( Middle East Monitor) – The developments in the “investigation” into the targeted killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh point rather too obviously to the preservation of Israel’s ability to act with impunity. Matters went downhill in the aftermath of Abu Akleh’s killing when Israeli military spokesman Ran Kochav put forward an […]
Archives for July 2022
Afraid of *Everything* – The Paranoid Nature of American Foreign and Domestic Policy
( Tomdispatch.com ) – I have a brother with chronic schizophrenia. He had his first severe catatonic episode when he was 16 years old and I was 10. Later, he suffered from auditory hallucinations and heard voices saying nasty things to him. I remember my father reassuring him that the voices weren’t real and asking […]
On Their 57th Anniversary, Medicare and Medicaid Remain Under Threat
By Max Richter | – ( Commondreams.org ) – You may wonder why former President Harry Truman is sitting close by while President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare and Medicaid into law in the iconic 1965 photograph. Or why Harry Truman received the first-ever Medicare card. The reason is that Truman first proposed a Medicare-like […]
Surprise Dem Senate Bill makes US Global Climate Leader, Sees 40% Carbon Reduction by 2030
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a huge surprise on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Joe Manchin, announced an agreement on a package of legislation that includes an unprecedented $369 billion to encourage green energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions, on a […]
The Turkey-Russia-Ukraine Grain Agreement and the Weaponization of Food
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – When Russia bombed the port in Odesa last week, it was not an auspicious beginning to the new deal on grain exports. If anyone believed that this agreement between Moscow and Kyiv would have some positive spillover effect on the war grinding on elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian […]
Israel fears a Nightmare Scenario as the Crisis with Russia escalates
By Adnan Abu Amer | – Israel is convinced that Moscow’s threat to close down the Jewish Agency in Russia is retaliation for the Zionist state’s positions on the war in Ukraine. In fact, Israel now fears that the crisis with Russia will escalate further, which has prompted officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs […]
Why Britain’s 104°F (40°C) Heatwave was made many Times more Likely by Humans burning Fossil Fuels
By Ben Clark, University of Oxford; Friederike Otto, Imperial College London; and Luke Harrington, University of Waikato | – (The Conversation) – Every heatwave occurring today is made more likely and intense by human-caused climate change. Early estimates by the UK Met Office suggest that days over 40°C [104°F] have become ten times more likely […]
Trump joins Aaron Burr and Jefferson Davis as Former High Office-Holder Investigated for Sedition
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Carol D. Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, and Spencer S. Hsu at the Washington Post got the scoop that the Department of Justice has for some time been investigating Donald John Trump for possible charges in connection with his campaign to overturn the 2020 election results. (I call him Donald […]
The Enduring Tyranny of Oil: War, Inflation, and Soaring World Temperatures
( Tomdispatch.com ) – It may seem hard to believe, but only 15 years ago many of us were talking confidently about “peak oil” — the moment of maximum global oil output after which, with world reserves dwindling, its use would begin an irreversible decline. Then along came hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the very […]