When reports of a chemical weapons attack in Rif Dimashq near Damascus on August 21 first surfaced, some observers questioned whether these were really chemical weapons. Others questioned whether the force that deployed them, if that was what they were, was the Syrian army. T The UN-commissioned Sellstrom report on the August 21 chemical weapons […]
![44 yearly Murders by Firearms in Britain [220 equiv.] vs. 8,583 in US; US Navy now Menaced](https://media.juancole.com/images/2016/04/firearms-britain-menaced-500x400.jpg)
44 yearly Murders by Firearms in Britain [220 equiv.] vs. 8,583 in US; US Navy now Menaced
Aaron Alexis carried out the mass murder of 13 people at the Navy Yard with an AR-15 assault rifle and a shotgun. AR-15 Bushmasters are semi-automatic weapons that can fire many rounds per minute and can be bought at retail stores such as Walmart or at gun shows in southern states from private individuals without […]
Thousand-Year Flood in Colorado: Climate Change & Extreme Weather
Commondreams.org writes The number of people missing or "unaccounted for" amid what experts are calling a thousand-year flood event in Colorado, is now more than 1200, according to state newspapers and officials. The number of officials deaths related to the flooding is now at six people. Coming on the heals of forest fires and drought […]
The Hubris of the Syria Interventionists
The hawks who are deeply disappointed that diplomacy has likely forestalled a US military intervention in Syria in the foreseeable future often attempt to tug at our heart strings by pointing to the over 100,000 dead and the millions of displaced, implying that the US has a responsibility to intervene to stop the carnage on […]
Summers withdraws from Fed consideration; Won’t be Rewarded for Beggaring Us All
Economist Larry Summers withdrew his name from consideration for chairman of the Federal Reserve last night, even though he had been increasingly considered the favorite for the job in the White House (not so much in the Senate). It is a great mystery why Barack Obama even considered rewarding Summers for his role in increasing […]
The World after the Kerry-Lavrov accord on Syria
The agreement reached by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry at Geneva on Saturday regarding the sequester of Syria’s chemical weapons is a little unlikely to shorten the civil war or save many lives in Syria. But it did signal winners and losers in the region and the world. […]
7 Million Displaced Syrians, Bayda Massacre, & other Reports you Didn’t see on American TV
American network & cable television has been focused his week on US-Russian diplomacy with relatively little coverage (aside from Ben Wedemann on CNN and a handful of others) of what is happening on the ground in Syria. Here are some Syria reports from European and VOA correspondents that illuminate the situation there: 1. Euronews: “Seven […]
Neil Young: Alberta Tar Sands fields ‘Look like Hiroshima’ (Chamberlain)
Jacob Chamberlain writes at Commondreams.org Fresh off a trip to Canada's tar sands oil fields in Alberta, famed singer Neil Young spoke out at a conference in Washington, DC on Monday against the controversial oil extraction and its export through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, calling Fort McMurray, the town nearest Alberta's vast tar sands, […]
Arguing with President Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin published an opinion piece in the New York Times on Wednesday. Here is my attempt at refutation of some of the things he said. Putin begins by emphasizing that the US in the period after 1945 acquiesced in the idea that the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council would […]
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