By Hope Kesselring Anybody who’s expecting shocking revelations from Edward Snowden’s new book, Permanent Record, is going to be disappointed. However, if you’re interested in spy culture like I am, it

By Hope Kesselring I’ve never been a big fan of the genre, but when someone recently told me I could self-publish erotic romance novels for money, I did check out the situation. A few weeks ago, half the

A Play in One Act by Hope Kesselring Characters: Ned Diamond (Former Assistant Secretary of State, in his sixties, wearing a WCA T-shirt and camouflage shorts.) Michelle Cardiff (CIA officer, about 40,

By Hope K I came to WikiLeaks late. I remember reading about them, Chelsea Manning, and Julian Assange, and I thought, good on them. But it was far away, and I was busy with local issues. I had been defending

Poppy, Northern New Mexico, USA By Hope K In the Commonwealth of Nations, the people get to wear poppies on Remembrance Day. I’m jealous. Poppies are beautiful. In the United States, we get military

The afternoon sun peeks over the roof of a seed company warehouse in Cash, Arkansas, where the Ledgerwood family lives. By Hope K In the fertile Arkansas Delta lies a small town called Cash. Its name is

By Hope K If I were to pick one word to sum up Damien Echols’ new book, High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row, I would choose “empowerment.” And if you’re doubtful

By Hope K Senator Elizabeth Warren got tired of being called “Pocahontas” for claiming to be Cherokee and took a DNA test. I’d like to give her a test. What does “ᏣᎳᎩ” mean? Last summer my mother and aunt

By Hope K Lately when you read the news about the Catholic Church, it’s really bad. But on October 15, the Pope canonized a truly remarkable person, Oscar Romero. This is a saint whose life you should

By Hope K Rumor has it that Columbia College in Chicago was the last school Kanye West briefly attended before he released his debut album The College Dropout. Though I didn’t drop out, I went there, too.

By Hope K “We’re well-trained by the CIA with Yankee tax money in Ft. Bragg The Peace Corps builds US labor camps When they think they’re building schools, ha!” Dead Kennedys, “Bleed For Me,” 1982 When

By Hope K It's nighttime in the Embassy -- Oh, hear the ticking clock. Time is something you do here In this London brick cell block. Candle flickers light the walls That might as well be barred. Six months

The original image is a photo I took at an exhibition at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. By Hope K The more I look into Brett Kavanaugh's background, the more revolting things I

By Hope K The story goes that, upon the explosion of the Gadget at White Sands, New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer thought, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." The quote comes from

By Hope K The Wall Street Journal recently released an article in which they claim State Department insiders leaked a classified memo to them. The WSJ saw it, they pinky swear. I haven't seen the memo,

By Hope K I'm going to tell you about some of the "controversial" things I believe. I put quotes around the word controversial because most of the time I have no idea why these things are

By Hope K Ever get that sick feeling in your gut when a sudden and awful epiphany washes over you? Well, that was me the day I read that Vince Foster committed suicide. Growing up in Arkansas, I had heard

Spy Movie Reviews 1 — White Boy Rick, September 17, 2018 By Hope K For my first article in the series Spy Movie Reviews, my town theater gave me two choices. One was about CIA shenanigans and the other

By Hope K Ascaroth cursed himself again for getting sloshed and losing that poker game with the military guys back in the 20th century. Now look at him, stuck in a cubicle underneath a scrubby mountain

By Hope K Last night I watched a biography of Julian Assange done by a corporate-controlled network. The exaggerations and outright falsehoods had me seeing red and confirmed I was making the right decision