2019

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week The Southern Poverty Law Center reported from Hatewatch that Trump administration official Stephen Miller spent the period before 2016 sending white supremacist messages to the Breitbart Nazi-lite site. He was upset about the turn against Confederate symbols after the massacre in a church by Dylann Roof, and he […]

Environmentalism

Climate Crisis will Beggar Us: Big Oil needs to Pay for the Damage it Caused

Yes! Magazine

By Tamara Toles O’Laughlin and Bill McKibben | – (Yes! Magazine) – Climate change disproportionately affects poor people and people of color. They should be compensated for their suffering. This month in a Manhattan courthouse, New York State’s attorney general Letitia James argued that ExxonMobil should be held accountable for layers of lies about climate […]

Uncategorized

A New Arab Spring in Lebanon and Iraq

Reese Erlich

Once again, people in the Middle East want democratic reforms and an end to corruption and foreign domination. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Lebanese have been demonstrating in the streets against corruption and for democratic rights. The protestors come from all economic classes and religious/ethnic groups. Like the Arab Spring uprisings that began in […]

Mass Extinction

Is our Civilization Causing the Sixth Great Mass Extinction in Earth’s History?

The Conversation

By Frédérik Saltré and Corey J. A. Bradshaw | – For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of new species is that species extinctions have also always been part of the evolutionary life cycle. Humans are probably […]

Donald Trump

Iran’s Rouhani: Trump too Erratic to Deal with, but is Open about Ambitions to Steal ME Oil

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said this week that the United States used to justify its military presence in Syria on the grounds that it was fighting terrorism. He said that Donald Trump has let the cat out of the bag and admitted that the real reason is to steal Syrian […]

Climate Crisis

All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change

Michael T. Klare

(Tomdispatch.com) – The Situation Room, October 2039: the president and vice president, senior generals and admirals, key cabinet members, and other top national security officers huddle around computer screens as aides speak tokey officials across the country. Some screens are focused on Hurricane Monica, continuing its catastrophic path through the Carolinas and Virginia; others are […]

censorship

Beacon on a Hill: Iraq Hitting Protesters so Hard even Medics are Attacked

Human Rights Watch

Fire Teargas, Live Ammunition; Destroy Medical Tents

Iran

How Saudi-Iranian oil rivalry has been shaped by American power

The Conversation

By Sukru Cildir | – The relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran, both oil-rich states in the Middle East, has oscillated from co-operation to conflict throughout history. Alongside a range of factors that shape their rivalry including sectarianism and nationalism has been the politics of oil. Oil is a strategic international commodity, and its use […]