(By John Feffer) In a future update of The Devil’s Dictionary, the famed Ambrose Bierce dissection of the linguistic hypocrisies of modern life, a single word will accompany the entry for “Pacific pivot”: retreat. It might seem a strange way to characterize the Obama administration’s energetic attempt to reorient its foreign and military policy toward […]
- Africa (233)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (1,215)
- Australasia (8)
- Australia (24)
- Authoritarianism (382)
- Canada (5)
- Cats (1)
- Celtic Religion (1)
- Culture (509)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (319)
- Dissent (416)
- Ecology (1)
- Economy (1,011)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (48)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (15)
- Industry (4)
- Inequality (416)
- Inflation (4)
- infrastructure (10)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (197)
- Plutocracy (607)
- Poverty (201)
- Regulation (2)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (36)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (113)
- Weapons sales (6)
- Education (121)
- Elderly (3)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Energy (1,688)
- Batteries (47)
- Coal (137)
- Fossil Fuels (317)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (407)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (5)
- Hydroelectric (13)
- Natural Gas (106)
- Nuclear Energy (156)
- Petroleum (296)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (394)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (328)
- Environment (2,572)
- Climate Change (1,527)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (24)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (2)
- CO2 (108)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (145)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (158)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Weather (293)
- Flooding (131)
- Food Supply (1)
- Forests (17)
- Green New Deal (39)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (60)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (332)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (249)
- wildfires (229)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,224)
- Drought (284)
- Ecology (9)
- Environmentalism (391)
- Green Transportation (249)
- Ice Melt (130)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (98)
- Oil Spills (7)
- Pollution (226)
- Water (92)
- wildlife (19)
- Climate Change (1,527)
- Europe (1,324)
- Featured (3,818)
- fiction (5)
- Food (13)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Health (653)
- History (339)
- Human Rights (1,365)
- Apartheid (255)
- censorship (274)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (549)
- Food Insecurity (5)
- Gay rights (28)
- Genocide (17)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Migrants (4)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Torture (96)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (99)
- Unlwful Killing (74)
- War Crimes (352)
- War Rape (7)
- Immigration (20)
- International (786)
- Islamophobia (373)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (97)
- Latinos (4)
- leisure (21)
- media (466)
- Middle East (9,158)
- Arab World (5,128)
- Iran (1,267)
- Israel (860)
- Israel/ Palestine (2,969)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (289)
- Turkey (573)
- Turkiye (99)
- military (123)
- Modernism (3)
- nationalism (115)
- NATO (36)
- Natural Disasters (13)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- nuclear weapons (102)
- Patriarchy (10)
- Peace (132)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Pete Buttigieg (1)
- Planetary Exploration (1)
- Popular Culture (24)
- Poverty (12)
- privacy (21)
- racism (461)
- Rape (8)
- religion (1,450)
- Rights (139)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (145)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (2)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (278)
- Terrorism (1,086)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,075)
- United Nations (130)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,248)
- US politics (5,191)
- Anti-War Movement (12)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (21)
- Central Intelligence Agency (62)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (76)
- Conspiracy Theories (21)
- Constitution (394)
- Courts (11)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (925)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (123)
- Ethnicities (377)
- Far Right (381)
- FBI (47)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (94)
- Immigration (234)
- Israel Lobbies (121)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (271)
- National Security State (471)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (554)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (8)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (12)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (66)
- Republican Party (2,904)
- Supreme Court (123)
- Voter suppression (35)
- Whistleblowers (5)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (487)
- White Supremacists (223)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (548)
- workers (230)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (207)
East Asia
China Installed More Solar Power in 2013 than the US has in its Whole History
(By Joshua S. Hill) China’s Solar Market Beat All Expectations For 2013 (via Clean Technica) Despite predictions all through 2013 suggesting that Japan would walk away the dominant solar PV market, Bloomberg New Energy Finance has revealed that China “outstripped even the most optimistic forecasts” to install a record 12 GW of photovoltaic… ——- […]
Coleridge, Kubla Khan (Poem of the Day)
(By Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Kubla Khan Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there […]
Fukushima’s Strontium Leaks a Neverending Crisis? (Germanos)
Andrea Germanos writes at Commondreams courtesy VOAnews As the disaster at Fukushima plant continues to unfold, one nuclear expert is warning that "this is an accident that’s shockingly not stopping." Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), sounds particular alarm around radioactive strontium that is being released from the trouble-stricken […]
Middle East Regional Contention over Egypt’s New Government
The change of government in Egypt produced starkly different reactions in various Middle Eastern countries, which tells us something about the situation there. With the exception of maverick member Qatar, the Gulf Cooperation Council, grouping six conservative Gulf oil monarchies, cheered loudest for the military coup made by Brig. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi against elected […]
Japan’s Feed-in Tariff Kicks off Explosive Renewables Growth (Video Report)
This video report argues that Japan’s introduction of feed-in tariffs has given a huge boost to its renewable energy market, and that India should follow suit. Infographic on feed-in tariffs, which are explained at this UK government site: India’s ANI multimedia reports: Japan’s growth in renewables has attracted have a billion dollars in investment recently […]
China and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Enter the Dragon?
This video report on China’s new interest in Middle East diplomacy begins by pointing out that the Obama administration has announced a pivot toward Asia (i.e. US interests lie more in the Pacific Rim than the Middle East.). At the same time, China (which dislikes this pivot, fearing it is aimed against Beijing) is moving […]
Rising China’s Muslim Problem: What is the Future of the Uygurs? (Alimglu)
JULIE POUCHER HARBIN, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary interviews MUSA ALIMGLU: This week I asked a China and Xinjiang expert — someone who is familiar with China’s ethnic politics and the work of prominent Uyghur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer — to provide some in-depth background on China’s troubled Xinjiang Uygher Autonomous Republic and leadership challenges for the […]