The Folly of Empire and the Albatross of Debt

David Stockman

July 12, 2024

Like the case of Rome before it, Empire is bankrupting America. The true fiscal cost of the national security budget is now upwards of $1.3 trillion per year (counting veterans expense and international operations and aid), but there is no way to pay for it.

CBO Projects The Public Debt Will Reach $146 Trillion By Mid-Century

 

What can Palestinian artists do in the face of our slaughter?

Tamer Nafar

July 11, 2024

At the end of December 2023, as the war in Gaza neared its third month, several Palestinian singers in Israel faced harsh criticism online after they promoted their upcoming Christmas and New Year’s performances on social media. This sparked a widespread debate among their fellow Palestinian citizens.

Israel forcibly displaces tens of thousands from Gaza City into deadly 'safe-zones'

July 10, 2024

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from Gaza City in northern Gaza and are on the move with nowhere to go due to new evacuation orders issued by Israel. 

Scientists to Biden: Cancel New Nuclear IBM System

Edward Carver

July 10, 2024

More than 700 scientists on Monday called for an end to the United States' land-based nuclear weapons program that's set to be replaced, following a Pentagon decision to approve the program despite soaring costs.

 

Why the Israeli army is expanding its invasion of Gaza City

Tareq S. Hajjaj

July 8, 2024

he Israeli army’s invasion of Gaza City’s eastern Shuja’iyya neighborhood has entered its second week, and it is now spreading to other parts of the city. The entire city is being put under siege, with its some 300,000 remaining inhabitants trapped in the middle with nowhere to go.

Palestinians flee eastern part of Gaza City after they were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighborhoods, July 7, 2024. (Photo: Hadi Daoud/APA Images)

Copernicus: June 2024 marks 12th month of global temperature reaching 1.5°C above pre-industrial

July 9, 2024

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU, routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on the changes observed in global surface air and sea temperatures, sea ice cover and hydrological variables. Additionally, the bulletin also includes highlights regarding the boreal spring (March-April-May). Most of the reported findings are based on the ERA5 reanalysis dataset, using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

Can Iran’s New Reformist President Deliver?

Fariba Amini

July 9, 2024

 

Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Elections in Iran have predictable outcomes. The men picked by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, engage in a quasi-debate on TV, but usually the hand-picked guy is bound to win. This year saw a minor upset.

Patriotism

What does patriotism mean?

میهن پرستی

 

میهن پرستی ، عرق میهنی، حُبّ وطن، و اصطلاحاتی از این قبیل چه معنی میدهند؟ فرهنگ وبستر میهن پرستی‌ را عشق به کشور و فداکاری معنی‌ کرده است. در ادامهٔ این تعریف، میهن پرستی‌ را کیفیت از خود گذشته بودن و حمایت شدید از کشور عنوان کرده است.ا

The Gaza Genocide: Who’s Complicit?

L. Michael Hager

July 8, 2024

Given the recent pro-Palestinian protests around the world and on many university campuses, it seems strange if not surprising that neither genocide nor the continuing flow of U.S. weapons to Israel were mentioned during the first (and maybe only) 2024 presidential debate. Nor did the New York Times Editorial Board see fit to cite complicity in genocide while calling for Biden to step down after his poor debate performance. 

Israel war on Gaza live: Nine months on, bodies pile up under Israeli raids

Mersiha Gadzo,Tamila Varshalomidze and Umut Uras

July 7, 2024

Israel’s Campaign of Starvation in Gaza Has Palestinians Eating Weeds to Survive

Tareq S. Hajjaj

July 6, 2024

Ahmad Abdulrahim, 38, strolled the remains of the markets in Gaza City with 150 Shekels in his pocket, the amount of money he used to feed his family of five for a week before the genocide. Today, that amount can hardly buy a single meal.

Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential election

The Cradle

July 6, 2024

Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian was elected Iran's ninth president on 6 July after winning a run-off election against conservative candidate Saeed Jalili, semi-official Tasnim News reported.

 

Six Supreme Court judges declare the U.S. a dictatorship

MR

July 6, 2024

Fifty years after Nixon was driven out of the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the Watergate war criminal that presidents can commit any crime they want.

Stolen Land, Stolen Lives: Israel’s War on Palestine

M. Reza Behnam

July 5, 2024

Israeli Zionists have always lusted after Palestine, but loathed its people.  Today is no exception.

Largest West Bank Land Seizure in Decades

Largest West Bank Land Seizure in Decades – Israel Speeds Up Settlement Activity

July 4, 2024

The Israeli government has appropriated around 23,700 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year, the largest appropriation of land since the Oslo Accords in 1993, according to an Israeli settlement watchdog.

‘Hamas has never been stronger’: Israel is stuck in a war it can’t win

Elizabeth Blade

July 3, 2024

Through April, the IDF had targeted more than 32,000 military sites belonging to Hamas and its allies. In June, Israel announced that 15,000 of the group's militants  had been eliminated. But experts are certain those measures won’t eradicate the Islamic group that has been in charge of Gaza since 2007.

As Israel Refuses to End Genocide in Gaza, Threat of War With Hezbollah Looms

Daniel Falcone, Truthout

July 2, 2024

For the past eight months, Hezbollah has attacked the northern portion of Israel in an attempt to pull the Israeli army out from Gaza, reports Al Jazeera. Fears of a wider war have prompted international calls to deescalate the situation at the border between Lebanon and Israel. During a recent meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters that the U.S. is “urgently seeking a diplomatic agreement that restores lasting calm to Israel’s northern border and enables civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.” The U.S. is also preparing to be ready to evacuate tens of thousands of Americans who live in Lebanon in the event of war.

 

Preparing for a Middle East War

Mel Gurtov

July 1, 2024

Can Israel Be Restrained?

Reports from the Middle East these days have two things in common: All the parties wish to avoid a war, yet all the movement is toward one, centered in Lebanon.

 

Iran’s election runoff: two candidates, two worldviews

FereshtehSadeghi

July 1, 2024

Forty days after the passing of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, the Islamic Republic held snap elections on Friday, 28 June, to vote for a new head of the administrative branch. With no single candidate receiving a mandatory 51 percent of votes cast, however, the two leading candidates will now advance to a runoff poll on 5 July.