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 [...]
“INSUFFICIENTLY PRO-ISRAELI?” New U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had his appointment held up on such “insufficiency” charge but now, on a trip to Israel, he seems to be establishing his sufficiency bones. In presenting a large deal for U.S. arms shipments to Israel, he says that the deal is a “clear signal” to Iran [...]
CLIMATE CRUSADERS “UNDER ATTACK.“ Bill Mckibben writes in Grist of the recent travails facing two of the globe’s most ardent and respected leaders of the movement to take aggressive action against climate change. NASA scientist James Hansen, arrested last month for his dogged opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, a project he says will [...]
ARE ELDERLY AMERICANS THE “PICTURE OF AFFLUENCE?” Thatfflu is the picture drawn in a new Pew Research study of the “net worth” of American households. The average net worth of seniors of $170,500 seems “affluent” only by contrast with the almost non-existent amount of $ 3,700 for those under 35. With many older people now [...]
CUBA IN A TIME OF CHOLERA. The Raul Castro government tends to deny the scope of the outbreak of the disease and resist some of the public health measures required to deal with it. This denial seems to be based on a desire not to hurt Cuba’s “reputation” as a desirable tourist destination, but [...]
The world’s largest purveyor of sugary drinks has made an unprecedented public embrace of its own culpability in America’s struggle with obesity and the costs associated with an overweight population. A new video released by Coca-Cola to considerable buzz bluntly labels obesity the “issue of this generation” and makes a vague admission that calories from [...]
WHAT DO SAUDI ARABIA, BAHRAIN AND QATAR HAVE IN COMMON? First, they are “monarchical regimes” within which are found some of the most barbaric labor practices in the world, often featuring immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Second, they are the closest of allies of the United States in its determined policy in fomenting insurrection in a “humanitarian [...]
THE DARK NIGHT OF A VIOLENT SOCIETY IS RISING IN AMERICA; AND VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES AND HOLLYWOOD MOVIES ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THAT. Movie critic Mick LaSalle comments on effects of movies like “Dark Knight Rises” and the possible causal connection between it and other media products in promoting events the likes of a movie [...]
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 [...]
HOT TIME AT THE OLD BYRD RESEARCH STATION. Temperature readings at this oceanographic station in southwest Antarctica indicates that the ice cap is heating at twice the rate that climatologists had predicted, raising the image of likely melting that could raise ocean levels by a disastrous ten feet within a few years. (Common Dreams) [...]
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