Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al-Jazeera reports that Iraqi authorities on Sunday announced that Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped being assassinated by three drones loaded with explosives that targeted his residence in the Green Zone in the center of Baghdad around dawn. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which damaged the prime […]
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Goodies for Greens in Biden’s $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Act
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was passed by the Senate some time ago and then passed by the House of Representatives on the evening of Friday, November 6, has some great news in it for greening the economy. It is admittedly a mixed bag, but let’s consider […]
Fightin’ Joe Biden Wins big, on Jobs, Covid, the Dow and Infrastructure, but Corporate News downplays Successes
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The for-profit press thinks it knows what the story in Washington, D.C., is. Joe Biden is a boring president who struggles to get anything done and the Democratic Party is a hot mess of infighting that paralyzes it. Corporate news is the Eeyore of the news world, spreading pessimism and […]
Question for Joe Manchin after COP26: Why isn’t Coal — the New Blood Diamonds– Illegal, Now?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Denise Chow at NBC News reports that on Thursday at the UN climate conference Cop26, some 23 new countries signed on to Britain’s push to phase out coal, the biggest source of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. These included Poland, South Korea, Indonesia, Chile and Vietnam. Poland is the Saudi […]
“Worse than a Crime”: Pentagon Inspector finds Kabul Drone Strike Killing 10 not a Violation of Law (!)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Paul Handley of AFP reports that the US Air Force Inspector General, Lieutenant General Sami Said, found that a drone strike that mistakenly killed 10 civilian non-combatants, including 7 children, in Afghanistan on August 29 violated no laws, including the law of war. When Napoleon had the royalist Duc d’Enghein […]
Sheikh Jarrah Palestinian Families Reject Israeli theft of their Homes, turning them into Renters
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Palestinian East Jerusalem families facing expulsion from their homes by Israeli squatters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood have rejected the proposal of the Israeli Supreme Court to let them remain in their homes for some years, but without equity or recognition of their […]
COP26: Biden first President to Back Sweeping Measures on Climate, as for-profit Press lets Denialist Republicans off the Hook
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) | – On Monday, President Joe Biden addressed the UN COP26 climate conference, declaring the 2020s the “critical decade.” It was a strong and hopeful speech that showed global leadership that has been sorely lacking. Those carping about Biden’s performance seem not to remember the past four years when the president […]
COP26: Climate Disaster Stalks Morocco even as it Strives for Wind, Solar
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Since the UN Conference of Parties (COP) 26 is meeting in Glasgow this week, we will be looking at climate and energy issues in the Middle East. Today I want to make some remarks about Morocco, which has one of the most ambitious green energy programs in the region, but […]