Author: nick

[ad_1] LAPD guarding the entrance to the LAPD Rampart Division building. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. What exactly are Americans celebrating this Fourth of July? Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all people possess inalienable rights, we now live under a government that increasingly behaves as though rights belong to the government to distribute, restrict and revoke as it sees fit. Freedom has become conditional. Constitutional rights have become political bargaining chips. Government now claims the authority to decide which religious beliefs deserve accommodation and which may be excluded—a clear violation of the First Amendment’s…

[ad_1] Poison once sang that every rose has its thorn. Georgia’s Rose Revolution had plenty. Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, stepping into a country already torn apart by civil war and ethnic divisions. He was seen early on as a stabilizing figure and had enough international credibility to hold things together. Washington quickly built ties in Tbilisi, and high-level engagement followed, including visits from Secretary of State James Baker. While Georgia leaned more toward the West, its trajectory was anything but certain. Meanwhile, the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia had…

[ad_1] Prairieland Defendants. Image: Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. Trump 2.0 has been marked by a barrage of attacks on social movements. A key pillar of this repression has been the use of extreme legal measures against individuals who represent broader progressive sentiments. Consider Kilmar Ábrego García, the immigrant who resisted his wrongful deportation to El Salvador, or Mahmoud Kahlil, the former Columbia University student and Palestine activist who was one of several pro-Palestine university activists targeted by ICE. The shocking life sentences against immigrant rights activists who protested an ICE facility in Prairieland, Texas, must be understood as part of…

[ad_1] NOW can we start addressing the climate crisis? Human prosperity depends on nature, but no global metric has captured this with precision. Enter the Nature Relationship Index. Now that Europe realizes they can’t solve the record heat waves with more AC, it’s a good time to remember how the Persians were able to make ice without AC (or electricity) 2500 years ago. After 53 years, the FAA wants to bring back civilian supersonic flight. CEO of Palantir suffers a bit of a meltdown during live interview. Humans can be trained to spot AI-generated faces. Have people stopped trusting science?…

[ad_1] The recent Israeli-Lebanese agreement and Hezbollah’s unreported role in the previous war is leading Tehran to this conclusion Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi’s Substack. Will Israel restart the war with Iran before the October elections? This is the consensus view emerging within Iran’s internal national security debate over the past week. Several factors are driving Tehran to this conclusion. Beyond its deep – and not entirely unwarranted – suspicion of President Donald Trump’s intentions, heightened by Vice President JD Vance’s recent remark that Trump wants to use the MOU to replenish global oil reserves and then “see where…

[ad_1] Today, Taiwan occupies a uniquely important position in the global economy. The island produces the overwhelming majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, manufacturing the chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence systems to automobiles, satellites, and advanced weapons platforms. Taiwan has become so central to the modern technological order that analysts since the 1990s have routinely described its semiconductor industry as a “silicon shield,” a strategic asset so important that no major power can afford to see it disrupted. As the debate continues over whether to de-risk or re-shore American semi-conductor supply chains, how we arrived…

[ad_1] Cindy Folkers and Ian Fairlie have written an essential book. The Scientists Who Alerted Us to the Dangers of Radiation presents the findings of 39 scientists who studied and raised alarms over the health effects of radiation exposure and who consequently suffered severe blowback from universities, government and industry. The scientists proved that radiation risks have “consistently been underestimated” for decades. Their findings angered both nuclear profiteers and research grant authorities. From Linus Pauling, Alice Stewart, John Gofman, Karl Morgan and Ernest Sternglass, to Rosalie Bertell, Jay Gould, Steve Wing, Tim Mousseau, Kate Brown and Thomas Mancuso; authoritative scientific…

[ad_1] Last week, POLITICO published a story about New York City’s recent congressional primaries, noting that “moderate Democrats fear they’re on the verge of losing the party’s ideological civil war to progressives.” On X, Krystal Ball replied, “They already lost.” The progressive Breaking Points podcast host was partaking in the left-wing jubilation that followed the victories of three insurgent candidates in New York’s closely watched primary races.  In NY-10, former city chief financial officer Brad Lander defeated incumbent Dan Goldman; in NY-13, student and activist Darializa Avila Chevalier won against incumbent Adriano Espaillat; and in NY-7, state assemblywoman Claire Valdez…

[ad_1] In order to sabotage a deconfliction track outlined in Switzerland and continue their endless project to secure more lebensraum, the Israelis have turned to the U.S. State Department and the Israel Lobby’s man in charge After President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance committed the United States to a deconfliction cell with Iran in Switzerland – a mechanism enforcing a ceasefire in Lebanon as well as Iran – Israel and its powerful lobby moved instantly to sabotage it. And in a preview of the sorts of foreign policy fissures that will likely define the 2028 GOP primary, the…

[ad_1] The European Union is suffering through yet another crisis. No, Russia has not conquered Brussels. Nor has the Euro collapsed. Rather, European Council President António Costa used his chief of staff to initiate informal contact with Moscow. Reported POLITICO: “the former Portuguese prime minister suddenly finds himself in the line of fire, with the heads of the bloc’s two most powerful countries among those most aggrieved.” Imagine. The official tasked with promoting cooperation among the EU’s 27 members is vilified for addressing a neighbor believed to pose an acute security threat to the continent. What was he thinking!? “I…