can do it [see photo], so can Bill Gross.

Watch Ames roll out RATrFOCR on the Dylan Ratigan Show, and behold the magic of history: (more…)

This article was published in The eXile on December 28, 2005.

The Putin regime’s latest moves to tighten controls over foreign NGOs are being portrayed in the West as yet more proof of Russia’s savage authoritarianism and anti-Western paranoia. While only a drunken apologist could deny Putin’s authoritarianism, the real question is whether or not the crackdown on NGOs is a symptom of mere tyrant-paranoia, or if Putin’s crackdown is based on some unpleasant realities that our media isn’t bothering to explore. (more…)

I just came across a massive dump of FBI files on the YIPPIES–the legendary 60′s youth movement led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. They declassified and released over 6,600 pages of FBI surveillance and intel on the Yippies—unfiltered, a direct wormhole to that era.

And what an awful fucking era it was. People were either mean or stupid, on a scale that almost makes you appreciate today’s problems. Almost. (more…)

I’ve often wondered why the American Right has been so quiet about V.S. Naipaul. He’s easily the most talented reactionary writer in the English language–maybe the only living talent left in the right-wing zombiesphere. The American Right devotes an insane amount of resources into manufacturing hagiographies on anyone whom they believe makes them look good–even the Soviets couldn’t compete with today’s American Right when it comes to glorifying their pantheon of degenerate cretins like Ayn Rand, Phyllis Schlafly, Friedrich von Hayek… (more…)

Since no one else in the pro-drug camp will say it, allow me: Ron Paul is a drug war asshole. He’s a con artist playing a shell game with our liberties with his slippery proposal that the answer to this savage 40-year war on individual liberty is to transfer the power to destroy lives from one authority (federal) to another equally cruel authority (state). In doing so, Dr. Paul has shifted the moral debate about the drug war from one of barbarism and injustice to his crusty old Confederate gripe about states’ rights versus federal authority. (more…)