Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The BBC reports that a power outage and consequent explosion at the Natanz nuclear enrichment site in Iran on Sunday is being blamed by Iranian officials on sabotage. It reports that some Israeli outlets have speculated that the cause was an Israeli cyber-attack. The head of Iran’s nuclear energy program, […]
Archives for April 2021
The Ever Given’s Blockage of the Suez Canal and World Trade showed the Downsides of Monopoly Capitalism
Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – News media, maritime experts, and a curious public could hardly take their eyes off the Ever Given, the mega cargo ship as long as the Empire State Building is tall. Viewers were stunned to see the ship swung sideways to the canal and thus blocking transit in […]
In our Time of Insurrection and Divisive Violence, can Psychedelics help in Peace-Building?
Washington, DC (Special to Informed Comment) – In July 2020 the US Institute of Peace published a report titled “Violent Extremist Engagement and Reconciliation: A Peace-Building Approach”. In the wake of riots in several cities across the country that summer and the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection that the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump […]
Bangladesh was born amid Indo-Pak War in 1971 — But on 50th Anniversary, Who Owns that History?
Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – “With the Creation of Bangladesh, a Longstanding Dream of the RSS Was Achieved” claims Seshadri Chari. According to Wikipedia, Seshadri Ramanujan Chari “is a veteran swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Chari currently serves on the National Executive Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and formerly served […]
Greening Earth and creating Jobs, Biden to slash Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Extend Wind, Solar Credits
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reuters reports that President Biden intends to slash tax subsidies for fossil fuels like coal and petroleum and to use taxes instead to encourage renewable energy. Since jobs in the coal industry are plummeting, and since job growth in renewable electricity is over 3 percent a year, Biden’s plans will […]
Climate Change: Ocean Layer Mixing has slowed 6 times Faster than Scientists Feared, Endangering Sea Life
By Phil Hosegood | – If you’ve ever been seasick, “stable” may be the last word you associate with the ocean. But as global temperatures rise, the world’s oceans are technically becoming more stable. When scientists talk about ocean stability, they refer to how much the different layers of the sea mix with each other. […]
How the Pandemic spelled the end of Trickle-Down Economics: We need Wealth to Percolate up
( Otherwords.org) – The past year proves that a lot of conventional economic wisdom is neither true nor wise. For example: 1) “We don’t have the money.” The power elites tell us it would be nice to do the big-ticket reforms America needs, but the money just isn’t there. Then a pandemic slammed into America, […]
Why Activists have Launched a Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty
By Isabella Kaminski | – ( China Dialogue ) A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FFNPT) initiative was formally launched last September by a coalition of academics, lawyers and activists. It’s modelled on the landmark UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons agreed in the 1960s, and is built around the same three pillars: non-proliferation, […]
Tucker Carlson touts ‘Replacement’ Conspiracy Theory; but his own Ancestor could have been Lynched
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Grand Dragon Tucker Carlson went on another Fox News show to push his streaming program, and while there was struck with diarrhea of the larynx, oozing amid loud excretions a hateful farrago of antisemitic white supremacy. He openly embraced the tin foil hat conspiracy theory of “replacement,” the notion that […]