Новости за 10.05.2024

Adnan Al-Bursh was intelligent, humane, and committed. He could speak multiple languages. He saw and could explain the ravages of the occupation and the horrors of the war. He was exactly the kind of person, like the still imprisoned Marwan Barghouti, Israel has always feared might become a leader of the Palestinian people. For that reason, he was also exactly the kind of person Israel has been targeting for elimination under the cover of its bombardment and invasion of Gaza. More

A discussion of the origins of urbanization may provide some insight into the character of modern social problems by highlighting the long historical dynamic at work. It may not be out of place here to point out that anti‑states are well known in the modern world, above all in what the U.S. Federal Reserve Board classifies as eleven offshore banking centers. Five such enclaves are in the Caribbean: Panama, the Netherlands Antilles (Curacao), Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the British West Indies (Cayman Islands). Читать дальше...

The UAW is on a roll. After winning stupendous contracts at the Big Three automakers this past year, the union then organized Volkswagen in Tennessee April 20. What’s eye-popping about this is that the UAW succeeded not only in the South, but also with a foreign car manufacturer – a twofer. Now as the union zooms in on a May vote by 5000 workers at Mercedes in Alabama, the larger implications of Shawn Fain’s still relatively new union presidency have become clear, namely, a change in workers’ culture in the anti-union... Читать дальше...

It’s difficult to imagine an Israeli war in the Middle East that allowed any Arab country to claim victory.  The history of the Middle East over the past 75 years has been a history of war, and the Israelis have been the overwhelming victor in each and every one of them.  Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 marked an overwhelming victory for the Israelis; it created the profound antagonisms that have marked Israeli relations with the Arab states over the past 75 years.  The United States and... Читать дальше...

Israel’s disregard for the negotiations and the level of its violence can be measured based on two political realities. It does not take negotiations with the Palestinians seriously and it feels that it can bomb with impunity. This is so because, firstly, Israel is backed fully by the Global North states (mainly the United States and Europe) and secondly, it does not regard Palestinian political views as vital because it has succeeded in breaking the political unity amongst Palestinians and it... Читать дальше...

Sea levels are surging along the US coastline, exceeding 30-year expectations. Scientists are confused, concerned, searching for answers. In that regard, an excellent new series by The Washington Post d/d April 29th, 2024 “Must Reads” is an eye-opening view into the impact of global warming in real time with real people and real images. For More

Rules for protests I’ve been struck lately, by the inertness of criticism lodged against student protesters — they might have been written by AI. They all begin with a vague expression of support for Jewish and Islamic students, proceed to condemn anti-Semitism “in all its forms”, endorse free speech, and conclude with a vow to More

It's becoming clearer every day that our governments and leaders have no intention to promote a livable world or even one with a destination of eventual equitability. No, the goal is clearly to promote the interests of the few and to use the vast swath of humanity in much the way a parasite would utilize its host. This has likely always been the case with modern governments, but even now, a few nations seem to realize that there has to be some form of quid pro quo between their leaders and the masses. Читать дальше...

Teaser: If you are Einstein, you can get away with telling kids to read fairy tales as groundwork for becoming scientists. In our STEM-fixated age where science is all-encompassing and the humanities are relegated to the status of Cinderellas, advice from a leading scientist that kids should read fairy tales is refreshing.  Attributed to Albert More

On April 30, when Columbia University student protesters took over Hamilton Hall, they renamed it “Hind’s Hall,” dropping a large banner out the windows above the building’s entrance. This was a hall famously occupied by students in the 1968 protests against the Vietnam War and against Jim Crow racism in the United States. The students are More

“Politics,” as the harsh, albeit successful German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck claimed, “is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.”  To that should be added the stark awareness of being prudent, gingerly wise, appropriately cautious.  Mind how you go in avoiding any foolishness on the way. Going after the motley More

Cornell University in central New York State commands a spectacular position above the city of Ithaca with Lake Cayuga stretching out of sight to the north. The Cornell alma mater casts higher education in literal terms, first, “Far above Cayuga’s waters”; then, in the second stanza, “Far above …the bustling town.” With altitude comes power. More

Louisiana’s “River Parishes,” located along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, shoulder some of the worst industry impacts in the United States. As a result, this region has acquired a grim reputation as “Cancer Alley.” Stretching across 85 miles of rural land along both banks of the Mississippi River are around 200 industrial More

Sadism is the word that psychoanalysts use to describe the specific malformation of manhood in the recent merciless and prideful torture and killing of a gray wolf. The young female was rendered helpless by her killer when he cravenly duct-taped her mouth shut, after he’d run over her with a snowmobile. The gleeful smile on More

Students on campuses across the United States have “upset the U.S.-Israel military apartheid applecart” — a plan long in the making whose aim has been Israeli control over all of historic Palestine.  Israel’s plan to claim every inch of it is stated unequivocally in the Likud Party Platform of 1977.  It reads, “between the Sea and the Jordan More

The strike of professors at universities and federal institutes across Brazil ended its third week by drawing attention to the problems in education, such as precarious budgets, lack of infrastructure, and low salaries. ANDES-SN, the trade union entity that represents the majority of university professors, counts 47 paralyzed institutions, while the Federal Institutes (IFES), according More

For five days, almost no humanitarian aid has gotten into Gaza. Israel’s military operation in Rafah has displaced another 110,000 people and closed both main border crossings. That means no food, no water, no medicine, no fuel. And now Israel is threatening to expand that operation. Hundreds of thousands of children were starving and famine More

I grew up in the American far left and I’m really not exaggerating when I tell you that the movement saved my life. I discovered libertarian socialism and its various stateless subspecies at an age when I was feeling increasingly endangered as the last genderqueer kid on earth in the thick of rural Pennsylvania’s conservative More

I first got to learn about PSEG (Public Service Enterprise Group) in the early 1970s driving down Dune Road in the Hamptons of Long Island, east of New York City, and there, next to Hot Dog Beach, was a weather station with various devices. It was surrounded by a chain link fence with a sign More

I have been listening to the music of Sun Ra since the mid-1970s.  His Arkestra performed somewhere in Washington, DC right around that time.  I didn’t attend the show (I was broke), but a few friends did.  I believe it was at a church.  My friends who attended maintained a certain ecstatic energy for a More

Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, might have saved himself a lot of trouble, if he had only read more Latin American literature. Perhaps he would not have ordered the police to storm the Mexican embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted asylum there. That unprecedented action—breaching long-standing treaties that More

Mother’s Day gives us a unique opportunity to honor the women who cherish our growth and may have sacrificed their career or leisure time to raise us. Historically, women’s poverty rates have been higher than men’s rates for nearly all races and ethnicities. This remains the case despite increased female participation in the labor force More

After weeks of waiting, the transitional presidential council (TPC) was sworn in on April 25 at the National Palace. De facto prime minister Ariel Henry’s official resignation letter, signed from Los Angeles, California, was made public immediately after. Former minister of finance Michel Patrick Boisvert, who had been serving as head of government in Henry’s More

There are the …ings ( buzzing, stunning, and living) that some may imagine. Then there are the …y’s (Dreamy, beauty and fantasy) that might come to mind. There were two naked bumble bees inside of a lab Petri dish. Their furs had fallen along their backsides as they seemed to expose their nakedness: This was More