Jack Stevenson writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: The US has been involved, covertly or openly, in military actions in Afghanistan since 1979, with no end in sight. Nor, after all these decades, is the news very good. A Taliban assassination attempt has put Afghanistan’s chief intelligence and security official in the hospital. […]
Israel’s Apartheid Deepens (Cole at Truthdig)
My essay on the aftermath of the Gaza conflict is out in Truthdig; it is entitled “Israel’s Apartheid Deepens, Along With Its Global Isolation” Excerpt: “Building a new, large settlement in the E-1 area between west Jerusalem and the big settlement of Maale Adumim just nine miles from the Dead Sea border with Jordan would […]
Jeff Halper: Permanent Matrix of Control being Laid over Palestinian Territory (ICAHD Video)
Part 1 of Jeff Halper’s recent talk in London for the Israeli Committee against House Demolition, which says that 28,000 Palestinian homes have by now been razed by the Israeli state: Here is Part 2: ICAHD does incredible work (click here). Please support them.
Obama Recognizes Syrian Opposition as Government, as Fighters advance in Aleppo, Damascus
President Obama announced on Tuesday that the US now formally recognizes the Syrian opposition as the legitimate government of Syria: US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Tuesday that there were no further indications of the Syrian regime priming itself to deploy chemical weapons. (My own suspicion is that Israeli intelligence planted that story in […]
Michigan Workers now have Right to “Work for Less” (Granholm Video)
Jennifer Granholm explains that Michigan’s new “right to work” law actually is a “right to work for less,” resulting in thousands of dollars a year less income for the average worker and even a lower education budget. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is in the back pocket of the notorious oil billionaires, the Koch brothers, […]
In Memoriam: Ravi Shankar teaches George Harrison to Play Sitar
Ravi Shankar, the great sitar player who deeply influenced the American popular music of the 1960s and after, was among the figures who got me interested in India and led to my becoming a historian of South Asia. He died in San Diego on December 11 at age 92. Here is a video of Ravi […]
America’s Achipelago of Garrisons abroad costs $1 Trillion a Decade (Vine)
David Vine writes at Tomdispatch.com : “Are you monitoring the construction?” asked the middle-aged man on a bike accompanied by his dog. “Ah, sì,” I replied in my barely passable Italian. “Bene,” he answered. Good. In front of us, a backhoe’s guttural engine whined into action and empty dump trucks rattled along a dirt track. […]
Polling tries to make Republicans look like conspiracy nuts (Colbert Report Video)
The Colbert Report criticizes opinion pollsters for results that seem to make members of the US Republican Party look like conspiracy theorist nut cases. Or… does it? The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
South Damascus a Battlefield, as Bodies Pile up, and Bread Crisis in Capital Worsens
The forces seeking to overthrow the Baath government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad have made further advances both in the north in Aleppo and its surroundings, and in the suburbs of the capital of Damascus. But the civilian population in the war-torn country’s urban areas are facing food and electricity shortages: On Damascus, the USG […]