Corruption

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “We’ve got a new bunch of leaked papers on some of the most prominent politicians and leaders worldwide. They are laundering money from out of their own countries into private bank accounts in offshore tax havens. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks […]

Authoritarianism

The Panama Papers and Middle East Leaders’ Secret Bank Accounts

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – An anonymous source has handed over to a German newspaper massive amounts of data from the Panama-based, German-run law firm Mossack Fonseca. The firm specialized in providing clients with offshore accounts, which are typically used to avoid taxes or hide ill-gotten gains. Given the enormous problem […]

Authoritarianism

Do Drug Gangs in Mexico kill more than ISIL? & other Big Security threats that will Surprise You

contributors

By Natasha Ezrow | (The Conversation) | – – This has been a remarkably violent year – and many of the worst threats to human security that have dogged people all over the globe are no less a problem than they were a year ago. Here, in no particular order, are some of the biggest […]

Corruption

GOP Congress plans $100 bn. tax cut as Xmas Present for Corporations

contributors

By Jessica Schieder | (Otherwords.org) | – – This year-end tax package is a grab bag of gifts for corporations and a lump of coal for working families. Given the commitment House Republicans profess to balancing the federal budget, you’d think tax breaks for profitable businesses would be a low priority. But this holiday season, […]

Climate Change

Top 10 Signs the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised Those ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt. VOA reports : While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, […]

Campaign Finance

Kabul on the Potomac: How America became the most Corrupt Society in the West

contributors

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – A top government official with energy industry holdings huddles in secret with oil company executives to work out the details of a potentially lucrative “national energy policy.” Later, that same official steers billions of government dollars to his former oil-field services company. Well-paid elected representatives act […]

Authoritarianism

The 3000: Why have some Tunisians joined ISIL/Daesh in Syria?

contributors

by Youssef Cherif | (Middle East Center Blog, LSE Political Science) | – – Tunisia, regarded as the Arab ‘beacon of hope’ and the cliché of Arab secularism and liberalism, raises a lot of expectations. Hence the most pressing point when Tunisia is discussed rotates around the 3000 Tunisian fighters who joined the ranks of […]

Apartheid

President of Israel declares Israeli Squatting in Palestinian West Bank a “Right”, key to Zionism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday declared Israeli squatting on the Palestinian West Bank a “right” and as an essential Zionist principle. Reuven, a former chairman of the far-right Likud Party now in power, is known to favor a paternalist form of the one-state solution. He […]

Corruption

Youth Revolts are back– Lebanon, Iraq Shaken by demand for Services, end to Corruption

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The master narrative of much Western journalism is that the youth protests of 2011 have been replaced by civil war and terrorism. But while there is plenty of both in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya, in fact here and there in the region youth protests have […]