The results of the Egyptian presidential election, held on Wednesday and Thursday, won’t be announced until Monday, say official sources in the government. In contrast, the High Electoral Commission is indicating that it will announce the results as soon as they are definitively known. Egypt is on a precipice between a relatively smooth transition and […]
Shell’s $4bn lobbying campaign cleared the way for Arctic oil drilling (Ross)
Alice Ross writes at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has long been considered off-limits – but as the New York Times revealed . . ., a sustained and ingenious campaign by Shell has overcome all objections. The campaign to win permission to drill in the Arctic is a masterclass […]
“The Exact measure of Injustice” (Frederick Douglass Poster)
A Memorial Day to Break your Heart (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: May is the official month of remembrance when it comes to our war dead, ending as it does on the long Memorial Day weekend when Americans typically take to the road and kill themselves and each other in far greater numbers than will die in Afghanistan. It’s a weekend for […]
Iran, UNSC talks have the effect of Averting War
The meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) with Iran in Baghdad is apparently producing a lot of detailed proposals for resolving the crisis. Apparently the one place there could be a breakthrough, if not at Baghdad then later this summer, is with regard to Iran’s enrichment of […]
Are Egyptians voting Ideologically?
Interpreting political behavior in a brand spanking new democracy such as Egypt is trying to become is littered with pitfalls, and these are multiplied when dealing with the Middle East. The Muslim world, and especially the Arab world, has been depicted by some Western historians and social scientists as exceptionally impervious to democratic ideals and […]
Americans pay $1 Trillion a year for War and ‘Security’ – Why? (Hellman & Kramer)
Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer write at Tomdispatch: Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other […]
Iran-Azerbaijan Tensions, Human Rights Outcry, over Pop Music ‘European Idol’
Iran has withdrawn its ambassador to neighboring Azerbaijan, in part over Baku’s hosting of the Eurovision pop singing contest, which the ayatollahs consider to be too sexy for their turbans. Eurovision goes back to 1956 and so much predates the “Idol” competitions, but in the US it is the latter that is better known. It […]
Israel, Electric Cars, and Existential Threats
Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi has launched an Israeli electric car, and also arranged for four recharging stations. Israel is a perfect place for this experiment, since it is a relatively small and compact country, so the present lack of range of most electric cars (70-150 miles) may not be an issue for a lot of […]
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