(By Paul Buchheit) Anyone reviewing the data is likely to conclude that there must be some mistake. It doesn't seem possible that one out of twenty American families could each have made a million dollars since Obama became President, while the average American family's net worth has barely recovered. But the evidence comes from numerous […]
Europe Abandoning Hydrocarbons: Closing 30% of Gas, Coal Plants in Favor of Green Energy
(By Zachary Shahan) Europe’s Fossil Fuel Exit — 30% Of Fossil Fuel Power Capacity To Close By 2017, UBS Analysts Project (via Clean Technica) Following up on a Credit Suisse report stating that ~85% of US energy demand growth would come from renewables by 2025, we thought it would be good to take a look […]
The Politics of War Casualty Counts, from the “GWOT” to Syria
(By Michael Munk) Counting the casualties of war is a highly political exercise. We recall the competition for promotion and decoration between US military commanders in Vietnam for Vietcong “body counts.” When these were widely exposed as false or misleading (labeling civilians as fighters), the same military announced “we don’t do body counts” in the […]
Iraq: Government assault as Sunni Extremists Take al-Anbar City Quarters
(By AFP) Clashes kill 32 civilians in Iraq’s Anbar (via AFP) Fighting killed at least 32 civilians on Friday in the Anbar province cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, where Al-Qaeda-linked militants took over areas this week, security officials said. Police and tribesmen in both cities are battling militants from… AFP reports
Australia burns, swelters in Hottest Year on Record (Climate Instability Story of the Day)
(By AFP) Australia endures hottest year on record (via AFP) Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday, enduring the longest heatwave ever recorded Down Under as well as destructive bushfires. “2013 was Australia’s warmest year since records began in 1910,”… ITN reports
Syria: 73,000 were Killed in 2013 Carnage as Refugees Brace for Winter
(By AFP) 73,000 dead in Syria in 2013, war’s bloodiest year (via AFP) More than 73,000 people were killed in Syria in 2013, the bloodiest year yet in the brutal civil war that began in March 2011, an NGO said on Wednesday. The tally from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came as renewed regime […]
Is a Third Palestinian Uprising on its Way?
(By Ruthie Blum) On December 25, Ali Jarbawi published his blockbuster Op-Ed “The Coming Intifada” with The New York Times. ”We Palestinians are living through the worst situation in years,” he wrote. Meanwhile, Kerry & Co. attempt to strike an historic peace agreement. So what will it be? Has the Arab Spring, now in its […]
Apple: We didn’t help NSA put the Dropoutjeep Backdoor in our iPhones
(By Jon Queally) Apple, the company giant behind the iconic iPhone, declared on Monday that is has never assisted the NSA in its efforts to create "back doors" to its signature mobile phone or any of its other products. The declaration by the computer giant comes in response to revelations made public by the German […]
Turkey’s Secretive Gulen Movement Challenges its Prime Minister as Religious Right Splits
(By Alexander Christie-Miller) The Gulen movement: a self-exiled imam challenges Turkey’s Erdogan (via The Christian Science Monitor) The man some see as the architect of a political storm threatening to topple Turkey’s government lives 5,000 miles away in rural Pennsylvania. Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim preacher born in 1941 near the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum, […]