Blog

  • Uprisings: Online Resouces

    With protests continuing, here is a partial list of online resources: For Libya: #Feb17; CNN’s Ben Wedeman; @EnoughGaddafi; For Bahrain: #Feb14, @OnlineBahrain; For Yemen: #Feb3; @JNovak_Yemen; Palestinian: #Mar15 Gulf: @dr_davidson, @tobycraigjones For Saudi Arabia: on Twitter: #Mar11; Webpages and blogs: rasid.com, ysoof.com/blog/?p=242, saudiwoman.wordpress.com, alasmari.wordpress.com, saudijeans.org To translate: translate.google.com Based in the U.S., but with extensive contacts…

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  • “A New Bipartisan Consensus Against Low Income People”

    The president’s budget is a prosaic austerity plan that inflicts disproportionate pain on low income Americans. Fundamental questions about the costs of war and the fairness of tax cuts for the rich have been avoided by the decision to narrowly target non-security “discretionary” spending to bear the weight of deficit reduction. It used to be…

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  • Challenges for Change in Algeria

    Tunisia and Egypt are relatively centralized states, Algeria not so, neither politically, nor culturally, nor geographically. Historically, the interior has been difficult to control, and there is no guarantee that the rest of the country would rally to the protests taking place in the capital as in the case of Egypt. The Algerian regime is…

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  • “Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t”

    CAIRO — Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t. We still have the same cabinet appointed by [Mubarak]. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detentions and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killing. We hear several executives are being prosecuted, including…

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  • Time to forge new, democratic system

    CAIRO — Last night, February 11, Cairo was the scene of what may well have been the largest street party in world history.  It was incredibly powerful and moving.  Of course, the night’s festivities marked both an end and a beginning. Now is the time for Egypt’s judges, other legal professionals, diplomats, other negotiators, intellectuals,…

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  • Our Man in Cairo

    With Mubarak’s departure, the focus now falls on his chosen successor, Omar Suleiman. According to a classified American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, Suleiman was Israel’s pick to succeed Mubarak. But there’s little doubt that he was also the choice of the United States, or at least of one particular American agency with which he…

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  • Online Resources on Egypt and Beyond

    With protests against the Egyptian regime continuing, here is a partial list of resources: A critical Facebook page is “We are all Khaled Said” — also see the associated webpage elshaheeed.co.uk. (For background on Khaled Said, see IPA news release.) See: egyprotest-defense.blogspot.com; live updates at guardian.co.uk; Al-Jazeera English live blog and video, or via YouTube:…

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  • Hungry Gazans Feed Egyptian Troops

    RAFAH, Feb 9, 2011 (IPS) – Mustapha Suleiman, 27, from J Block east of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, crosses through gaps in the iron fence on the border carrying bread, water, meat cans and a handful of vegetables for Egyptian soldiers stationed on the other side. [See at Inter Press Service]

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  • Egypt’s military-industrial complex

    With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington’s role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings…

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  • Uprising Pays Off -– Sort of

    Today I went to a town only 23 kilometers south of Tahrir Square. The plan was to see if the 11-day uprising in Egypt has produced any benefits so far – just by way of finding something different from the insecurity and chaos in Cairo. Kirdasa, a small town known for its flower nurseries and…

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  • “How Censorship and Lies Made the World Sicker and Less Free”

    A new book from press freedom advocates Joel Simon and Robert Mahoney shows how during the pandemic, the Trump White House was part of a wave of global censorship in which governments hijacked the narrative to tell their own story. Mahoney says: “President Trump’s campaign strategy rested on a strong economy. Trump saw that the…

  • On World Press Freedom Day, Fighting Big Tech’s “Censorship by Proxy”

    On World Press Freedom Day, director of Project Censored Mickey Huff said: “In this digital era, the biggest private tech companies can engage in what we term ‘censorship by proxy,’ restricting freedom of expression or ability to raise funds in ways that the government cannot. These corporations exert control of online information through algorithms, deplatforming,…

  • “Debt Shaming” Has Dampened Democracy

    “The single and most simple thing President Biden can do to help save the Democratic majority this midterm, while stimulating the economy, is cancel student debt; and he should do it without delay.”

  • Pandemic Poverty and Government Policies

    Inflation is hitting poor families hard, but pandemic economic policies that support families have largely run out. Research shows that the child tax credit helped millions get enough to eat, but it expired at the start of 2022. Shawn Fremstad says: “Today’s high inflation is being driven by excessively powerful corporations. Until recently, strong employment…

  • Albright’s Legacy and Ukraine War

    “Albright’s policies of expanding NATO, bombing Yugoslavia and falsely claiming that the bombing of the Chinese embassy there was not intentional helped set the stage for the extraordinarily dangerous situation now with Russia and China, despite recent claims from the Clintons. These policies may have actually helped lead to the rise of Vladimir Putin —…

  • * Mexico Voting to Nationalize Lithium * Pakistan’s Ousted PM Challenged Corporate Investment Agreements

    “The reasons for the former cricket star’s political downfall are not entirely clear. His economic policies were a mixed bag at best, but he deserves credit for one thing: he’d taken a bold stand against international investment agreements that give transnational corporations excessive power over national governments.”

  • Refuting Anti-Vaccine Disinformation on so-called “VAIDS”

    Online anti-vaccine influencers are claiming that Covid-19 vaccines cause “Vaccine-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome”, or “VAIDS.” Dr. John Moore, who is widely known for his research on HIV/AIDS, says that “bringing AIDS into the existing web of deceit is a blatant attempt at fear-mongering.”

  • Mask Mandate on Public Transportation

    The Biden administration announced it will appeal the ruling that called the federal mask mandate on public transportation unlawful.

  • Earth Day: Military Degradation of the Environment

    Pat Elder, founder of MilitaryPoisons.org, said that on Earth Day, we should consider the U.S. military’s contribution to environmental and human destruction: “Let’s consider what causes cancers, immeasurable suffering, and early deaths for millions. And then we can talk about per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and how the military has known these are killer chemicals since…

  • Will Congress Stop the Worst Humanitarian Crisis, the Saudi Attack on Yemen?

    A just-published piece in Forbes, “Time to End the Forgotten War in Yemen,” states: “The scenes of carnage in Ukraine have sparked anger and concerted action against the Russian invasion of that country, now in its eighth week. But there is another conflict, now in its eighth year, that has resulted in the deaths of nearly half…

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