Fred H. Lawson writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Secretary of State John F. Kerry took a major step toward engaging the United States in the quest to find a solution to the devastating civil war in Syria during his visit to Moscow on May 6-7. Kerry persuaded Russian President Vladimir V. Putin […]
Abusing the Sea: from Garbage Dump to Rising Waters & CO2 (Lapham)
[This essay by Lewis Lapham will appear in “The Sea,” the Summer 2013 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly. This slightly adapted version is posted at TomDispatch.com with the kind permission of that magazine.] In heavy fog on the night of October 7, 1936, the SS Ohioan ran aground three miles south and west of San Francisco’s Golden […]
Dear US Government: Your ‘Terror’ map of the Muslim World is from the Time of Shakespeare (Kurzman))
Charles Kurzman writes at Islamicommentary Screenshot of the National Counterterrorism Center’s Interactive Map, April 30, 2013. “The United States is not at war with Islam,” President Obama said last week at the National Defense University, in a speech that declared an end to America’s “wartime footing” in the fight against terrorism. President Bush said the […]
Stateless! The Core of the Palestinian Crisis (Juan Cole Video)
My talk at the Jerusalem Fund (the 2013 Hisham B. Sharabi Memorial Lecture with Dr. Juan Cole) The Jerusalem Fund & Palestine Center: Hisham B. Sharabi Memorial Lecture with Dr. Juan Cole This is the transcript The Palestine Center Washington, DC Dr. Juan Cole: Well thank you very much Yousef for that warm introduction. Thank […]
PBS, Self-Censorship and the Koch Big Oil Empire (Democracy Now!)
Following up on a hard-hitting article by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, Democracy Now! asks if PBS self-censored to avoid offending a major donor, the oil magnates the Koch brothers:
Syria needs a dozen S-300 batteries to protect itself – Russian general; Kerry Denounces Plan
Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday deplored the Russian plan to ship S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Syria, saying that it will not lead to peace. The batteries would constrain Israel from bombarding targets in Syria and so would be a game-changer for Israeli security, and they would likely put paid to any talk of […]
Top Ten Green Energy Good News Stories, 6/1/13
1. Scotland Goes Ahead With World’s Largest Wave Energy Project. “At 40 megawatts (MW), it will provide energy to nearly 30,000 homes” once the requisite cable is laid, by 2017. 2. Gujarat’s wind power capacity has grown to be the highest in India over the past 4 years. “Installed wind power generation capacities in the […]
Taksim Square Protests in Turkey Spread to other Cities, Police accused of Brutality
Protests at Taksim Square in Istanbul that began by opposing the privatization of a park (one of the last spots of green in that part of the city) took on a different life when they were met with a disproportionate response by police. The authorities used water canon and fired tear gas at young people […]
Falsely Accused Pot Mom Released in Mexico; Case Argues for Decriminalization
The release of Yanira Maldonado from a Mexican jail after an apparent attempt to frame her for marijuana trafficking underlines the need to end the disastrous “war on drugs” and to legalize marijuana. Maldonado only escaped a very unpleasant fate because she happened to be exonerated by a surveillance video showing her boarding a bus […]
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