Sao Paulo (Special to Informed Comment) – Last weekend, President Donald Trump met with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for a private dinner in Mar-a-Lago, his personal residence in Palm Beach, Florida. It turns out to have been less a state dinner and more a disease vector. Ironically, both leaders had stubbornly refused to acknowledge the […]
Archives for March 2020
The Kushner Apartheid is Hardly the First Attempt to Erase the Palestinians
( Middle East Monitor ) – The international community has stated repeatedly that it will not accept any changes to issues related to Palestine upon which global consensus has been reached. The unilateral decision taken by the US to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is one such example; so is the current stance regarding Donald […]
Night of Long Knives: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Grasps for Absolute Power
By Umer Karim and Scott Lucas | – The news seeped out of Saudi Arabia into international outlets late on March 6. King Salman’s brother, Prince Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz, had been detained along with the king’s nephew Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, former crown prince and interior minister. Reports disseminated to the media said the […]
Why Burning Fossil Fuels is to Today’s Pandemics as Fleas were to the Black Death
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sheri Fink at the NYT reports that Center for Disease Control scientific modeler Matthew Biggerstaff estimated in a conference call that the coronavirus pandemic could last for many months or as long as a year and could infect half to two-thirds of the population of the United States. Between 200,000 […]
Why does Trump get a Pass for Pledging Economic Populism, but they Ask Sanders about the Cost?
Tiffin, Ohio (Special to Informed Comment) – It may come as a shock, but Presidential candidates Trump and Sanders have made a number of similar policy commitments. How are we to make sense of this? Need some evidence? Both Sanders and Trump have called for affordable health care for all. Sanders’ support for Medicare for […]
Palestinians: Why whether Sanders or Biden Wins the Democratic Primary Matters for the Mideast
By Halah Ahmad | – (Al Shabaka) – Leading US Democratic presidential candidates have chosen to address, among other progressive platforms, the rising demand for racial justice reforms, from prison reform to school funding and reparations. In particular, candidates have embraced reforms that respond to grassroots movements against police brutality and a host of criminal […]
Climate Change is already Diminishing the Colorado River, U.S. Researchers Find
By Luke Runyon /KUNC | ( Cronkite News) – GREELEY, Colo. – A warming climate already is reducing stream flows in the Southwest’s largest watershed, according to a new study from scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey. And as the planet continues to heat up, it said, the shortages are likely to get worse. Using […]
As Trump stumbles in war on Coronavirus at Home, He Bombs Shiites in Shiite-Ruled Iraq
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US fighter jets bombed bases of the Kata’ib Hizbullah (“Brigades of the Party of God”) militia in Iraq on Thursday in retaliation for a deadly attack on US troops that left two dead and killed a British soldier as well. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that Trump had greenlighted […]
Clean Energy Produced on Navajo Land will Help Power Los Angeles
By Sarah Donahue ( Cronkite News ) – LOS ANGELES – In a city renowned for its green policies, Prius drivers and biodegradable straws, it was only a matter of time before officials would vote to move away from coal powered electricity. To transition to clean energy, the city sold its shares of a coal-powered […]