By Noam Chomsky and Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – This month will mark a critical juncture in the struggle to avoid climate catastrophe. At the COP26 global climate summit kicking off next week in Glasgow, Scotland, negotiators will be faced with the urgent need to get the world economy off the business-as-usual track […]
Archives for October 2021
At its heart, Dune is a Tragedy, and a Warning against Trumpism
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The protagonist of the new Denis Villeneuve film, Dune, Paul Atreides, is a complex character, but he should be seen as an antihero, as the protagonist of a Greek tragedy with a fatal tragic flaw. The author of the 1965 novel on which the film is based, Frank Herbert, was […]
Why is Social Spending Controversial but Congress lavishes $7 trillion a Decade on Pentagon?
By Sister Karen M. Donahue | ( Otherwords.org) – Right now, the United States is locked in a contentious debate over the Build Back Better plan, which will make a significant difference in the lives of millions of individuals and families. Even though the provisions included in the plan — including universal child care, home […]
Climate change: Saudi Arabia and OPEC resisting action on fossil fuels
( al-Bab.com) – Leaked documents show that Saudi Arabia and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have been lobbying to water down a crucial scientific report on climate change. News of the lobbying comes just days before the start of the COP26 conference on international action to slow down global warming. Ahead of the […]
Oil Giant BP paid ex-MI6 spy firm to snoop on green campaigners
By Martin Williams, Lucas Amin and Gabriel Pogrund | ( Opendemocracy.net ) – Oil and gas giant BP spent years spying on peaceful climate campaigners – and even hired a private intelligence firm set up by a former MI6 agent. A new report by openDemocracy, published on Monday, reveals a “shocking” web of surveillance that […]
Becoming Typical Mideast Dictatorship, Apartheid Israel Declares Palestinian Human Rights Groups “Terrorists”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera English reports that on Friday, the Israeli government declared six human rights organizations active in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank to be terrorist organizations. The government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Benny Gantz thus brought Israel into the grand tradition of modern Middle East dictatorships. […]
Afghanistan: Taliban Forcibly Evict Minority Shia — Hazaras Targets of Collective Punishment
Human Rights Watch – (New York) – Taliban officials in several provinces across Afghanistan have forcibly displaced residents partly to distribute land to their own supporters, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of these evictions have targeted Hazara Shia communities, as well as people associated with the former government, as a form of collective punishment. […]
Oath Keepers in the State House: How a Militia Movement Took Root in the Republican Mainstream
By Isaac Arnsdorf | – A membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a violent extremist group whose followers have been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, includes state lawmakers, congressional candidates, and local government and GOP officials. ( ProPublica) – North Carolina state representative Mike Clampitt swore an oath to uphold the Constitution after his […]
Pacific Islanders to Climate COP26: Limit Global Heating or We are Sunk
By Wesley Morgan | – The Pacific Islands are at the frontline of climate change. But as rising seas threaten their very existence, these tiny nation states will not be submerged without a fight. For decades this group has been the world’s moral conscience on climate change. Pacific leaders are not afraid to call out […]