Last week, the Obama Administration notified Israel that it would support the authorization and appropriation of $205 million of U.S. taxpayer money to Israel to purchase ten batteries of the “Iron Dome” missile defense system. If authorized and appropriated by Congress, this money would be above and beyond the Obama Administration’s record-breaking FY2011 budget request […]
Geography Archives: United States
Viva Brazil! Viva Our Sovereign and Independent Foreign Policy!
Anti-communist crows and vultures, and Social Democrat toucans — all clamored against the peaceful negotiation of the conflict over Iran, because it is Lula who led the negotiation, which would further bolster his image. In the event of a failure, even if it leads to a new major military conflict, it could be exploited domestically […]
Puerto Rico: Second National Strike in Less than a Year
The student movement and the strike it has sustained for almost a month at the main campus of the state-run University of Puerto Rico (UPR), which has spread to 10 of the 11 UPR campuses, catalyzed a massive social movement convening a national strike today, May 18, 2010. As recent as October 15, 2009, a […]
Hikers’ Moms Go to Iran — What about Wives of the Cuban Five?
Cindy Hickey, Laura Fattal, and Nora Shourd — the mothers of Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, and Sarah Shourd, the three American hikers detained in Iran — spoke to the Associated Press on 17 May 2010: Laura Fattal, the mother of Josh Fattal, said: We had to maintain this great optimism throughout these nine and a […]
Washington’s Reaction to the Iran Nuclear Deal Brokered by Brazil and Turkey
The compromise agreement on refueling the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) mediated by Brazil and Turkey is a truly big deal. From a “macro” perspective, this is a watershed event: two rising economic powers from what we condescendingly used to call the “Third World” have asserted consequential political and strategic influence on a high-profile matter of […]
Bolivia: Between Development and Mother Earth
The tremendous success of the April 19-22 World Peoples Summit on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, has confirmed the well-deserved role of its initiator — Bolivian President Evo Morales — as one of the world’s leading environmental advocates. Since being elected the country’s first indigenous president in 2005, Morales has […]
Iran, Brazil, and Turkey: What’s The Deal?
The New York Times, among others, is reporting that Turkey, Brazil, and Iran have agreed “in principle” to a nuclear fuel-swap that the three countries hope can placate the United States and its P5+1 partners at least enough to avoid a new round of Security Council sanctions on Iran. More details will be available today, […]
Minnesota’s Great Anishinaabe Fish-Off
On May 14, the day before the Minnesota walleye fishing opener, activists from two northern Minnesota Ojibwe bands exercised what they regard as their right to fish off reservation and outside of the state’s prescribed season. They dubbed their action the “Great Anishinaabe Fish-Off” and held a Stop Treaty Abuse Rally on the shores of […]
How to Make Peace with Iran
There seems to be a growing international consensus that the search for a “cold peace” with Iran is a desirable, even essential approach on the part of the international community. Indeed, successive “war games” at specialised institutions in the United States have shown that bombing Iran’s nuclear installations is militarily unviable. Even some Israeli and […]
Arizona: The Ethnic Purge Continues
Anti-Immigrant Law Ethnic Studies Ban More videos and cartoons by Politic Vic may be viewed at <www.politicvic.com>. See, also, Julianne Hing, “AZ to Teachers: Take Your Accents and Ethnic Studies Outta Here” (RaceWire, 30 April 2010); Julianne Hing, “Arizona’s Gov. Brewer Signs Ethnic Studies Ban Into Law” (RaceWire, 12 May 2010); Dave Zirin, “New […]
Broken Health Care System Is Behind Deficit
The Heritage Foundation recently expressed concern that “unless entitlement spending is reined in, it will consume all federal revenue in just 42 years, with nothing left over for defense.” Interestingly, Heritage made no mention of why entitlement spending is projected to rise so quickly. The fact is that the federal government is projected to spend […]
The European Union’s Dangerous Game
Perhaps the wild swings in financial and stock markets over the last week will make people give closer scrutiny to what is going on in Europe, which would be a good thing for the world. According to most news reporting, markets are worried about a potential default by Greece on its sovereign debt, and the […]
Statement of Solidarity with Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal, Who Have Been Unjustly Detained in Iran since July 31, 2009
We are writing in support of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal who have been unjustly detained for more than nine months. These three young people are active members of a global community opposed to US aggression in the Middle East. They do not deserve to be punished for the policies of their […]
Marxism Is the Mother Lode for all Critiques of Capitalism: An Interview with Alexander Saxton
A longtime reader of Monthly Review, and a Marxist for all his adult life, Alexander Saxton might be one of the oldest, continuously active radicals in the United States. Born in Manhattan in 1919, he met the novelist, John Dos Passos, and the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, when he was a young man, and […]
Comrade Sa’adat: End Occupation in All of Historic Palestine
Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, denounced any negotiations with the occupation, saying that “the solution to the critical historical conflict in the Middle East will only be the establishment of one state on the entire Palestinian national soil, from river to sea, with full […]
Restructuring the Bretton Woods Twins
Prabir Purkayastha: The BRIC and IBSA Summits seem to have been indicating that G20 is the solution to the problems of the world, and they are happy that they have come out of the grip of G7 as it were. Do you really think that this is something that is going to happen? Jayati […]
Hooman Majd’s Postcard from Tehran
Author and analyst Hooman Majd traveled to Iran last month and has published an initial report from his travels, “Postcard from Tehran,” in ForeignPolicy.com. Hooman makes a number of important points in his article, which largely reinforce our analysis of Iranian politics since the Islamic Republic’s June 12, 2009 presidential election and of U.S/Western policy […]
Lula and Erdoğan Go to Tehran: Alternative Perspectives on Their Diplomatic Prospects
Brazil’s President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will travel to Iran this weekend, ostensibly to attend the G-15 summit meeting that opens in Tehran on Monday. But Lula’s trip is attracting enormous international attention because the Brazilian leader will use his visit to try, in collaboration with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to broker […]
BP: The Worst Safety and Environmental Record of All Oil Companies Operating in the United States
BP is a London-based oil company with the worst safety and environmental record of any oil company operating in America. In just the last few years, BP has pled guilty to two crimes and paid over $730 million in fines and settlements to the US government, state governments, and civil lawsuit judgments for environmental […]
Israel’s Stasi Watch over Imams
Job interviews for the position of imam at mosques in Israel are conducted not by senior clerics but by the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police, a labor tribunal has revealed. Sheikh Ahmed Abu Ajwa, 36, is fighting the Shin Bet’s refusal to approve his appointment as an imam in a case that has lifted the […]
