War

( Tomdispatch.com ) – I was born on July 20, 1944, almost two years after Joe Biden arrived on this planet and almost a year before You Know Who, like me, landed in New York City. The United States was then nearing the end of the second global war of that century and things were […]

nuclear weapons

Grappling with Nuclear Dangers at 90 Seconds to Midnight

Frida Berrigan

( Tomdispatch.com ) – What’s in your basement? Mine is full of things I’ve mostly forgotten about — tools I bought for projects I never completed, long abandoned sports equipment, furniture I planned on refinishing ages ago, and unused cans of paint I thought I wanted when someone was giving them away. We’ve owned this […]

Pentagon

Remote Warfare and Expendable People: Forever War means never Having to say you’re Sorry

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In war, people die for absurd reasons or often no reason at all. They die due to accidents of birth, the misfortune of being born in the wrong place — Cambodia or Gaza, Afghanistan or Ukraine — at the wrong time. They die due to happenstance, choosing to shelter indoors when […]

Far Right

Our World-Historical Turning Point – Kairos – is Now, and Everything Depends on the Youths

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com) – “All Americans owe them a debt for — if nothing else — releasing the idealism locked so long inside a nation that has not recently tasted the drama of a social upheaval. And for making us look on the young people of the country with a new respect.” That’s how Howard Zinn […]

Environment

How Israel Killed Gaza’s Environment and Created an Unlivable Hellscape

Joshua Frank

By Joshua Frank | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – On a picturesque beach in central Gaza, a mile north of the now-flattened Al-Shati refugee camp, long black pipes snake through hills of white sand before disappearing underground. An image released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows dozens of soldiers laying pipelines and what appear […]

Climate Crisis

Double Threat: Nukes and Climate Change in 2024

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) — Honestly, what strange creatures we are. Nothing stops us when it comes to destruction, does it? (And I’m not even thinking about the utter, ongoing devastation of Gaza.) I mean, give us credit as the new year begins. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about humanity isn’t our literature, our theater, our […]

Guns

Dear President Biden: About your Record on Guns, Arms, and Belligerence

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden Dear Joe, I would wish you a Happy New Year; but it seems trite and banal, given all the challenges and troubles you and our country face in 2024 – some inherited from previous administrations, others of your own making. Americans are 10 times more […]

Lebanon

5 Budding Wars we hope the World can Avoid in 2024

The Conversation

By Jessica Genauer, Flinders University | – (The Conversation) – Sadly, 2023 has been a violent one on the global stage. War broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, leading to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis, including many children on both sides. And the bitter war between Russia and […]

Houthi

Gaza Crisis: US-Led Taskforce deploys in Red Sea and Considers Strikes on Yemen

The Conversation

By Basil Germond, Lancaster University | – The US is reportedly considering strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen that have been menacing commercial ships in the Red Sea since the conflict began in Gaza. The Pentagon has a range of options for missile attacks on Houthi positions and has moved the Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier […]