Economy

By Victor Argo “For them, a stable country is a country with a strong government favorable to the United States”: When Western governments pompously talk about “stability in the Middle East”, the interest and the security of the people of the region are seldom on their minds, writes Victor Argo. Stability, stability, stability. Comments on […]

Economy

How its Iran Sanctions hurt US Economy: Cutting off your Nose to Spite Your Face

contributors

The National Iranian American Council There are very few studies measuring the cost of sanctions to the sanctioning countries. In the case of Iran, where unprecedented U.S. and international sanctions may soon be lifted as part of a deal over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, understanding the cost of the policy is particularly important since any […]

Bill of Rights

Helpless Giant: How Imperial US Elites Tied America Down All by Themselves

Tom Engelhardt

By Tom Engelhardt via Tomdispatch For America’s national security state, this is the age of impunity. Nothing it does — torture, kidnapping, assassination, illegal surveillance, you name it — will ever be brought to court. For none of its beyond-the-boundaries acts will anyone be held accountable. The only crimes that can now be committed in […]

Christians

World Council of Churches Endorses Fossil Fuel Divestment

contributors

Geneva, Switzerland — The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a fellowship of over 300 churches which represent some 590 million people in 150 countries, endorsed fossil fuel divestment this week, agreeing to phase out its own holdings and encourage its members to do the same. The WCC Central Committee is made […]

Climate Change

Saudi ARAMCO Nat’l Gas Plans undercut US Fracking, Point to big Water Problems Ahead

contributors

By Tina Casey via Cleantechnica File this one under E for ewps, at least as far as the export market for US fracked natural gas goes. The US natural gas industry has been leaning thishard on the Obama Administration to approve more overseas sales, but international fossil fuel giant Saudi Aramco has just announced big […]

al-Qaeda

Oil and Terrorist Groups: Iraq’s ISIS, others Seeking Black Gold

contributors

By Michael T. Klare via Tomdispatch Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the East and South China Seas: wherever you look, the world is aflame with new or intensifying conflicts. At first glance, these upheavals appear to be independent events, driven by their own unique and idiosyncratic circumstances. But look more closely and they share […]

Economy

Highway Patrol Officer aims Knockout Punches at Woman along Freeway

contributors

CNN: “A highway patrol officer was caught on camera hitting a woman with what a witness says were “knockout punches.” Aviva Shen at Thinkprogress writes: “The officer said the woman was walking barefoot along the freeway on Tuesday and refused to stop when asked. The video shows the cop tackle her, pin her down, and […]

Economy

China’s New Soft Power: Transformers 4, X-Men & Hollywood

contributors

By Chris Homewood, University of Leeds What do The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Godzilla have in common? Aside from belonging to the summer blockbuster class of 2014, they all feature China in some form or another. Many of these Chinese moments are fleeting – the future X-Men, for example, mount […]

Dissent

Not War on Poverty but War on the Poor: Washington’s Real Foreign Policy Aims

Juan Cole

By Noam Chomsky via Tomdispatch The question of how foreign policy is determined is a crucial one in world affairs. In these comments, I can only provide a few hints as to how I think the subject can be productively explored, keeping to the United States for several reasons. First, the U.S. is unmatched in […]