Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, kicked off the Revolutionary War in earnest, which the Continental Army only finally won seven years later, in 1882. The Revolutionary War was a rare conflict for the United States, in that it was fought on our own soil, such that every […]
Archives for July 2023
Iran: New Charges against Journalists
Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have brought vague “propaganda” and “national security” charges against three journalists, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should drop the charges, which stem from the journalists’ reporting and writing on social media, and end the ongoing harassment, prosecution, and punishment of those exercising their rights to […]
The Supreme Court didn’t Protect Color-Blindness but our Opportunity to Labor under a Hereditary Plutocracy
By Sam Pizzigati | – ( Inequality.org ) – In our United States today, all of us do not have an “equal opportunity” to become rich — or even comfortable. Rich people like things that way. Grand fortunes only grow grander when the richest among us have plenty of exploitable people around to exploit. To […]
Human Exposure to Wildfires has more than doubled in two Decades
By Mojtaba Sadegh, Boise State University | – Over the past two decades, a staggering 21.8 million Americans found themselves living within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of a large wildfire. Most of those residents would have had to evacuate, and many would have been exposed to smoke and emotional trauma from the fire. Nearly 600,000 […]
Electric Car Revolution: Tesla Sales up 83% Year on Year in Q2, as BYD does even better at 98% Surge
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tesla sales surged 83% in the second quarter compared to Q2 2022, and were up 10% over the first quarter. So reports Alan Ohnsmann at Forbes. And Benziga reports that the Chinese car maker BYD out produced Tesla in the first two quarters of this year, rolling out 1,255,637 new […]
Not so Pro-Life? As US Maternal Mortality Rates Surge, Idaho Abolishes Panel Investigating Deaths in Pregnancy
By: Natalie Schachar – ( Florida Phoenix ) – On July 1, Idaho becomes the only state without a legal requirement or specialized committee to review maternal deaths related to pregnancy. The change comes after state lawmakers, in the midst of a national upsurge in maternal deaths, decided not to extend a sunset date for […]
Global Heating and its Wildfires are Reshaping Canada’s Northern Forests and its Tundra
By Konrad Gajewski, University of Ottawa/ L’Université d’Ottawa | – (The Conversation) – Global warming is affecting the boreal forest — what happens will depend on the climate, vegetation and the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Changes in the north include increases or decreases in leaf growth, called Arctic greening and browning, more extensive growth […]
How the Personal Becomes Political: Or, You CAN fight City Hall
By Beverly Gologorsky [TomDispatch and StatORec Literary Journal are sharing the publication of this article.] ( Tomdispatch.com) – Looking into the long reflecting pool of the past, I find myself wondering what it was that made me an activist against injustice. I was born in New York City’s poor, rundown, and at times dangerous South […]
Will US-Iran talks in Oman allow the two Countries to avoid War?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Late in 2022, the Biden administration announced that it had given upon on negotiating a restoration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), which Donald Trump destroyed in May 2018 by ripping it up and slapping what amounts to a financial and trade […]