By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – “Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.” — Thucydides You’ve heard the platitude that hindsight is 20/20. It’s true enough and, though I’ve been a regular skeptic about what policymakers used to call the Global War on Terror, it’s always easier to poke holes […]
What Causes Mideast Extremism? It’s the Dictatorships, Stupid!
Middle East Monitor | – – The Foreign Minister of Qatar said on Thursday that extremism in the Middle East is the result of authoritarianism, the Qatari News Agency has reported. Mohamed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani expressed his sadness that the region has become a region of instability instead of peace and coexistence. “People are suffering […]
Trump still wants Expensive Coal but the Market wants Cheap wind & Solar
By Jonathan Marshall | (Consortiumnews.com) | – – Market trends now favor renewable energy as a cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels, but President Trump’s resistance to this good news is doing real damage in the fight against global warming, reports Jonathan Marshall. With petrochemical billionaires Charles and David Koch paying many of the GOP’s bills […]
Saudi Arabia makes it ‘Terrorism’ to Criticize the King
Human Rights Watch | – – (New York) – Saudi Arabia’s new counterterrorism law includes vague and overly broad definitions of acts of terrorism, in some cases punishable by death, Human Rights Watch said today. The law replaces a widely criticized counterterrorism law promulgated in 2014, adding definitions of specific acts of terrorism and their […]
Israel’s Bedouin as Sisyphus: Homes destroyed over & over
By Aniqa Raihan | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – Thousands of Arab Bedouins in Israel’s Negev desert are denied power, water, sewage, and roads by the state. And their villages are under constant threat of demolition. Photo: Aniqa Raihan Before the creation of modern Israel, the Negev desert, which constitutes the southern […]
Saudi Debacle as Hariri returns to Beirut, remains PM
France 24 English | (Video News Report) | – – “Lebanon: PM Saad Hariri puts off stepping down. FRANCE24”s correspondent in Beirut Adam Pletts tells us more.” France 24 English: “Lebanon: PM Saad Hariri puts resignation on hold pending talks”
Will Fleeing Puerto Ricans ever return home from the Mainland?
By Alexis R. Santos-Lozada | (The Conversation) | – – Even before this year’s devastating hurricane season, the team of demographers I work with at Penn State and the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics had predicted that the population of Puerto Rico would decline over the next few decades. Have Hurricanes Irma and María accelerated […]
Yemen: Twitter Bots and Fake Accounts ‘Blocking News’
TeleSur | – – British-Irish independent journalist Iona Craig, who focuses on Yemen and the Arabian peninsula, blocked about 9,000 bots on Twitter in the space of a few hours. Fake Twitter bots are blocking the dissemination of information from within Yemen as the crisis gripping the country deepens, according to international journalists and academics. Iona […]
Nuclear Apocalypse by Accident? Age of Trump
By John Buell | (Informed Comment) | – – Ironically, President Trump’s frequent nuclear blustering serves to hide one aspect of the nuclear risk. Focus on his instability and possible impetuous resort to the nuclear trigger may distract from equally significant dangers. Any discussion fo the threat posed by nuclear weapons should include recounting and […]