Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – At its meeting in Vienna yesterday, the enlarged “+” version of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC+) decided to increase output by only 100,000 barrels per day, a vanishingly small amount that will have no impact on lowering gasoline prices and which does US President Joe Biden virtually no […]
Archives for August 2022
U.S. Lawmakers Demand Federal Scrutiny of How US Tech got into Turkey’s Drones
By Umar Farooq | – ( ProPublica ) – As countries around the globe add armed drones to their arsenals, federal lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration to investigate how U.S. parts and technology ended up in what has fast become one of the most popular models on the world market: Turkey’s TB2. Manufactured by […]
Why the Storming of the Iraqi Parliament is no Moment of Liberation
By Haifa Zangana | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Why does the occupation of the Iraqi Parliament building in the Green Zone in Baghdad, not arouse feelings of enthusiasm, as it did in the case of the protesters’ occupation of the presidential palace in Sri Lanka, enthusiasm towards which reached the Arab nations […]
Afghanistan a year after the Taliban Accupation: An ongoing War on Human Rights
By Ferdouse Asefi, University of Toronto | – The word “anniversary” usually brings about happy and memorable moments. But Aug. 15 marks one year since the Taliban takeover and occupation of Afghanistan, and it’s not a happy occasion for my homeland. Recently, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a report entitled “Human […]
A ’22 Pink Wave for the Dems? What does Surprise Kansas Rejection of anti-Abortion Amendment Mean for the Country?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a startling development, Kansas voters rejected a ballot initiative on August 2 that would have specified in the state constitution that it does not protect the right to abortion. That would have allowed the heavily Republican-dominated state legislature to pass an abortion ban. It can’t do that now because […]
Israel’s Visa refusal to Palestinian Harvard Fellow sparks calls for Boycott of Apartheid State
By Nasim Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel has refused to grant a visa permit to one of Gaza’s highly acclaimed poet and former Harvard fellow, Mosab Abu Toha. Author of one of the shortlisted books for this year’s Palestine Book Awards (PBA), Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: […]
Angry White Guys in Big-Ass Pickups: Climate Change and Fragile Masculinity
By Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – In the United States during 16 months in 2020 and 2021, vehicles rammed into groups of protesters at least 139 times, according to a Boston Globe analysis. Three victims died and at least 100 were injured. Consider that a new level of all-American barbarity, thanks to the […]
Fueled by virtually unrestricted Social Media Access, White Nationalism is on the Rise and attracting violent young White Men
By Sophie Bjork-James, Vanderbilt University | – White nationalists keep showing up in the hearings of the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Evidence is mounting that white nationalist groups who want to establish an all-white state played a significant role in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five […]
The End of the “Global War on Terror”: Biden takes out Ayman al-Zawahiri (1951-2022)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden announced on Monday evening that a CIA-operated drone had killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second leader of al-Qaeda after Usama Bin Laden, on Saturday while he stood on the balcony of a Taliban safe house in Kabul. He was allegedly hosted by the Haqqani clan, one of whose […]