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Ukraine War: How We Got Here, How to Get Out
Nicolai N. Petro, political science professor and scholar of Ukraine, stresses the importance of Ukrainian identity and international influence in the current war: “This conflict over who gets to define Ukrainian national identity and its future has been going on for at least 150 years and has erupted in serious military hostilities inside Ukraine three times: during World War I and II and after the 2014 Euromaidan. Each time, violence erupted because external powers sought to tip the scales in their favor.”
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Judge Jackson’s Record
Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, wrote about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on the eve of her Supreme Court nomination hearings: “Having served as a public defender, Jackson would be the only Supreme Court justice to have represented criminal defendants since Thurgood Marshall. Jackson represented several Guantánamo detainees. When she was an associate at a corporate law firm, she… supported challenges to Bush administration detention policies, including the detention of a lawful permanent resident arrested on U.S. soil as an enemy combatant with no charges. In her first…
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U.S. Activists Help Expose Occupation Akin to Ukraine
“Is the public and media ignoring the invasion and ongoing war in Western Sahara because it is in Africa? The courageous and dramatic actions by U.S. human rights activists highlight the brutal repression of the independence activist Sultana Khaya specifically and the indigenous Sahrawi people generally.”
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Postol on Accidental Nuclear War: “We Should be Very Alarmed”
“The 1995 false alarm happened to take place during a politically calm time between Moscow and Washington. If such a mistake were to happen now, there would be a very serious risk of nuclear war which would kill billions of people. In the U.S., there has been virtually no concern on this issue.”
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New Investigative Report Reveals How Koch Network and Other Groups Shaped the School Safety Debate
A new investigative report – produced by a partnership between the Center for Media and Democracy and The Daily Poster – shows how the end to mask-wearing in schools marks the culmination of a two-year public debate about school safety that has been heavily influenced by right-wing money groups, including the network of oil billionaire Charles Koch.
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Ukraine: Is the U.S. Furthering or Preventing Negotiations?
“The United States is in a punishment mindset with regards to Russia and it needs to quickly transition to a more balanced, diplomacy-based approach, that includes clear incentives, off-ramps for sanctions, and a realistic pathway to a ceasefire.”
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Long Covid and Public Policy: A writer on chronic illness speaks out
An analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, released in early February by the Center for American Progress, concludes that the pandemic has led to 1.2 million more people being identified as having a disability in 2021 than in 2020. Meghan O’Rourke, author of “The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness” speaks out on the policy shifts needed to address the concerns of people with chronic illnesses, including people with long Covid.
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End of Federal State of Emergency Could Mean Catastrophic Medicaid Results
The federal public health emergency (PHE) is set to expire on April 15. New reports show that without the PHE’s renewal, 15 million people–including 6 million children––could potentially lose Medicaid coverage. Libby Watson writes that a right-wing campaign is pushing an end to the PHE and the transition period may serve as a “gold rush” for private contractors and consulting firms.
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* Threats of a No-Fly Zone * $782 Billion for Pentagon
William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said of the prospect of a no-fly zone over Ukraine: “Implementing a no-fly zone of any sort, whether for all of Ukraine or ‘just’ to protect humanitarian corridors and Ukrainian defensive systems, would mean that the U.S. Air Force would essentially become the Ukrainian air force, fighting alongside Ukrainian ground forces against Russia. … Shooting down Russian planes and bombing Russian anti-aircraft sites would greatly increase the risks of escalation, up to and including a nuclear confrontation.”
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Why the Pandemic Is Not Over and What We Need to Do About It
Physicians and researchers contend that the pandemic is not over––because new variants will inevitably arise in the coming months. Given that information, they call for a new phase of health preparedness and accountability: improving indoor ventilation, increasing testing and contract tracing, improving sick pay, strengthening health services, and addressing ongoing vaccine hesitancy and resistance.
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn