Month

Archives: December 2017

Trump Nat’l Security Speech: Is he the real threat to National Security?

Trump's National Security Strategy document is about as confused and wrongheaded piece of writing you'd ever want to see. It says, "Jihadist terrorist organizations present the most dangerous terrorist threat to the…

Yemen: Will Saudis try to Impose Ahmed Ali Saleh, son of Dictator?

Brian Whitaker | ( al-Bab.com) | - - When Yemen held parliamentary elections in 1997 Ahmed Ali Saleh, then aged 24, was a first-time candidate. Though new to politics, he won by…

How Big Media Money & Monopolies Affect You: Disney/Murdoch to Net Neutrality

By Des Freedman | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | - - This week’s events have shown that the new digital media landscape is every bit as monopolistic as the old one. And what’s Murdoch…

Fascism’s return and Trump’s war on youth

By Henry Giroux | (The Conversation) | - - Fascism is all too often relegated to the history books. The word conjures up a period in which civilized societies treated democracy with…

The Mideast has a Militia Problem: Does Iraq’s Ayatollah Sistani Have the Answer?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has called for Iraq's Shiite militias to come under control of the central government. One of the problems facing…

The GOP Tax Plan Will Complete the Destruction of America’s Middle Class Wealth

By Bob Lord | ( Inequality.org ) | - - In fact, if the GOP tax plan becomes law, we may be looking at a future where our 1,600 richest hold more…

Why Arabs And Muslims Aren’t Exotic: The Grip of Orientalism (Video)

AJ+ | (Video Report) | - - "From Aladdin to Bodak Yellow, the media is obsessed with portraying Arabs and Muslims as exotic and mysterious. So why is this sort of imagery…

Our Pyromaniac President in a Flammable World

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - “I’ve just heard that my family home near Carpenteria is literally in flames at this moment,” a friend told me recently. She was…

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Turkey to defy Trump, open Embassy to Palestine in E. Jerusalem

Middle East Monitor | - - Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the…

Puerto Rico: On top of Everything Else, GOP Tax Bill is Racist

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, sent a letter to all the members of Congress yesterday, begging on bended knee for a supplemental…

Solar & Wind: How free electricity would change the world (Economist Video)

The Economist | (Video News Report) | - - "magine if heating and powering homes became free in the next decade. What would that mean for the world?" How free electricity would…

Iraq: Parliament Rejects Marriage for 8-Year-Old Girls

Human Rights Watch | - - Amendments Would Have Instated Discriminatory Laws on Family Matters (Beirut) – Iraq’s parliament has rejected proposed amendments to Iraq’s Personal Status Law (PSL) that would allow…

Global Heating: 3 Largest Wildfires in California History all have Raged since 2012

The Watchers | - - The Thomas Fire in California is burning for the 13th day in a row and has now grown to 259 000 acres (104 813 ha), making it…

Putin’s talk of Draw Down in Syria isn’t about Russia leaving, but staying

By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) | - - Standing on the Russian military airbase at Khmeimim on his December visit to Syria, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will withdraw the bulk…

Having had Green Electricity for 300 days, Costa Rica Moves to EVs

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Costa Rica, which has among the cleanest electrical grids in the world, has just passed a law promoting electric vehicles. The transportation sector…

To stop Global Heating, Meat Taxes are Coming

By Matt Mace | edie.net | (Euractiv.com) - - Estimates suggest that meat and dairy demand will mean agriculture will emit 20 gigatonnes of emission per year by 2050, out of the…

Marijuana’s Key Ingredient Not Dangerous or Addictive: WHO

TeleSur | - - The committee is expected to make detailed recommendations based on an in-depth review in May 2018. The main ingredient, Cannabidiol, CBD found in Marijuana is neither harmful nor…

Trump did This: Israeli Troops injure 150 Palestinian protesters in Palestine

Ma`an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets on Friday in continued protest of US President Donald Trump's announcement last week recognizing Jerusalem --…

Trump did this: Israeli Troops injure Palestinians

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Redirect: This article is found here {click)

Palestinians outraged but unsurprised by Trump on Jerusalem: ‘World already ignores our existence’

By Joey Ayoub | ( GlobalVoices.org) | - - US President Donald Trump's declaration that the country would move its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem was met with shock…

Over 700 Rohingya Children Killed by Myanmar Military

TeleSur | - - An estimate from Doctors Without Borders shows that at least 6,700 refugees have been killed during the first month of militarized persecution. At least 730 Rohingya children under…

Global Spec Ops in Trump’s Pentagon: Elite Commandos in record 149 Countries

By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - “We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the…

Muslim Countries call for Jerusalem as Palestine Capital, reject US as Honest Broker

Muslim Countries call for E. Jerusalem as Palestine Capital, reject US as Honest Broker

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a regular meeting of the foreign ministers of 57 Muslim-majority countries, held an extraordinary session in Istanbul…

Now Diptheria besets Yemen, along with Saudi Bombs and Blockade

Middle East Monitor | - - Yemen, ravaged by war, hunger and disease, is seeing a spike in diphtheria cases that will inevitably erupt into a larger, deadly outbreak because so few…

Saudi Arabia: The Coming Crisis in the Kingdom

By Pierce Gootee | (TeleSur) | - - The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has, in recent months, tightened their blockade on the war-ravaged country of Yemen. The justification for this tightening was…

“Solar+Batteries” = the Cheapest Energy, as S. Korea powers past Coal

By Frank Rijsberman | (Inter Press Service) | - - SEOUL, Dec 13 2017 (IPS) - Renewable energy became the cheapest form of electricity in 58 emerging economies last year. This year,…

What’s the Difference between Roy Moore and a Muslim extreme Fundamentalist? A Cowboy Hat

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Both Christianity and Islam as religions comprise large numbers of people and contain a spectrum of believers from the secular to the moderate…

The Unlikely Industry Empowering Women in Afghanistan

By Ruchi Kumar | (Yes! Magazine) | = = In this deeply conservative society, these women are busting stereotypes every day. The typical depiction of an Afghan woman looks like this: Timid…

Saudi Prince who Bought da Vinci Painting could have given Sight to 9 Million Instead

By Peter Singer | (Project Syndicate) | - - A Saudi prince has been revealed to be the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," for which he spent $450.3 million. Had…

The Fempire Strikes Back: #MeToo and the Man-Monsters

By Ann Jones. | ( Tomdispatch.com First, for the record, let me tell you my story about another of those perversely creepy Hollywood predators, a sort of cut-rate Harvey Weinstein: the screenwriter…

Leaving US in Dust, China starts $150 Million Floating Solar Plant Project

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Three Gorges Group project commenced in July of this year and is expected to be completed and fully streamlined by May 2018.…

Exodus of Climate Scientists to France only the Beginning if GOP Guts Grad Education

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - French President Emmanuel Macron has a program he calls MAPA - "Making the Planet Great Again." His government is offering funding to climate…

FCC about to Destroy Internet w/out Understanding how it Works

By Erica Portnoy and Jeremy Gillula | ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) | - - Earlier this year nearly 200 Internet engineers and computer scientists sent a letter to the FCC that explained…

African-American areas have “Worst Poverty” in Industrialized World: UN Official

TeleSur | - - Environmental racism, extreme poverty, and disease thrive on a breathtaking scale in U.S. Black communities in the South, shocking a UN investigator. Extreme poverty, environmental degradation and toxic…

Christian Palestinians Reject meeting with Mike Pence

IMEMC News | - - Christian Palestinians, along with Muslims, held a protest in front of the historic Church of the Nativity, after Sunday prayers, to express their rejection of US president…

3 Ways ISIL Terrorism Will Continue even after the end of the “Caliphate”

By Brian Glyn Williams | (Informed Comment) | - - The Destruction of the Dream of Extremist Warfare, 2014-2017 On Saturday the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al Abadi, announced that the last…

The Difference between Israeli Policy and Turkish: Calling Each other Terrorist State

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - First, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas on Dec. 10, in which he said, “Israel…

If the Trump Revolution Is Possible, So Is a Progressive One

By John Feffer | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | - - The increased tempo of the GOP's snatch and grab in recent days suggests that they're feeling a certain desperation. Don’t…

Smoking Gun: Did the Russians admit to Interference in the US Election?

By Don Van Atta | (Informed Comment) | - - A little-noticed Russian diplomatic approach to the US on 17 July amounted to an official admission by the Russian Federation that it…

Toward a Federal United States of Israel & Palestine?

By David Gerald Fincham They say that the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is dead. Good. Partition was never the right way out of the conflict. The two peoples need to…

When Will America’s Wars have their Harvey Weinstein Moment?

By Andrew J. Bacevich | (Tomdispatch.com) | - - What makes a Harvey Weinstein moment? The now-disgraced Hollywood mogul is hardly the first powerful man to stand accused of having abused women.…

Why Aren’t Americans Celebrating fall of ISIL State? It is a bogeyman

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Other people are celebrating the defeat of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on the battlefield and its destruction as a territorial state. Russia issued an…

Saudi Blockade depriving Yemen Civilians of Food, Hospitals–UN should Sanction Riyadh (HRW)

Human rights Watch | - - The Saudi-led coalition’s broad restrictions on aid and essential goods to Yemen’s civilian population are worsening the country’s humanitarian catastrophe. (Beirut) – The Saudi-led coalition’s broad…

The Rapture of Dominionists: Now Evangelicals are Dictating US Mideast Policy

By Julie Ingersoll | (The Conversation) | - - President Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, Dec. 6 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel received widespread criticism. Observers quickly…

In Photos: Israeli police use force to break up protest in East Jerusalem

Ma'an News Agency | - - JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli police on Saturday entered occupied East Jerusalem on foot and on horseback, and suppressed a peaceful Palestinian demonstration against US President Donald…

Massive worldwide Rallies Condemn US, Courtesy Trump Jerusalem Call

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Ayat Ahmad reports for Elbalad (Beirut, liberal) that Friday saw huge, angry demonstrations against the United States in the Palestinian West Bank, Jordan,…

Saudi Crown Prince splashed $450 mn on Jesus painting

Middle East Monitor | - - Mystery over the secret buyer of a record $450.3 million painting was solved after it was discovered that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had used…

Trump-Mideast: Much More than a ‘Kiss of Death’ to Palestinians

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Ervice) | - - ROME, (IPS) - US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital does not represent only a ‘kiss of death’…

Starving Polar Bear on Iceless Land: Heart-Wrenching Climate Change Video:

National Geographic | - - Dec. 7, 2017 - This is what climate change looks like. This starving polar bear was spotted by National geographic photographer Paul Nicklen while on an expedition…

Trump’s Gift to Hizbullah weakens Saudi Hand in Beirut

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Hassan Nasrullah, the secretary general of Lebanon's Hizbullah, called for a new Palestinian uprising or intifada in the wake of Trump's recognition of…

Jared Kushner: “Peace Envoy” & Funder of Illegal Israeli Squatters in Palestine

By Justin Elliott | ( ProPublica) | - - While Jared Kushner is working on a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Kushner Companies Charitable Foundation is funding a…

1% plans Blade Runner Walls against 250 mn Climate Refugees

By Todd Miller | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - When I first talked to the three Honduran men in the train yard in the southern Mexican town of Tenosique, I had no…

Over 50 injured in Trump-caused in clashes across Palestinian territory

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The number of injured Palestinians continues to climb on Thursday as clashes with Israeli forces continue to escalate across the occupied West Bank,…

A Bitter Pill for Far Right: Europe’s Muslim Immigrants create Jobs, boost Economy

Maha Akeel | (Euractiv.com) | - - Immigration has been shown to boost Europe's economies and should be encouraged as indigenous populations get older. At a time of challenge, Europe still has…

Ethnically Cleansed Burmese Rohingya reach 600,000 in Bangladesh Camps

By Naimul Haq | (Inter Press Service) | - - IPS Correspondent Naimul Haq interviews WILLIAM LACY SWING, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) DHAKA, Bangladesh, Dec 5 2017…

Climate Denier Rupert Murdoch’s Estate Burned in LA December Wildfires

The Watchers | - - 1. 1. Rupert's network denies global warming.2. Global warming burns down his home.3. The end.#LAfire https://t.co/FYbm19TY9z— jp (@jpdoctor) December 6, 2017 2. Wochit News: "Rupert Murdoch's California…

How Trump’s Jerusalem Move Just Helped Iran Win the Mideast

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Some sections of the crazy quilt that makes up the Trump administration want to push Iran back out of the Arab world and…

Another way Trump will get us Killed: to move US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The White House says that the US is preparing to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize that city as Israel's capital instead…

All Trump’s Mideast Wars: 26,000 troops overseas

By Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy.net | From Washington to Cairo, military aggression and "keeping the lid on" are proving deadly. And they will never work. Nov. 25, 2017: al Rawda mosque…

Far Right’s Misuse of Knights Templar, Who were actually Sympathetic to Muslims

Patrick Masters | (The Conversation) | - - When market trader Tina Gayle was banned from selling mugs featuring Knights Templar logos in a Loughborough Market, Charnwood Borough Council ruled that they…

How Eastern Europe failed at Democracy & Invented Trumpism Instead

By John Feffer | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - He was a rich businessman, an outspoken outsider with a love of conspiracy theories. And he was a populist running for president. In…

German Poll: Trump a bigger Challenge than N. Korea, Russia or Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - A public opinion poll on German foreign policy carried out by the Koerber Foundation for its annual Berlin Forum has a bombshell finding:…

Yemen: Ali Abdullah Saleh Leaves Behind Grim Legacy

Human Rights Watch | - - Ex-President’s Death Underscores Need for Impartial Investigations (Beirut) – The killing of former longtime Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on December 4, 2017, underlines the need…

Navajo Nation to Sue Trump over Shrinking Bears Ears Monument

TeleSur | - - The Navajo Nation has vowed to sue U.S. President Donald Trump over his decision to shrink Utah's Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent. Hundreds of people –…

Bethlehem Olive Tree decorated to Reflect City’s Suffering under Israeli Occupation

IMEMC News | - - In a ceremony attended by a group of Palestinians and Internationals, under the initiative of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF), as part of Bethlehem Heart…

If you’re not Driving an Electric Car you’re Losing Money

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Guardian reports on a new study showing that right now, in 2017, owning and operating a purely electric car such as the…

How Hezbollah deals with Hariri Crisis will affect Mideast Stability

By Elias Ghazal | (The Conversation) | - - When the prime minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, suddenly resigned from office while visiting Saudi Arabia on November 4, the Lebanese people and…

Jared Kushner didn’t report Funding Illegal Israeli Squatter Settlements

TeleSur | - - The news organization, Haaretz, printed a report in 2016 stating Kushner's parents invested thousand dollars in organizations nestled in the West Bank region. Researchers from American Bridge and…

The Art of Keeping Guantanamo Open: The Uncharged, Untried and their Paintings

By Erin L. Thompson | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - We spent the day at a beach in Brooklyn. Skyscrapers floated in the distance and my toddler kept handing me cigarette filters…

Split in Rebel Yemeni coalition, as Saleh turns on Houthis, seeks peace with Saudis

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Amid a growing problem of malnutrition and cholera outbreaks caused by the Saudi-led war on Yemen, the two branches of the northern Yemeni…

How GOP Tax Bill’s assault on Universities will Devastate US Economy

By Benjamin J. Cohen | (The Conversation) | - - With the Senate’s passage of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” President Donald Trump seems close to notching his first legislative victory…

Australian billionaire implicates Netanyahu in alleged corruption scandal

Australian billionaire implicates Israel’s Netanyahu in alleged corruption scandal

Middle East Monitor | - - Australian businessman James Packers has confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded gifts for himself and his wife in return for advancing Packer’s business interests,…

Hamas Calls for ‘Intifada’ Should US Deem Jerusalem Israel’s Capital

TeleSur | - - The statement has come amid speculation that Trump will announce next week his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called for a new…

Top 3 Bad Pieces of News for Trump in Flynn Plea Deal

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Trump got three pieces of bad news on Friday, along with the one good piece of news that he managed to lower taxes…

Gold trader implicates Turkish Pres. Erdogan in Iran money laundering

EURACTIV.com with Reuters | - - A Turkish-Iranian gold trader yesterday (30 November) told jurors in a New York federal court that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan authorized a transaction in a…

Lawmakers Scramble to Prevent Trump from Launching a Nuclear War

By Lisa Fuller | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | - - The most effective way to prevent a nuclear war with North Korea is to reassure them that the U.S. won't…

Trump Tax Law Screws Workers out of $5 bn, Gives it to Swamp

TeleSur | - - Experts have said that the bill will raise the U.S.’ rising deficit, increased the number of uninsured individuals, and redistribute wealth to the rich while increasing taxes on…

Trump ‘Working Visit’ to Britain has to be Cancelled after he outrages all 65 million Britons

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - You can't take him anywhere. And, he is leaving a trail of US diplomatic catastrophes even with close allies. In the aftermath of…

Trump ‘To Recognise Jerusalem as Israeli Capital’: Reports

TeleSur | - - White House officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested an announcement would be made early next week. Critics immediately warned such a move could prompt widespread Palestinian…

A prison called Gaza: new book offers a startling insight into everyday life in the territory

By James Rodgers | (The Conversation) | - - A place of spacious dimensions, and large population, with fine bazaars. It contains numerous mosques, and there is no wall around it. To…

Trump’s Horror show is to distract us from his $1.5 Trillion Mugging of the People

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - Don’t look away. I mean it! Keep on staring just like you’ve been doing, just like we’ve all been doing since he rode…