By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Perhaps it is inevitable but it is a shame that some people are gaming out how to profit politically from the lead poisoning of the children of Flint, Michigan (pop. 99,000). In the state capital, the Establishment is trying to blame the crisis on “government” or […]
Archives for January 2016
British Parliament Debates ban on Donald Trump: “He is a Wazzock!”
AJ+ | (Video Report) – – “Members of the UK Parliament debated whether or not to let Donald Trump into their country after a petition to ban him got more than 570,000 signatures.” AJ+: “Donald Trump Called A Wazzock In UK Parliament” P.S.: On The Guardian on the insult ‘wazzock’ in north England : “The […]
US Response to Saudi Wars & Human Rights Violations? $49 Bn. in new Arms Sales
By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The West continues its strong political and military support to one of its longstanding allies in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia –- despite withering criticism of the kingdom’s battlefield excesses in the ongoing war in neighbouring Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition […]
The Real Zombie Apocalypse: Climate Change
Bill McKibben | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – When I was a kid, I was creepily fascinated by the wrongheaded idea, current in my grade school, that your hair and your fingernails kept growing after you died. The lesson seemed to be that it was hard to kill something off — if it wanted to keep […]
Palin for Trump: ‘Political Correctness’ (anti-racism) is a Suicide Bomb Vest
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The term “political correctness” has a long and varying history, but what do Donald Trump and Sarah Palin mean when they attack it? They are using it to mean anti-racism. A day after Martin Luther King Day, Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for president in Ames, […]
Human Rights Watch: Businesses must cut off Israeli squatter settlements
Human Rights Watch | – – (Jerusalem) – Businesses should stop operating in, financing, servicing, or trading with Israeli settlements in order to comply with their human rights responsibilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Those activities contribute to and benefit from an inherently unlawful and abusive system that violates the rights […]
GOP Billionaires Complain Super-Pacs aren’t Buying Election Effectively
Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “Republican billionaires are used to being able to buy elections, and are now crying about how Super-PAC’s aren’t all-powerful. Donald Trump’s “earned media” is throwing a wrench into their plans. Cenk Uygur, host of the The Young Turks, breaks it down . . . […]
The Failure of Aljazeera America proves that the future of TV is the Web
By Scott Bridges | (The Conversation) | – – Yesterday came the surprising announcement that Al Jazeera America (AJAM), the not even three-year-old US news franchise of the Arab media giant, was shutting down. Come April this year, up to 800 journalists may be looking for work and more than US$2 billion of Qatari government […]
Israeli PM Netanyahu Still trying to derail Iran Nuclear Deal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring reports that over the weekend, even as the great Powers were certifying that Iran was in compliance with the UNSC deal permitting only civilian enrichment of uranium, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who had attempted to derail the negotiations, continued to try to derail […]