Doha International Airport, Qatar
THE U.S. IS ENGAGED IN PLENTY OF “NATION BUILDING”; IT’S JUST NOT THE AMERICAN NATION THAT ITS GOVERNMENT IS BUILDING.
Nick Turse notes the stark contrast between rhetoric and reality in President Obama’s words that the U.S. is not interested in “nation building” abroad but in “freeing resources” from investment in foreign development to the repair of the crumbling U.S. infrastructure like roads and bridges. Instead, such domestic spending is quite paltry and the U.S. Society of Engineers gives a “D” grade to that infrastructure. Meanwhile massive investment in military and other real estate is occurring in such middle eastern autocracies as Qatar, Bahrain and Oman and, with the “pivot” of U.S. military operations, central and south Asian countries. As Turse says, nation-building begins at home: that is, if your home happens to be a country of strategic geo-political importance to U.S. foreign policy.
(Tom Dispatch)
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GAZA IS A “SLICE OF HELL” AND THE WORLD ELITE IS HELL-BENT ON EXPANDING THAT SLICE TO EMBRACE THE REST OF THE WORLD.
The Israeli invasion of an “occupied territory” already devastated by an economic embargo is but the tip of the larger process of the poor of the world being taken from them what little they have of life-sustaining resources. In a piece on the order of a Biblical jeremiad against impending destruction, Chris Hedges warns that neglect of the growing poverty of the needy throughout the world grows ever more destructive as when, for example, “austerity” measures like the removal of food stamps from the needy and the slashing medical benefits and social security is likely to make “Gazans of us all.”
(Reader Supported News)
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COLORADO VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY APPROVED LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA; BUT WILL THE MEASURE SURVIVE COUNTER-ACTION BY FEDERAL DRUG AUTHORITIES?
One might think so, in that President Obama campaign-promised that feds would not enforce federal laws against cannabis production. But the Justice Department has already reneged on that promise and the Colorado Governor, while supposedly fighting off federal interference, is effectively asking federal “permission” to enforce its own laws.
(In These Times)
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POORER HOME OWNERS IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY (PITTSBURGH) CAN’T CATCH A BREAK ON THEIR PROPERTY TAXES.
Judge rules against a suit brought by a community justice organization claiming that the county’s assessment process results in greater burden of property taxes on the poor than on the wealthy. The judge says it is not his job to assess the “fairness” of the tax assessment process. Whose job would that be?
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
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“ADMIRABLE BUT NOT SUSTAINABLE”: ORLANDO HEALTH CUTS 400 JOBS
These layoffs are announced as the city’s hospital system prepares for a health care overhaul. Among the “admirable” features of the hospital system are jobs in nursing management, as many of these jobs are cut and their incumbents are allowed to downsize their employment into non-management jobs.
(Orlando Sentinel)
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Quote of the day…
The concept of the common good is no longer part of the lexicon of power. This, as the novelist J.M. Coetzee writes, is “the black flower of civilization.” It is Rome underDiocletian. It is us. Empires, in the end, decay into despotic, murderous and corrupt regimes that finally consume themselves. And we, like Israel, are now coughing up blood.
Chris Hedges, reflecting on the invasion of Gaza and its broader world implications.
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