By Galen Barbose, Eric O’Shaughnessy, and Ryan Wiser | – Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs. Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households […]
Archives for February 2021
Were the Canaanites from Iran? Genomic History Shows that Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese have Zagros Ancestry
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There are no races. Human beings are all mixed up, and genomic history demonstrates this principle better than any other approach. So much of Middle Eastern politics depends on a kind of “sleeping beauty” nationalism (in Ernest Gellner’s phrase) in which it is alleged that there was an ancient race […]
The Palestinian boycott of Israel is not racist, it is anti-racist
( Middle East Monitor ) – The claims made by Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang in a recent op-ed in the Jewish weekly The Forward, point to the prevailing ignorance that continues to dominate the US discourse on Palestine and Israel. Yang is a former Democratic Presidential candidate and is vying for […]
Poet Amanda Gorman’s take on love as legacy points to youth’s power to shape future generations
By Heather Lawford, Heather L. Ramey and Jessica Riddell | – National youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman’s recitation of “The Hill We Climb,” at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in the United States captured the attention of a nation and people globally. Gorman highlighted the power of poets in our current sociopolitical context to speak unique […]
Joe Biden’s Peace Force? A Multipoint Plan to End War as We Know It
( Tomdispatch.com ) – When it comes to war, if personnel is policy, America is yet again in deep trouble. As retired Army Major Danny Sjursen recently pointed out at TomDispatch, when it comes to foreign policy, President Joe Biden’s new cabinet and advisers are well stocked with retired generals, reconstituted neocons, unapologetic hawks, and […]
Biden’s Green Energy Plans are just Market Wisdom: Norway’s Investment Fund just Dumped $6 Bn. in Oil Stocks
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some have questioned how realistic Biden’s plans are to move the US rapidly off fossil fuels. In fact, it is the fossil fuels that are unrealistic. Burning petroleum and coal are bad for everyone’s health and destined to make earth swelteringly hot, with lots of climate catastrophes and extreme weather. […]
Israel faces legal – and practical – obligations for including Palestinians in vaccine success
By Yara M. Asi | – As nations scramble to vaccinate populations against COVID-19, one country has been ahead of the rest: Israel. By late January, Israel had vaccinated more than 30% of its population – more than double or triple the rate of other high-income states like the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany. […]
Ending the crisis in Yemen is a priority for Biden administration
( Al-Bab.com) – Secretary of State Blinken: “It’s vitally important that we do everything we can to get humanitarian assistance to the people of Yemen.” Photo: State Dept When Antony Blinken, the newly-appointed US Secretary of State, gave his first press briefing last Wednesday the first topic to come up was the war in Yemen. […]
Dreamers in Arizona Enthusiastically welcome Biden’s immigration plan, but older Immigrants say it doesn’t go far enough
By Emma VandenEinde and Tyler Manion | – ( Cronkite News ) – PHOENIX – On his first day in office, President Joe Biden sent to Congress his plan to reform the U.S. immigration system. The bill includes preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, and outlines a path to permanent residence […]