2021

Why our Democracy is Ailing: Another Grim winter for our Unmasked, Unvaccinated, Disputatious, Confrontational, Conspiratorial, and disturbed Country

( Tomdispatch.com) – Whether the pandemic that’s swept the world started from a bat or not, as 2021 ends, I think it’s safe to say that we’re all far battier than we were when it began. In my neighborhood at least, as this year draws to a close, that old Lone Ranger line, “Who was […]

Archaeology

Israeli Archeologists find Christian Ring with Image of Christ as Shepherd in Shipwreck from era of Constantine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A marine unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority diving off the ruins of the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima has announced two spectacular finds in the form of two shipwrecks. One was from the Muslim Mamluk era, around 1400. The other was an early fourth-century Roman ship from Italy. The […]

Iraq

American Colonialism Left Iraq in Environmental Crisis, Polluted, Corrupt and Crime-Ridden

Middle East Monitor

By Haifa Zangana | – (Middle East Monitor ) – The devastation caused by man to the environment is no longer a secret; nature is striking back painfully, after decades of warnings by scientists of a catastrophic future that requires quick, radical solutions. There is no more room for procrastination in the face of hurricanes, […]

Climate Crisis

Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ Glacier: how its Collapse could trigger global Floods and swallow Islands

The Conversation

By Ella Gilbert | – The massive Thwaites glacier in West Antarctica contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by 65cm if it were to completely collapse. And, worryingly, recent research suggests that its long-term stability is doubtful as the glacier haemorrhages more and more ice. Adding 65cm to global sea levels would be […]

Pentagon

Congress Keeps Spending Nearly 1/4 of our Budget on the Pentagon, but it Hasn’t won any Wars for Decades

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Professional sports is a cutthroat business. Succeed and the people running the show reap rich rewards. Fail to meet expectations and you get handed your walking papers. American-style war in the twenty-first century is quite a different matter. Of course, war is not a game. The stakes on the battlefield are […]

Anti-Vaccination

Without Biden’s Vaccination Program, a Million and a Half Americans would have died in 2021 and 12 mn would have been Hospitalized

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Biden made a major pandemic policy speech on Tuesday, pleading with Americans to get vaccinated, and, indeed, to get the three-shot course that is now standard. He notes that 400,000 people died from COVID-19 in 2021, almost all of them unvaccinated. He is backed up by medical professionals. Augusta […]

Climate Crisis

90% of California’s Precious Joshua Trees are in Danger from the Climate Emergency

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Jude Binkley | – ( Cronkite News) – JOSHUA TREE, Calif. – More than a decade ago, Brendan Cummings was living in this desert town and working to gain federal protections for Arctic polar bears, which can’t survive without the sea ice that’s disappearing because of climate change. A world away from the icy […]

Israel/ Palestine

Newly released Records Document Zionist Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine in 1948

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – An investigative report in Haaretz — “Classified Docs Reveal Massacres of Palestinians in ’48 – and What Israeli Leaders Knew” — is a must-read. It should be read in particular by all who consider themselves to be “Zionists” as well as those who, for whatever reason, support Israel, anywhere in […]

Climate Crisis

2021’s US Climate Disasters revealed an East-West Divide, with one side of the Country too Wet, the other dangerously Dry

The Conversation

By Shuang-Ye Wu | – Alongside a lingering global pandemic, the year 2021 was filled with climate disasters, some so intense they surprised even the scientists who study them. Extreme rainstorms turned to raging flash floods that swept through mountain towns in Europe, killing over 200 people. Across Asia, excessive rainfall inundated wide areas and […]

Archives for 2021