EMPIRE BURLESQUE OPENS A SPECTACULAR NEW ACT CALLED “UPRISING ON THE NILE.”
(Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)
(Chris Floyd)
Tuesday’s street demonstrations in Egypt introduce a startling new possibility of a rupture in U.S. foreign policy agenda which is what Chris Floyd calls that of the “American dominationists” in the Middle East as corrupt and Israel-promoting U.S. Arab “client states” threaten to abandon their comfortable home in the back pocket of U.S. policy. Compared to this stunning new act, the continuing “spectacle” of the State of the Union, the annual dance on the Potomac, was a crashing bore.
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CUT THE U.S. DEFENSE BUDGET? ALARMED PENTAGON GENERALS AND ADMIRALS DON’T KNOW QUITE WHAT TO DO WITH THESE NEW TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS.
(New York Times)
With indications that the sacred cow of military budget is now “on the table” for consideration as Congress grapples with budget deficit, the Pentagon is finding glimmers of unexpected support for cuts from the GOP side of the political aisle. Deficit hawks that they are, some Tea Party-supported members of Congress are reflecting this conflict with their natural military hawkishness. The Tea Party itself, however, experiences this cognitive dissonance in its political positions and how this new-found GOP willingness to defend military budget cuts remains to be worked out.
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HAITI, THE “REPUBLIC OF NGOs.”
(Counterpunch)
This, according to an Ashley Smith interview with Mike Whitney, is how many Haitians see their country and rightly so, says Smith. Non-governmental organizations have played a cynical role in the promotion of neo-liberal globalism that reduced the country to the condition of poverty into which it was mired before last year’s earthquake hit. With that disaster, “humanitarian” NGOs, abetted by what was essentially a U.S. military occupation of the country, used the event to augment their fund-raising efforts without much help in recovery from the disaster. As one example, the Red Cross has committed only half the funds it raised to earthquake relief efforts—and this is one of the “better” records of NGOs actually using their funding to change the currently stalled relief efforts in the country.
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NUMBER OF U.S. MUSLIMS EXPECTED TO DOUBLE BY 2030; IS THIS A GOOD OR BAD THING FOR THEIR ACCEPTANCE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY?
(USA TODAY)
Interviews with Muslim-Americans reflect on uneasiness on this question. Some fear that increasing numbers will escalate incidents of Islamophobia as surfaced last year. A slim majority of Americans in one poll indicated their fear of “terrorism” among resident Muslims, even as the vast majority support the value of “religious diversity” in America. Like other minorities such as Jews and Catholics who experienced such ambivalent attitudes, many American Muslims try to neutralize negative perceptions by blending into the woodwork of everyday American life: such as those Muslims who marched in MLK day parades.
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HURRICANE COVERAGE IN FLORIDA HOME-OWNERS INSURANCE? HOW ABOUT SINKHOLE COVERAGE?
(Florida Capital News)
Sinkholes are the concern of the day as GOP legislators propose measures that would exempt insurers from having to include such coverage, in the name of trying to attract more insurance business to the state. This comes after a large increase in the number of homeowner claims for sinkhole damage in several central Florida counties.
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Quote of the day…
In announcing a five-year freeze on domestic spending, Obama enters a new phase of aggressive – rather than furtive – collaboration with the GOP. To ensure that catastrophe cannot be avoided for the tens of millions battered and set adrift by the two (lesser and greater) recessions of the 21st century, Obama will join with Republicans to prevent the domestic arms of government from coming to the people’s aid, by freezing finances. With whole communities in a state of economic dislocation, Obama burns the rescue boats and poisons the water, all the while promising that the necessary budgetary savings will not be achieved “on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens” – as if Wall Street’s bankers will shield the helpless with their well-bonused bodies.
Glen Ford, on the “Obama/GOP consensus” unveiled in this week’s State of the Union Address.
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