WILL “KEYSTONE COPS,” IN THE NAME OF “SECURITY,” BE SUPPRESSING PROTEST AGAINST KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE IN NEBRASKA? Local officials of the pipeline company behind the oil company, TransCanada, are in negotiations with local police enforcement agents about using “off duty” police officers to insure against “violence” among the protesters. The local protest group, Bold [...]
SENATE DEAL ON BACKGROUND CHECKS DOES NOTHING TO CLOSE GUN SALE LOOPHOLE. In a sign of hoe fractured the national political landscape has become on even the most widely supported of issues, cheers went up from gun control advocates after the Senate merely allowed debate on a bipartisan bill that would expand federal background [...]
CONNECTICUT ADOPTS “THE STRONGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE BILL IN THE UNITED STATES TO FIGHT GUN VIOLENCE.“ As pro-gun Republicans and Democrats wary of election prospects in red states next year combine to stall new gun regulations on Capitol Hill, some states are taking it upon themselves to crack down on lax gun laws and [...]
THE PIVOT TO ASIA AND THE RISE OF “SYMBOLIC” U.S.-CHINA CONFLICT. Various commentators on Asian affairs comment on the possibility that both the U.S. and Chinese governments are engaged in actions of belligerence toward one another to divert publics in both their countries from failures of domestic economic policies. Filipino Asian expert Walden [...]
IT’S NOT EASY BEING A PELICAN IN COSTA RICA—NOR A PORPOISE NOR AN ALLIGATOR EITHER. These animals, among others, are given protection in a Marine Park in Puntarenas from the hazards of their life styles (like water dives of pelicans) and of the human animals who sometimes harass them. A gated park provides a [...]
SRI LANKA IS “COUNTRY OF CONCERN” TO BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE FOR ITS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES; BUT A MAIN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR U.K. ARMS DEALERS. Expose article by U.K. Independent shows that millions of pounds worth of small arms have flown into the country, many of them used in the escalated violence of the government [...]
L.A. UNDRESSED BY RUTH FOWLER. British journalist and screen-writer who wrote “Girl, Undressed,” based on her experience in the New York City sex trade, deconstructs the public outrage concerning Christopher Dorner, the deranged former LAPD officer turned cop killer. As usual, public notice focuses on the derangement and not what was in the mind [...]
THE “BIGGEST CLIMATE FIGHT” OF THE YEAR MAY ALREADY BE HERE, AND IT COULD HAVE BIG CONSEQUENCES FOR THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET. A tiny Oregon town is at the center of a brewing struggle over big profits for the coal industry and whether simply “offshoring” the dirtiest of fossil fuels will negate any [...]
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN LOOKS AT THE GLOBE AND FINDS TURMOIL AND THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT IN THE “MIDDLE RUN” FUTURE. While predictions for a given year are a “fool’s mission” and those for centuries in the future only too easy to make, those for the “middle run” of a decade or so hence are subject to [...]
GOOD TIMES ROLL ON WITH THE U.S. ASIA-PACIFIC “PIVOT.” The 2011 decision to increase sales of arms to U.S. allies in the region to counter growing Chinese influence in the area is providing a bonanza of opportunities for the military-industrial complex. As a Reuters report puts it, “Fears resulting from China’s growing military spending [...]
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