BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in 2018 increased sharply from the previous year and reached 57 compared to 15 in 2017, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a report published on Thursday marking Palestinian Child Day, which coincides on Friday. The PCBS report said that […]
Archives for April 2019
The Measure of our Happiness: Our Miserable Plutocracy
For the past seven years ago, the United Nations has issued a report titled the World Happiness Report. While this report may sound somewhat lightweight, it actually ranks countries by serious measures including income, freedom, trust in government, social support, life expectancy and how happy citizens perceive themselves to be. The highest-ranking countries are those, […]
The Coming Great Satellite Space War between Nuclear-Armed India and Pakistan
It’s still the most dangerous border on Earth. Yet compared to the recent tweets of President Donald Trump, it remains a marginal news story. That doesn’t for a moment diminish the chance that the globe’s first (and possibly ultimate) nuclear conflagration could break out along that 480-mile border known as the Line of Control (and, […]
Dear Trump: Top 7 Signs Puerto Ricans might be Americans
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump caused a brouhaha by tweeting that Puerto Rican officials “only take from USA,” as thoug they weren’t part of the USA! Then his White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley called Puerto Rico “that country” during an interview on MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson. Trump seems to me to […]
Muhammad: an anticlerical hero of the European Enlightenment
By John Tolan | – Publishing the Quran and making it available in translation was a dangerous enterprise in the 16th century, apt to confuse or seduce the faithful Christian. This, at least, was the opinion of the Protestant city councillors of Basel in 1542, when they briefly jailed a local printer for planning to […]
It’s the Corporations, Stupid. Russia Collusion was never the Real Scandal
( Otherwords.org) – Collusion with corporations has always been hiding in plain sight. It takes real people to fight that — not an elite prosecutor. By Peter Certo | March 26, 2019 Robert Mueller won’t be filing any more indictments related to the “Russiagate” investigation. Though the search unearthed ample evidence that Russia wanted Trump […]
Arab Spring Pt. 2? Massive Crowds forced out Bouteflika, but What Next for Algeria?
Algerians who have been demonstrating on the streets for more than a month appear to have achieved their primary goal of toppling President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. On Monday the official news agency reported that the 82-year-old president will resign “before 28 April” – the date when his current mandate expires. [Update: Bouteflika resigned on Tuesday April […]
Senators Grill Rick Perry on Transfer of Nuclear Info to Saudi Arabia Despite “Troubling Actions”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Timothy Gardner at Reuters reports that senators on Tuesday sent a sharp letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry about the Part 810 approvals he secretly gave US businesses to provide sensitive nuclear specifications to Saudi Arabia. Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) insisted that Perry inform them […]
“Free” Markets and the Attack on Democracy
(Informed Comment) – Many US citizens take comfort in the conviction that progress toward democracy has been steady even if stalled or even periodically reversed. History is on our side. Early in the post Revolutionary period the right to vote was extended to all white men, even those who held no property. Women achieved the […]
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