GOP holds hearings but in the Real Benghazi a Retired Col. is bombarding Extremists
As congressional Republicans prepare to have yet another round of investigations into the September 11, 2012…
As congressional Republicans prepare to have yet another round of investigations into the September 11, 2012…
(By Juan Cole) The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India’s elections is being…
(By Juan Cole) Turkey’s Public Workers Union Confederation announced a one-day strike to demand better worker…
(David Victor via The Stanley Foundation) As the world heads toward a new round of climate talks in 2015, the moment is ripe for concerted, collective action to surmount years of international…
Most people who deny that human activity is warming the planet just dismiss a massive body of scientific evidence as a big hoax. But there’s a more sophisticated set of climate “skeptics” who make arguments that, at least to the lay ear, sound…
By Climate Central Maps are one way to understand what collapse of West Antarctic glaciers could eventually mean. Photos show it another way. In 2013, Climate Central shared some of its sea level rise mapping data with artist Nickolay Lamm so that…
(By Lauren McCauley) The 150 million Americans routinely exposed to toxic air as a result of oil and gas drilling need better protection from their government, demanded a coalition of 64 environmental…
There’s good news: the nationwide outcry against the Federal Communications Commission’s troublesome proposal for new Open Internet rules is clearly having an impact. At a public meeting this morning, commissioners were factoring in questions that…
Glenn Greenwald has accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of inserting backdoors for surveillance purposes into servers being exported to other countries. The irony here is that this is just the sort of thing that the US government has in the…
Ben Affleck is slated to be the next Batman, and the Batmobile could get a major overhaul too. A hybrid Batmobile? Even the Dark Knight is going green. Yesterday director Zack Snyder tweeted the above teaser picture of the next Batmobile, and later…
(By Juan Cole) Major political ideas and philosophies are complex and ambiguous, not straightforward. American conservatism is an alliance of economic conservatives and cultural conservatives. Economic conservatives are champions of entrepreneurs and…
West Antarctic ice sheet collapse ‘unstoppable’, says NASA (via AFP) Ice is melting in the western Antarctic at an “unstoppable” pace, scientists said Monday, warning that the discovery holds major consequences for…
(By Glenn Greenwald via Tomdispatch) [This essay is a shortened and adapted version of Chapter 1 of Glenn Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S.…
Operation American Spring promises to drive Obama from office this Friday (via Raw Story ) Self-styled revolutionary patriots plan to converge on Washington, D.C., this week to drive President Barack Obama and…
(By Juan Cole) Karl Rove was reported to have raised questions about Hillary Clinton’s mental well-being because of her fall in late 2012. He later walked back his allegation, but not too…
“John Oliver hosts a mathematically representative climate change debate, with the help of special guest Bill Nye the Science Guy, of course.” John Oliver LastWeekTonight: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO):…
(By John Queally) A low-wage Walmart employee in California has a simple message for President Obama on behalf of the millions of workers who find themselves in situations just like hers: "Help…
New Study Links California Drought to Climate Change and Burning of Fossil Fuels (via Desmogblog) Sat, 2014-05-10 09:07Chris Rose California, widely considered the U.S. state that most promoted the American Dream, may…
Kansas Republican slams Kochs for trying to cripple state’s growing wind power industry (via Raw Story ) Friday night’s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC took aim at billionaires Charles…
(By Juan Cole) The Fall of the New Year Throne (To read this serialized sword and sorcery novel as it has unfolded before this installment, click here) Chapter Thirteen 4. Matroyao’s bow…
(By Andrea Germanos) A small amount of ice in the East Antarctic holding back an area of marine ice like a "cork" is at risk from climate change, threatening unstoppable sea level…
This animated chart from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences shows the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Note the spike? Measuring CO2 in parts per million (ppm), the chart shows, first, how the amount of the gas…
PROOF! Conservatives and CEOs Really ARE Evil Psychopaths (via Americans Against The Tea Party) Have you ever wondered why today’s conservatives never seem make any sense? Turns out that what we’ve always…
Foreign Policy
Anti-Muslim Gadfly to run DC Bus ads linking Hitler to Islam (+Russell Brand video against Islam Hatred)
An organization run by an anti-Mulsim blogger has purchased billboards on the sides of twenty Washington DC Metro buses featuring Adolph Hitler and calling for an end to ‘all aid to Islamic countries.’ The ads are paid for by American Freedom Defense…
America as Torture Central: From Prisons to “Black Sites”
(By Sarah Lazare) Amnesty International report on global torture exposes inhumane acts perpetrated by United States Thirty years after ratifying the UN Convention Against Torture, the U.S. government has dodged accountability for…
GOP holds hearings but in the Real Benghazi a Retired Col. is bombarding Extremists
As congressional Republicans prepare to have yet another round of investigations into the September 11, 2012 attacks on a US “consulate” in Benghazi, Libya, it is hard to see any concrete steps…
Under World Cup Pressure, Qatar reforms Guest Worker Laws, abolishes Sponsorship System
Qatar to end sponsorship system for foreign workers (via AFP) Qatar, host of the 2022 football World Cup, said Wednesday it will abolish its controversial sponsorship system for foreign workers, whose treatment…
Some Saudis Kiss their Camels to defy Gov’t MERS Warning
Saudi homes in on camels in bid to combat MERS (via AFP) Saudi authorities have issued fresh warnings on how to handle the desert kingdom’s wealth of camels, thought to be the…
5 Reasons India’s new BJP (“Tea Party”) Government may not be so Great for Business
(By Juan Cole) The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India’s elections is being hailed in some Western media as a hopeful sign for US-Indian trade and for Indian business.…
On Sunday, 75% of Germany’s Electricity came from Renewables
En route to its 2050 Energiewende goal of 80% of the nation’s power being supplied by renewables, especially spurred on by the phaseout of nuclear reactors, Germany broke another renewable energy record on Sunday, May 11, 2014. Europe’s biggest…
Sudan judge orders Christian woman to hang for apostasy
A Sudanese judge on Thursday sentenced a heavily pregnant Christian woman to hang for apostasy, a ruling which Britain denounced as “barbaric” and left the United States “deeply disturbed”. Born to a Muslim father, the woman was convicted under the…
#FreeAzyz spreads on social media as Tunisian blogger-revolutionary is arrested for pot
(Via Your Middle East) Smoking weed or hash is punishable with between one and five years in jail in Tunisia, a law currently used against cyber-activism icon Azyz. On Monday 12 the…
Mass Protests, Strikes in Turkey over Erdogan’s Neoliberal Response to Miner Deaths
(By Juan Cole) Turkey’s Public Workers Union Confederation announced a one-day strike to demand better worker safety and political protests have broken out Friday in a number of Turkish cities over deaths…
Rising Numbers of Palestinian Children Subjected to Solitary Confinement
Rising Numbers of Palestinian Children Subjected to Solitary Confinement (via PRWeb) A new report from Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI-Palestine) finds that in 21.4 percent of cases documented in 2013, children…
Activists in Bahrain denounce anti-Shia Policies
(By Catherine Shakdam) Early last week political activists affiliated with Bahrain’s opposition groups delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon calling for his office to take a stand against…
Iran Going Big With Renewables! 5,000 MW Of New Solar & Wind Capacity By 2018?
Iran is aiming big with renewables, based on recent statements made by the Iranian Energy Minister, Hamid Chitchian. As revealed by Chitchian, the country’s new goal is to add 5,000 MW of new solar energy and wind energy capacity by the year 2018.…
Yemeni anti-Al-Qaeda Campaign gains Popular Support but US Embassy forced to Close
(By Robert Sharp) As Yemen enters the post-National Dialogue Conference period, theory and practice are colliding; the constitutional referendum will take place in June followed by hopefully credible presidential and parliamentary elections.…
The Real Egyptian Divide is between Tahrir Self-Government and Authoritarians of all Stripes
(By Haifaa G. Khalafallah) Revolutions or coups seeking to change modern Egypt, whether in 1919 or 1952, never challenged the familiar patterns of power relations, that is to say, their political culture.…
US Military Report: War effort in Afghanistan was bedeviled by Corruption, made it Worse
Enlarge Air Force aerial porters load a shipping container onto a C-130 Hercules cargo plane at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Khost Province, Afghanistan, Sept. 22, 2013. The 19th MCT, a small squadron of Air Force surface movement controllers and…
Dear GOP: Here are Some Basic Real Questions to ask about Benghazi & CIA
(By Michael G. Roskin) With a Congressional committee about to seize on the Benghazi question (as part of the 2014 election campaign), some previously unasked but basic questions should come before the…
Israeli Squatter anti-Church Terror in Jerusalem “Poisons” Papal visit
(By Juan Cole) The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, has said that Israeli squatter attacks on and desecration of Christian churches has poisoned the atmosphere in advance of Pope Francis’s planned…
Pakistan: CIA “Bin Laden” Unit’s Fake Vaccination Ploy Sparked Polio Crisis
(By Sarah Lazare) A Pakistani official on Thursday slammed the CIA's fake vaccination drive in 2011 for fueling distrust of polio eradication campaigns and driving "attacks on polio workers" as the country…
The True Costs of Remote Control Drone Wars
(By Pratap Chatterjee via Tomdispatch) Enemies, innocent victims, and soldiers have always made up the three faces of war. With war growing more distant, with drones capable of performing on the battlefield…