Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The presidents who control more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal had a bit of a spat the other day. Though the exchange ended indecisively it serve to highlight important moral issues in both foreign and domestic policy. In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos […]
Archives for March 2021
Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt’s grand novelist, physician and global activist
By Adele Newson-Horst | – Egyptian novelist, physician, sociologist and global activist Nawal El Saadawi died on 21 March 2021 at the age of 89. The author of more than 50 books, she told me in one of our many interviews, in 2007, that she self-identified as an African from Egypt, not from the Middle […]
Our Longest War is Ending without Victory, but will we Even Notice?
“Ours is the cause of freedom. We’ve defeated freedom’s enemies before, and we will defeat them again… [W]e know our cause is just and our ultimate victory is assured… My fellow Americans, let’s roll.” — George W. Bush, November 8, 2001 ( Tomdispatch.com) – In the immediate wake of 9/11, it fell to President George […]
University of Michigan Women Deans Decry Regent Weiser’s urging that ‘witch’ Gov. Whitmer be ‘burned at stake’
Ron Weiser, a real estate billionaire, is the head of the Michigan Republican Party. In videotaped remarks last Thursday, he referred to Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and two other top state women leaders (Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel [D] and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson [D]) as the “three witches” and spoke of burning […]
Biggest East Asian move into Mideast since the Mongol Empire: In Open Challenge to US, China inks 25-year, $400 bn Deal with Iran
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, IRNA reports, Iran and China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement. The signatures were affixed in Tehran by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of modern diplomatic relations between Iran and China. […]
The Worst Attack on Voting Rights Since Jim Crow
By Phyllis Richardson | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Last November, despite a global pandemic, voter intimidation, and an unprecedented disinformation campaign, a record number of Americans cast a ballot in the 2020 election. Expanded voting by mail, no-excuse absentee voting, curbside voting, and early voting made the ballot box more accessible. But now, Republican […]
Did Egypt’s Military Dictatorship lead to the Suez Canal Ship-Blocking Crisis?
By Ibrahim Al-Tahir | – ( Middle East Monitor) – The world is closely following the details of the Suez Canal obstruction, a canal through which 12 per cent of international shipping trade passes. The obstruction was caused by a colossal ship that ran aground and the failure of the attempts to dislodge it. A […]
Could Dominion and Smartmatic take down Fox News for Libel and Reckless Disregard for the Truth?
By Nancy Costello | – Free speech advocates have long believed that suing a news organization threatens free speech. Democracy needs a press to be free to report, without fear or favor, the facts as it sees them. But recent legal actions against news organizations indicate that the First Amendment provides sufficient free speech protection, […]
Scotland is First Industrialized country to generate 97.4% of Electricity From Wind and Solar
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In 2011, Scotland’s government, urged on by visionaries like Richard Dixon, set itself the ambitious goal to get 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. At that time, it only only got about a fourth from clean energy sources, and a lot of that was hydro. The report card […]