By Ari Heistein | (Informed Comment) | – – The Shia government in Teheran and the Alawi regime in Damascus have had warm relations since Iran’s Islamic Revolution, and many attribute that to a common affinity for Shia Islam. While Alawis have embraced their relatively recent inclusion in the Muslim world, for the vast majority of their history […]
Hard to get Good Help: Are US Generals just Incompetent?
By William J. Astore | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Thomas Jefferson Hall, West Point’s library and learning center, prominently features two quotations for cadets to mull over. In the first, Jefferson writes George Washington in 1788: “The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.” In […]
As Oil Prices Crater, Algeria needs an Actual Economy or big Trouble Looms
By Allan Christelow | (Informed Comment) | – – Like other oil producers, Algeria faces difficulties with the sharp decline in prices since 2014. But unlike oil producers in the Gulf region, Algeria has a strong tradition of public discussion, a tradition that has managed to survive the concentration of wealth in the hands of […]
Young Muslim-American entrepreneurs Fight ISIL Online
Ayman Mohyeldin | (NBC News Video report) “Startups are launching to help young Muslims, who might fall to ISIS’ luring appeal, grapple with issues of identity and religion.” NBC News: “Young Entrepreneurs Step Up Anti-ISIS Message Online | NBC Nightly News”
How Black Lives Matter is making Bernie Sanders a better candidate
By Kate Aronoff | ( Waging Nonviolence) If you spent any time in the progressive blogosphere this past week and a half, chances are that you have some feelings about activists in Seattle disrupting a rally for Bernie Sanders last weekend. To recap: On two Saturdays ago, Black Lives Matter Seattle organizers Marissa Johnson and […]
Egypt’s “Terrorism” Law Violates “Fundamental Freedoms”
By Kitty Stapp | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – Egyptian authorities are already holding a record number of journalists behind bars, and a draconian new anti-terror law signed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday will further broaden the crackdown on dissent, press freedom groups warn. It imposes heavy penalties […]
First Time at the Rodeo? (Political Cartoon)
Paul Jamiol | (Jamiol’s World) | – Via Jamiol’s World
Gaza: Managing the Disaster isn’t Enough; not one of 11,000 buildings repaired
By Charlie Hoyle | (Inter Press Service) | – – The rubble of twisted concrete and metal bakes in the hot Mediterranean sun of a regional heat wave. A year on from Israel’s 51-day military operation in 2014, not a single one of the 11,000 destroyed homes in Gaza has been rebuilt. Photo credit: UNRWA […]
California at the Cutting Edge of our new Mega-Drought Normal
By William deBuys | ( Tomdispatch.com) – – Long ago, I lived in a cheap flat in San Francisco and worked as the lone straight man in a gay construction company. Strangely enough, the drought now strangling California brings back memories of those days. It was the 1970s. Our company specialized in restoring the Victorian […]
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