Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Australian firm Orion Energy in New South Wales is closing its massive, nearly 3 gigawatt Eraring coal plant eight years early. The largest coal plant in the country will be gone by 2025 instead of 2032. This development is good news for the earth, since coal is the single […]
Archives for February 2022
Invading Ukraine may never have been Putin’s aim – the threat alone could advance Russia’s goals
By Ronald Suny | – An invasion is not the only way the crisis in Ukraine can play out. A diplomatic solution may yet provide an off-ramp for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose placement of tens of thousands of troops along Russia’s border with its smaller neighbor kicked off the current crisis. Indeed, the leaders […]
My Life with Maus: Or How I Was Banned (Even If in a Second-Hand Way) by a Trumpian World
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Sometimes life has a way of making you realize things about yourself. Recently, I discovered that an urge of mine, almost four decades old, had been the very opposite of that of a rural Tennessee school board this January. In another life, I played a role in what could be thought […]
Why we must not allow Climate change to create a dangerous state of “collective helplessness” in Liberal Society
( Clean Energy Wire ) – The “increasingly tangible” threat of climate change and other risks at a global scale, such as the coronavirus pandemic or geopolitical tensions in many regions, are spurring a sense of “collective helplessness” in societies around the world, the Munich Security Conference’s (MSC) 2022 report has found. “Liberal democracies appear […]
A Republican Genocide of Quackery: COVID-19 has Killed as many Americans as all our Wars combined
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The CDC now estimates that there have been 1,045,389 excess deaths since January 1, 2020, because of COVID-19. PBS estimates that roughly 1,100,000 Americans have died in all US wars in history. That is, the death toll from COVID-19 is just about as great as the toll of all our […]
How Glib charges of “Anti-Semitism” at every Human Rights Report on Israel undermines Jewish Civil Rights
Madison, Wi. (Special to Informed Comment) – The unqualified branding of people, organizations, reports, and movements as “anti-Semitic” for their criticism of Israel is having a boomerang effect. Labeling every condemnation of Israel as “anti-Semitism” silences those whose voices are most needed. The repeated charge of anti-Semitism debases its actual meaning—and provides cover for those […]
Foes of a new Nuclear Agreement Demonize Tehran, but what is Iranian Society really Like Today?
Eau Claire, Wi. (Special to Informed Comment) – The nature and the parameters of power relations in the state-society relations in Iran since the 1978-79 revolution have radically changed. The revolution ended the twenty-five-hundred-year-old monarchical rule in Iran and gave rise to a Shi’a ‘ulema-dominated rule. The demise of the old Pahlavi regime saw the […]
How the Russia-Ukraine Conflict is Lose-Lose for Israel
By Adnan Abu Amer | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – It is almost 3,000 kilometres from Tel Aviv to Kyiv, and yet the crisis between Ukraine and Russia is having a huge impact on Israel. Why does it seem to be a party to the crisis when it shares no border with either […]
Conflict with Russia is Raising your Gasoline Bill; an Electric Car is the Answer
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reporters pressed White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Wednesday about the likelihood that any Russian military engagement in Ukraine will raise petroleum prices further. Ensuing US sanctions on Russia would keep some of its petroleum off the market, as has already happened to Iran, at a time when demand is […]
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