Sunday Roundup - November 30, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Ferguson, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Iran, Iraq, and, in brief, Ebola and Ukraine.

Ferguson

Photo appeared in BBC News post
Demonstrators gathered in Parliament Square after walking down Oxford Street

The grand jury investigating the shooting death of an unarmed eighteen-year-old African-American by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri decided not to indict the officer. Protests against the decision flared in Ferguson and across the United States.  We may never know the exact timeline of events that led to this shooting death.  The shooter says he acted in self-defense and that he would or could have changed nothing.  Eyewitnesses and law enforcement experts both support and repudiate these statements. What we do know is that the grand jury did not return an indictment, that the proceedings of that grand jury were deeply flawed, and that there is an underlying assumption about the actions of young black men that leads to tragic and unnecessary deaths.  

In a Mother Jones article posted days after the shooting, Jaeah Lee writes: The killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, was no anomaly....But quantifying that pattern is difficult....No agency appears to track the number of police shootings or killings of unarmed victims in a systematic, comprehensive way.  We do know some of the data and Lee presents them:

• Previous attempts to analyze racial bias in police shootings have ...found that there were a disproportionately high number of African Americans among police shooting victims.
• Often, the police officers do not get convicted or sentenced. 
• Between 2003 and 2009, the DOJ reported that 4,813 people died while in the process of arrest or in the custody of law enforcement. 
• Black people are more likely than whites or Hispanics to experience a police officer's threat or use of force.  
• The Justice Department has investigated possible systemic abuse of power by police in at least 15 cities. 
• Police shootings of unarmed black people aren't limited to poor or predominantly black communities.   

People protesting the grand jury decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown took to the streets in cities across the country, from Los Angeles to New York City, for a second night on Tuesday.  Protests were held in Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland and other cities. Rallies were [also] held in Michigan, Maine, Georgia, Wisconsin and other states. [Al Jazeera, Nov. 25]  London saw thousands of protesters march on Wednesday.  Thousands protested in London on Wednesday in sympathy with demonstrations across the US over the killing of a black teenager by a white police officer.  The roughly five thousand London protesters held signs reading "Black lives matter" and chanted "Hands up, don't shoot", the slogan adopted by protesters in the US. [AFP, mirrored by Yahoo News, Nov. 26]

The Left Bank Cafe post of December 3 will have more on the eyewitness testimony and the grand jury proceedings.

Occupied Palestinian Territory
For obvious reasons, Palestinians are particularly sympathetic to the Ferguson protests - some even tweeted advice to the US protesters on dealing with tear gas.  
In Gaza on November 23, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces as he ventured into one of the "no-go" zones near the Israeli border.  Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the first such fatality since the 50-day Gaza war ended in August....The ministry identified the man as Fadel Mohammed Halawa, 32, and said he was shot by soldiers east of Jabaliya refugee camp.  One of Halawa’s relatives said he had been searching for songbirds, which nest in trees near the Israeli border and command high prices in Gaza markets.  [The Guardian, Nov. 23] 
The United Nations has declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip after two days of heavy rains and flooding in the war-battered enclave.  The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) declared the state of emergency in Gaza City on Thursday, after torrential rain overwhelmed some areas and caused flooding. [Al Jazeera, Nov. 28]
With demolition orders already issued for the family homes of the two men responsible for the attack on the Jerusalem synagogue, Israel announced draft legislation for a new regime of collective punishment against the families of attackers and "violent" protesters.  These steps include revoking the residency rights of attackers and their families. Those who are accused of "inciting" against Israel will no longer receive state benefits. Also among the provisions is jail time for those who wave Palestinian flags at what are deemed "violent protests" and deportation to the Gaza Strip if certain conditions are met....The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has condemned the Netanyahu-proposed bill..."The absurd proposals raised involve serious human rights violations and acts of collective punishment – which bear no relation to an actual war on terror," the group said. [Al Jazeera, Nov. 27]

Iran
Although a final agreement in the Iran nuclear talks was not reached by the November 24, the talks are being extended.  Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme have been extended until the end of June next year in the hope that the broad outlines of a deal can be agreed within three months.  The extension was announced on Monday after nine months of negotiations culminated in a week of talks in Vienna that failed to close gaps between Iran and a six-nation negotiating group over the scale of a future Iranian nuclear programme and the speed with which international sanctions would be lifted. [The Guardian, Nov. 24]  Both sides were optimistic when they emerged from Monday's discussions, but they understand that the longer the international standoff over Iran’s suspect nuclear programme continues, the more dangerous and volatile the situation becomes....By extending the talks again they have avoided a total collapse, but they have also raised the stakes, ensuring that failure, if that is what eventually transpires, will be all the more cataclysmic.   There is a growing sense that a the window of opportunity may be closing.  Those opposing a deal can now be expected to intensify their efforts to kill the extended talks.  This can come about in any number of ways - for example, by increased US sanctions passed by a Republican-controlled Congress, by Iranian hardliners replacing West-friendly negotiators to undermine Rouhani, or by Israeli military action against Iran.  [The Guardian, Nov. 24]

Iraq
Tom Englehardt writes of the recent US escalation in the Middle East in an excellent article at TomDispatch.com.  The article is well worth reading in its entirety and begins with a thought experiment asking what would be the reaction if Russia or China were the power re-entering the region militarily after the failure of its earlier interventions.  Here are a few selections:

...after 13 years of doing its damnedest, on one side of the Greater Middle East this power has somehow overseen the rise of the dominant narco-state on the planet with monopoly control over 80%-90% of the global opium supply and 75% of the heroin. On the other side of the region, it’s been complicit in the creation of the first terrorist mini-oil state in history, a post-al-Qaeda triumph of extreme jihadism....If this had been the work of any other power we thought less well of than we do of ourselves, imagine the blazing headlines right now

When it comes to a path “forward” in Iraq, it’s been ever deeper into Iraq War 3.0.  Since a limited, “humanitarian” bombing campaign began in August, the Obama administration and the Pentagon have been on the up escalator: more air strikes, more advisers, more weaponry, more money.  Two and a half weeks ago, the president doubled the corps of American advisers (plus assorted other U.S. personnel) there to 3,000-plus.  Last week, the news came in that they were being hustled into the country faster than expected...For those of a certain age, the escalatory path the Obama administration has set us on in Iraq has a certain resonance and so, not surprisingly, at the edges of our world, familiar words like “quagmire” are again rising.

General Dempsey can’t know how long (or short) its lifespan in the region may be.  One thing we do know, however: as long as the global giant, the United States, continues to escalate its fight against the Islamic State, it gains a credibility and increasing popularity in the world of jihadism that it would never otherwise garner.

Given the history of this last period, even if the Islamic State were to collapse tomorrow under American pressure, there would likely be worse to come.  It might not look like that movement or anything else we’ve experienced thus far, but it will predictably shock American officials yet again.  Whatever it may be, rest assured that there’s a solution for it brewing in Washington and you already know what it is.  Call it Iraq War 4.0.

Whatever the bloody horror, fragmentation, and chaos in the Middle East today, 40 years from now the fears and fantasies that led Washington into such repetitively destructive behavior will look no less foolish than the domino theory does today.   

In Brief
Ebola
"How world’s worst Ebola outbreak began with one boy’s death" [BBC News, Nov. 26]

"Number of Ebola cases nears 16,000 as Sierra Leone loses ground: WHO" [Reuters/Yahoo News, Nov. 26]  The death toll in the world's worst Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,689 out of 15,935 cases reported in eight countries by the end of Nov. 23...Almost all cases and all but 15 deaths have been in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

"Ebola vaccine 'promising' say scientists after human trial" [BBC News, Nov. 26]


Ukraine
"Why Ukraine Must Bargain for Peace with Russia"  [Foreign Policy, Nov.26]
The "let's make a deal" moment has arrived for Kiev and Moscow. But by pushing a hard-line agenda against Putin, the United States and Europe are only making things worse for Ukraine....The contours of the compromise would likely include: reaffirmation of the reality of Ukraine's nonalignment; mutually satisfactory trade arrangements among Russia, Ukraine, and the EU; implementation of a decentralization plan somewhat more ambitious than Poroshenko's June proposals, but significantly less far-reaching than Russia's March proposals; a return of full Ukrainian control over its border with Russia, perhaps with an international peacekeeping force on the ground in the Donbas... 

Ten Things to Know About Obama's Immigration Actions

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"

On June 27, 2013, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform bill by a vote of 68-32.   In the 17 months since then, the Tea Party-controlled House of Representatives neither acted on the Senate bill nor provided one of their own.  Last Thursday night, President Obama announced that he would be taking executive action on immigration.  The President formally signed these actions on Friday.  Here are 10 things to know about Obama's immigration plan.

1.  The immigration plan addresses three areas: additional resources for border security, an "easier and faster" way for "high-skilled immigrants, graduates and entrepreneurs to stay",  and dealing responsibly "with the millions of undocumented immigrants who already live in our country."

2.  The executive order will protect from deportation about 40% of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants.  The largest group, estimated to be between 2.5 and 3.4 million, consists of immigrant parents who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and have children who either were born in the U.S. or are legal permanent residents. An additional 700,000 will benefit from an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (aka "the Dreamer program"), a program that allows certain immigrants who were brought into the country as children to stay and work on a temporary basis.  [1, 2]

3. The president’s executive action offers deportation relief for the largest number of undocumented immigrants in recent history, but not the opportunity to obtain permanent residency or citizenship. Only Congress has the authority to offer a path to legal status.  [2]

4. If a future administration reverses course or if Congress passes an immigration law, the protection from deportation could be taken away. [2]

5. None of the immigrants who will be given new legal protections will get government subsidies for health care under the Affordable Care Act, nor will they be allowed to buy insurance via the state and federal exchanges.  Non-citizens are not eligible for Medicaid.  However, under a system informally known as “emergency Medicaid,” hospitals are reimbursed when they provide emergency and maternity care for people who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid if they were in the US legally. [3, 4]

6.  The president has the constitutional authority to decide to not proceed with deportations. It has always been within the president’s discretion to decide whether to have the Department of Justice enforce a particular law. As the Supreme Court declared in United States v. Nixon, “the Executive Branch has exclusive authority and absolute discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case.” [5]

7. The executive actions on immigration cannot be directly "defunded".  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) agency is entirely self-funded through the fees it collects on immigration applications. The Congressional appropriation process has nothing to with it.  [6]

8. The additional border security measures mentioned by Obama include "continuing the surge of resources" to the border and focusing on the "deportation of people who threaten national security and public safety" and recent border crossers, [7]

9.  The "easier and faster" way for "high-skilled immigrants, graduates and entrepreneurs to stay" includes some tweaks to the current system but notably does not include an increase in H-1B visas, designed for temporary high-skilled workers. Congressional approval is needed for that.  Only half of those who applied for a H-!B visa this year received one; the permits disappeared in days. [8]

10.  Contrary to the fact-free myths spewing from right-wing critics, studies have shown that immigration has a positive impact on native-born workers and boosts productivity; immigration is not connected to the unemployment rate; and immigrants are predicted to pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits.  [9]

Powerless to defund the executive actions and sure to lose an impeachment vote in the Senate, Republicans will turn to obstruction and to the courts.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a Tea Party favorite, has talked about opposing Obama's actions by blocking all of his nominations.  Hopefully this will provide a wake-up call to Senator Reed to begin forcing votes on all the pending nominations before the 114th Congress is seated.  Judicial, executive branch and ambassadorial nominations that have already cleared by their committees have been slowed to a crawl by Republican actions.  With the Senate majority in January, Republicans will be able to block everything if they so chose.

As for the courts., prosecutorial discretion not withstanding, I imagine Republicans are scouring the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to find some basis, any basis, to proceed with a legal challenge.  They will have to do their homework thoroughly - Administration lawyers have been working for months to make sure the President's actions are legally unassailable. But then, who knows what will happen when the case reaches the politicized Supreme Court ?  The conservative majority have shown a remarkable tendency towards rulings that favor keeping Republicans in power.

References
[1] New York Times, Nov. 15   [2] Pew Research Center, Nov. 20   [3] New York Times, Nov. 19

[4] Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 20   [5]  New Republic, Nov. 18   [6] The Hill, Nov. 20

[7] White House Fact Sheet, Nov. 20   [8] Boston Globe. Nov. 24   [9] Media Matters for America, Nov. 21

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons; caption is from Emma Lazarus' poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty plaque

Sunday Roundup - November 23, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at Iran, Ukraine, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and, in brief, Ebola and Mexico.

Iran
November 24 is the self-imposed deadline for Iran and the P5+1 (the permanent security council members (US, Russia, China, France, UK) plus Germany) to come to a permanent agreement on Iran's nuclear program.  The main remaining issues are the timing of the removal of the sanctions against Iran and what degree of nuclear enrichment for peaceful purposes will satisfy both sides.  “Iran has made its utmost efforts and made the necessary adjustments to its demands and we hope that all the P5+1 countries, particularly the US, which occasionally seeks excessive demands in the nuclear talks, will understand the circumstances,” [Iran President Rouhani] said, according to the state-run Press TV....Iran has been adamant that it would not allow any agreement to prevent it obtaining nuclear technology permitted by the non-proliferation treaty (NPT). But Iran and the west have different interpretations of what type of advances are permitted under the NPT, especially over enrichment capacity." [The Guardian, Nov. 12]  Opposition to a historic permanent agreement comes from three sources and Carlyn Meyer, writing at Informed Comment, warns that the critics are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water.  The right-wing in Iran does not believe their country should even be talking to the West. Critics in the American Congress have tried to impose new sanction, after Iran...started negotiating in good faith, that would derail the deal. And Israel, which is not a signer of the NPT, believes Iran should be barred from even civilian enrichment....If a negotiated Permanent Agreement doesn’t replace the Interim accord or if the talks are not extended, Iran will resume producing highly enriched uranium. The new inspectors would leave and tighter inspector regimens would die. A historic achievement for nuclear nonproliferation would be nullified.  [Informed Comment, Nov. 20]  On Thursday, officials hinted at a possible extension. A deadline to resolve a 12-year-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program may be extended from Monday to March because of sharp disagreements between Tehran and Western powers, officials close to the talks said Thursday. U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said this week a comprehensive deal would be difficult, but not impossible, to achieve by Monday. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was not optimistic, but that there may be a way of extending the deadline.  A senior Iranian official had similar expectations. "We need more time to resolve technical issues, and don’t forget that the time frame for lifting sanctions is still a huge dispute," the Iranian official said, adding that an extension until March was a possibility. Western officials also suggested March was an option, with a resumption of talks in January....Domestic constituencies hostile to compromise remain strong on both the Iranian and U.S. sides, and a delay in concluding an agreement increases the opportunities for spoilers to win the day.  [Al Jazeera, Nov. 20]
  
Ukraine

Map of rebel-held areas is from BBC News

The ceasefire in the Ukraine has seen numerous violations since it went into effect in September.  An average of 13 people have been killed daily in eastern Ukraine since a 5 September ceasefire came into place, the UN human rights office says.  In the eight weeks since the truce came into force, the UN says 957 people have been killed, amid continuing violations on both sides.  A new report by the office describes a total breakdown of law and order in rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk.  It also highlights credible allegations of abuses by government forces.  [BBC News, Nov. 20] With rhetoric escalating on both sides, Ukrainian servicemen continuing to be deployed in eastern Ukraine, and Russian military support allegedly coming into the rebel-held areas, the Ukraine Civil War is on the verge of restarting at full throttle.  As of the end of October, more than 4,000 have been killed during the conflict and more than 900,000 persons have become refugees or internally displaced.

Occupied Palestinian Territory
As Gaza struggles to recover from this summer's onslaught, tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank have risen over the past several weeks and the cycle of oppression, protests, and violence continues. Palestinians protests have been sparked by Israel's continued settlement building - particularly the recent decision to build in East Jerusalem - and concerns regarding the Al-Aqsa mosque.  A partial listing of events of the last month is given below.  Researching the history of Jerusalem's status, Ehab Zariyeh writes, The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most vexed – and volatile – sticking points in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After occupying the eastern part of the city in the war of June 1967, Israel annexed the territory, and its political leaders proclaimed the city Israel's "eternal, undivided capital." But the international community, including the United States, continues to regard East Jerusalem as occupied territory, and to reject Israel’s decision to settle its citizens there.  The article traces the history of the struggle for control of the Holy City since the UN partition plan of 1947.  [Al Jazeera, Oct. 30]  Amos Harel writes of an operation in which Israeli police acted with restraint in a village north of Jerusalem in "How to avert an Intifada". During yesterday’s operation, an undercover Jerusalem district police force surprised two suspects while they were meeting. One suspect tried to flee, but the cops were able to seize him. The other pulled out a pistol, but the police didn’t lose their cool. They pointed their weapons at him and in the end he dropped the gun and surrendered.  This incident in Anata, coming less than 48 hours after the police shooting in Kafr Kana, proves that the results of such confrontations are very dependent on the conduct of the policemen and soldiers involved....Whether the wave of violence that began in Jerusalem and is expanding to Arab communities in Israel following Hamdan’s death will spread further will be decided by how each such incident is handled....It seems that the police and army are making efforts to control and monitor their forces to prevent additional funerals. They aren’t getting much help from Israeli ministers and MKs. [Haaretz, Nov. 10]  Without a political solution, Netanyahu appears to be facing the limits of his security-based approach.  Netanyahu has built his career on opposing the creation of a Palestinian state, standing up to U.S. pressure for territorial compromise and sounding the alarm about Iran’s nuclear work. While he may be more pragmatic than some of his coalition partners, his coupling of low-key settlement expansion with fiery rhetoric has pushed Israel’s mainstream political median steadily to the right...The problem, of course, is that absent any political process to end the occupation, Netanyahu has precious few incentives to offer the increasingly disillusioned Palestinians for cooperation to restore security....Netanyahu now confronts a domestic security crisis for which he very deliberately offers no political solution. He has taken ending the occupation and Palestinian statehood off the agenda, but having seen off U.S. efforts to complete the peace process, he offers no alternative beyond the status quo. [Al Jazeera, Nov. 18]

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict October 19 - November 18 

Oct. 19 - Einas Khalil, a 5-year-old Palestinian kindergarten student, was killed in the West Bank by an Israeli settler who ran her over with his car. [1]
Oct. 22 - A Palestinian drove his car into a Jerusalem train station, killing a three-month-old Israeli-American baby girl, Chaya Zissel Brauna, and wounding several other people. A 22-year-old Ecuadorean woman, Karen Yemima Mosquera, died later of  wounds sustained in that attack. The Palestinian driver was shot and killed shortly after the incident. [1]
Oct. 24 - A Palestinian-American teenager was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers, and 12 Palestinians were wounded during protests.  Among other demands, Palestinian protesters want Israel to cease settlement activity in East Jerusalem and honor residents’ rights. [1]
Oct. 27 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue building Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, despite stiff international criticism and rising tensions between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in the contested city.  Earlier in the day, Netanyahu's government announced that it would advance plans to build about 1,000 Jewish-only housing units in east Jerusalem — an attempt, Palestinians said, to further cement Israel’s control over the city, creating “facts on the ground” that would keep Jerusalem under Israeli authority in a future peace deal. [1]
Oct. 29 - An extremist rabbi was seriously wounded in a drive-by attack.  The attack [followed] a conference, at the center, which focused on the reconstruction of a Jewish temple on top of al-Aqsa Mosque, with top right-wing Jewish officials and activists in attendance. [2]
Oct. 30 - His suspected attacker was shot dead by Israeli security forces.  The suspect attempted to evade arrest by climbing onto the roof of his house and hiding there behind solar panels.  According to Israeli sources, the Police Special Anti-Terror Unit closed in on him [and] he began shooting. The unit fired back, killing him. [3]  Palestinian sources have a different version:  The Fatah movement of Jerusalem said [the suspect's] killing amounted to an extrajudicial assassination by Israeli security forces....Hejazi was alive when Israeli forces arrived on the scene, [Palestinian news agency] Maan said, adding Hejazi died after a water tank was dropped on him. [4]
Oct. 31 - East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque reopened to some Muslim worshippers after Israel had earlier ordered its closure, and following calls from the United States government and Arab countries to reverse the decision that sparked outrage. [4]
Nov. 6 - Seven Palestinians were injured...after being targeted with rubber-coated metal bullets and teargas grenades by Israeli forces, as citizens and Birzeit University scholars headed to Ofer military camp, to protest in solidarity with Jerusalem and the rising number of dead throughout Palestine. [5]
Nov. 14 - Thousands of Arab Israelis took to the streets of Israel...to protest at what they call Israeli assaults on al-Aqsa Mosque.  They were also demanding the prosecution of Israeli police who killed a 20-year old Palestinian man in northern Israel on 7 November....Hundreds of Palestinians also protested across the occupied West Bank on Friday in a campaign calling for free passage to Jerusalem and an end to the occupation. [6]
Nov. 18 - An attack by two Palestinian men on a synagogue in West Jerusalem has claimed the lives of five Israelis and injured eight others.  The Palestinian attackers, who police said were armed with a gun and axes, were shot dead by police...Following the incident, tens of Palestinians were injured in confrontations with Israeli settlers and security forces in both Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. [7]
Sources
[1] "Netanyahu vows to continue building Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem" Al Jazeera, Oct. 27 
[2] "Extremist Israeli Rabbi Shot at Jerusalem Rally" International Middle East Media Center. Oct. 30
[3] "Israeli police kill Palestinian suspect in Jerusalem assassination attempt" Haaretz, Oct. 30
[4] "Israel to reopen Al-Aqsa mosque after Palestinian outrage over closure" Al Jazeera, Oct. 30
[5] "7 Palestinians Wounded During Protest near Ofer" International Middle East Media Center, Nov, 6 
[6] "Thousands of Palestinians protest in Israel and West Bank" Middle East Eye, Nov. 14
[7] "Five dead in attack on Jerusalem synagogue" Al Jazeera, Nov. 18


Links/In Brief
Ebola 
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today that the number of Ebola cases is “no longer increasing nationally in Guinea and Liberia, but is still increasing in Sierra Leone”, and that preparedness teams have been sent this week to Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Senegal....The WHO report issued late today in Geneva said 15,145 cases of Ebola virus disease had been reported in six affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States of America) and two previously affected countries (Nigeria and Senegal) with 5,420 reported deaths. [UN News Centre, Nov. 19]

"Ebola: Mapping the outbreak" [BBC News, Nov. 21]

Mexico
"Mexico on the brink: thousands to protest over widespread corruption and student massacre" [The Guardian, Nov. 20]

"Molotov cocktails, clashes as thousands of Mexicans protest over massacre" [Reuters, Nov. 21]

Comets, Asteroids, and Interstellar Wormholes

The past couple of weeks have seen a number of space-related events including a probe landing on a comet and the opening of a blockbuster sci-fi film.  It's been a welcome escape from the generally disappointing news that's been inundating us for months.

Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko/67P from Rosetta's camera

The big news in the "real world" was the European Space Agency's (ESA's) successful landing of its refrigerator-sized Philae probe on the comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko/67P.   The landing on November 12 was the first ever on a comet.  It took place after a ten-year journey of 4 billion miles as the culmination of the ESA's Rosetta mission.  The Rosetta spacecraft was launched in March 2004, rendezvoused with the comet on August 6, 2014 and went into orbit around it on September 10.

Philae after separation from the Rosetta spacecraft

The landing was not without drama.  Philae bounced twice before settling on the surface to begin an analysis of the comet's core.  The bouncing could have jeopardized the mission but all the instruments remained operable.  Fifty-seven hours into its expected sixty-four hour data transmission phase it lost power as its solar-powered battery dropped into standby mode.  "The Philae lander on the distant comet 67P has sent another stream of data back to Earth before losing power.  The little probe delivered everything expected from it, just as its failing battery dropped it into standby mode.  Philae is pressed up against a cliff. Deep shadows mean it cannot now get enough light on to its solar panels to recharge its systems." [BBC News, Nov.15]  As ESA Rosetta Mission tweeted: "S'ok Philae, I've got it from here for now. Rest well...". [The New Zealand Herald, Nov. 16]  When ESA scientists were asked the purpose of the $1.6 billion mission, "Get this, they said: by analysing a comet, Philae would probe the primeval material of the Solar System... the ancient water and carbon which may even have seeded Earth with the means to make life.  Comets are treasure chests, said Mark McCaughrean, senior ESA scientific advisor, before he fed us the jaw-dropping idea: 'We could be comet stuff ourselves.' " [AFP (mirrored by Yahoo News) , Nov.17]  On November 18, ESA scientists confirmed that the Philae lander had detected carbon-containing organic molecules on the surface of the comet.
Photos: ESA

A few days before Philae's landing, I had the pleasure of seeing Interstellar and thus contributed my part to the $130 million that the film grossed globally that first weekend.  Interstellar's plot and subplots, its visual effects, and its reliance on cutting edge science make this nearly-three-hour epic one of the best and most scientifically realistic sci-fi movies ever made.

Earth is dying.  A global ecological disaster is causing dust storms and blights and bringing drought and famine. Growing food has become the number one priority of the planet and the story begins with a struggling farm family somewhere in the American Midwest.  The father, Cooper, played by Matthew McConnaughy, is a former engineer and pilot. "Ghostly" signals caused by a gravity anomaly lead Cooper and his precocious daughter to a secret NASA installation.  A wormhole, leading to another star system with potentially habitable planets, has mysteriously appeared near Saturn.  NASA asks Cooper to pilot the ship that will travel through the wormhole - at the risk of never seeing his family again even if the journey is successful.

Wormholes, black holes, relativistic time dilation, and a fifth dimension all play a role in the film. The internet is full of explanations of the science behind the film. Here is a link to a discussion of black holes and wormholes by Neil de Grasse Tyson.  And here is space.com's infographic, "The Science of Interstellar Explained".  For a fuller explanation of the science behind the movie's events and visual effects, Kip Thorne, the science adviser for the film, has written "The Science of Interstellar".

Interstellar reminded me a bit of 2001: A Space Odyssey, another one of my all time favorites. Both films speculate on deep philosophical questions - mankind's destiny (both), the rise of consciousness and mankind's beginnings (2001), causality (Interstellar) - and develop plots based on classic sci-fi themes - "we are not alone" (2001), exploring the unknown (both) and time travel (Interstellar).  In an interview with The Daily Beast, director Christopher Nolan says "In light of the success and weight of [Star Wars], they re-released Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and my father took me to see it on one of the biggest screens in London in Leicester Square, and that was also a seminal experience. I was in awe of the scale of it, the escapist possibilities of it, and the sense of adventure and ability to take the audience across the universe. It definitely stuck in the back of my mind that if I were ever given the chance to give an audience of today that experience, I’d have to try and do that." And well you have, Mr. Nolan.  Thank you.
Posters: Paramount Pictures
Related:
This Final 'Interstellar' Trailer Is Epic and Amazing [space.com, Oct. 1]

If ESA's Rosetta mission searches a comet for clues to the physical origin of life on Earth, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission may help prepare us for one potential doomsday scenario by studying an asteroid.  Asteroid impacts have caused widespread destruction on the planet.  The most famous of these impacts is the one that formed the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan about 66 million years ago. It caused one of the greatest extinction events ever, wiping out the dinosaurs and making way for the rise of mammals.  One of the best-known recorded impacts in modern times was the Tunguska event, which occurred in Siberia, Russia, in 1908. This incident involved an explosion that was probably caused by an asteroid or comet bursting apart three to six miles above the Earth's surface, felling an estimated 80 million trees over 830 sq mi.  In February 2013, a near Earth asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere, causing a fireball near Chelyabinsk, Russia.  More than 7000 buildings in six cities were damaged and about 1500 people were injured by the blast - primarily from broken glass from the shock wave.

Artist's conception of OSIRIS-REx in orbit around Bennu (NASA)

NASA will launch a spacecraft to the asteroid Bennu in 2016.  It will arrive at the asteroid and take samples in 2019, returning to Earth in 2023. NASA believes that the asteroid has been little altered over time and is likely to represent a snapshot of our solar system's infancy. The asteroid also is likely rich in carbon, a key element in the organic molecules necessary for life. Besides this glimpse at the early solar system, the composition of the asteroid will give us a better indication of how to divert the asteroid from Earth impact if that becomes necessary.

The target asteroid, Bennu, is a potential Earth impactor with a diameter of nearly half a kilometer. A 2010 study by an Italian team of scientists and mathematicians located a series of eight potential Earth impacts between 2169 and 2199. JPL's current "Sentry Risk Table" estimates an even greater number of  78 potential impacts,   JPL also shows it to have the second highest probability of impact of all near Earth asteroids greater than 50 meters in diameter.  Bennu's probability of striking Earth is 1 in 2700, a greater risk than that of a person dying in a car crash in a given year.  And if Bennu did hit, the energy released would be more than 5,000 megatons, equivalent to 200 of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever made.
Related
"Why you should care about asteroid 101955 Bennu" [Astro Bob blog at areavoices.com, Aug. 2013]


Featured Video
A new trailer unveiled ahead of the special re-release of 2001: A Space Odyssey as part of British Film Institute's sci-fi season [Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 21]

Featured Posts

Our Closest Call - July 29, 2012

Voyager 1 Has Left the Building- September 15, 2013

Sunday Roundup - November 16, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media.  Today we look at the US-China climate agreement, Mexico, immigration reform, Ukraine, the permanent war infrastructure, and the unheralded success of Evo Morales.

US-China Climate Agreement

Graphic from ThinkProgress website

On Tuesday night, the United States and China announced a historic agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions.  The plan...involves a series of initiatives to be undertaken in partnership between the two countries, including: expanding funding for clean energy technology research at the US-China Clean Energy Research Center; launching a large-scale pilot project in China to study carbon capture and sequestration; a push to further limit the use of hydroflourocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas found in refrigerants; a  federal framework for cities in both countries to share experiences and best practices for low-carbon economic growth and adaptation to the impacts of climate change at the municipal level; a call to boost trade in "green" goods, including energy efficiency technology and resilient infrastructure.  [Mother Jones, Nov. 11]
The announcement by the two largest carbon polluters in the world is a welcome signal ahead of the Paris 2015 climate conference.  China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, has agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier if possible...Now it has also promised to increase its use of energy from zero-emission sources to 20% by 2030...The United States has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.  Both represent improved targets over previously announced goals.  [The Guardian, Nov. 12]
The deal was reached after nine months of intense negotiations.  The plan unveiled in Beijing by Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, commits the two countries to ambitious cuts to greenhouse gas emissions after 2020, and could spur other big polluters to similar efforts.  After years of mistrust, the deal began to coalesce last spring after Obama sent a personal letter to Xi suggesting the two countries start to move in tandem to cut carbon pollution, the White House said.  The immediate inspiration for the letter arose from a visit to Beijing by John Kerry, the US secretary of state. Kerry, who had a strong environmental record when he was a senator, raised climate change to a top priority after taking over at State. [The Guardian, Nov. 12]
Related: 
"America's Solar Boom, in Charts"  According to a Deutsche Bank analyst: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three. [Mother Jones, Nov. 7]
"How the Republican-led Congress could kill the climate change deal" [The Guardian, Nov. 12]

Mexico
On September 26 in the southwestern town of Iguala. 43 Mexican college students were detained by police after a protest against what the students considered to be discriminatory hiring and funding practices by the government.   They have not been seen since.  The former mayor of Iguala is under arrest and its police chief is on the run.  Mexico has been facing violent rallies since local authorities revealed that the 43 students were handed over by corrupt police to the Guerros Unidos gang, members of which confessed to murdering them and reducing their bodies to ashes.  On Tuesday, protesters blocked Acapulco Airport.  On Wednesday a crowd of about 500 protesters set ablaze the state congress building in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero in a violent rally over the alleged massacre of 43 college students....Their disappearance has posed the biggest challenge so far to President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration, with many questioning the government’s progress in fighting against drug violence. [Reuters, Nov. 13]
Related:
"Mexicans in ‘Forgotten State’ Hail Arrest of Fugitive Mayor" [Bloomberg, Nov. 4]

Immigration Reform
President Obama is pledging to take executive action on immigration reform before year end. Depending on the specifics, the executive actions may protect between 2 and 5 million immigrants from deportation.  A comprehensive reform bill passed the Senate in 2013 but the Republican-controlled House has refused to act.  At a news conference during a visit to Myanmar, the President said, "There has been ample opportunity for Congress to pass a bipartisan immigration bill that would strengthen our borders, improve the legal immigration system and lift millions of people out of the shadows....I said that if in fact Congress failed to act, I would use all the lawful authority I possess to try to make the system work better."  The executive actions are centered on an extension of the President's "deferred action plan" which was designed to protect young adults who were brought to the US illegally as children from being deported.  The plan is to include parents of children who are US citizens or legal residents.  The action is designed to prevent the break-up of families via deportations.  Other steps reportedly include increasing the number of high-tech workers allowed to live and work in the US, [expanding] the existing deferred action plans [by moving] the cut-off date for children arriving to 2010, and [shifting] border security resources to the US southern border. Republicans are gearing up to fight Obama's actions, and one potential outcome of the showdown is a government shutdown. [BBC News, Nov. 14]

Ukraine
The US and Europe are warning Russia on increased sanctions for Russia's part in "destabilizing" the Ukraine.  Vladimir Putin planned to leave the G20 summit early after the criticism.  Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Thursday of the counter accusations between Russia and Ukraine.  Moscow and Kiev accused each other on Thursday of violating a ceasefire and the United States warned Russia the West might punish it further for its "military escalation" of the Ukraine crisis.  Ukraine accused Russia of sending soldiers and weapons to help separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine launch a new offensive in a conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people. Russia warned Kiev that any resumption of hostilities against the separatists would be catastrophic for Ukraine.  Increasing violence, truce violations and reports of unmarked armed convoys traveling from the direction of the Russian border have aroused fears that a shaky Sept. 5 truce could collapse.  [Reuters, Nov. 13]

In an op-ed piece appearing in The Guardian, Volodymyr Ishchenko warns of the danger of ignoring the far right.  Ukrainian authorities and mainstream opinion in Ukraine continue to show unacceptable ignorance of the danger from the far right and even openly neo-Nazi forces, cooperating with them in elections and allowing them to take positions within law enforcement...It is short-sighted and formalistic to conclude that the Ukrainian far right is insignificant based on the lack of electoral success. The rhetoric of many politicians which could be called centrist or even liberal has moved significantly to the right, competing for the increasingly patriotic and even nationalist voters...Ukrainians have already paid a very high price for ignoring the far right. According to research into systematic protests, members of the far right were the most visibly identified political agents in the Maidan protests, from the very beginning of the movement to the overthrow of Yanukovych.  Moreover, they were relatively more visible in eastern and southern regions where Maidan did not have the majority support, thus pushing the local population even further away from the protest message.  Ishchenko concludes that this tolerance for the far right has already cost Ukraine lost territories, a mass destruction of industry and infrastructure, and thousands and thousands of lives. It is necessary to break with the “it might be beneficial for Putin” logic and start to think what is beneficial for all the people living in Ukraine, and whether the radical nationalist ideas can fit the Ukrainian future to which we aspire.

NATO Map (Wikimedia Commons)

John Mearsheimer has an in-depth analysis of the roots of the crisis in Ukraine in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs.  The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West. At the same time, the EU’s expansion eastward and the West’s backing of the pro-democracy movement in Ukraine -- beginning with the Orange Revolution in 2004 -- were critical elements, too. Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement, and in recent years, they have made it clear that they would not stand by while their strategically important neighbor turned into a Western bastion. For Putin, the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected and pro-Russian president -- which he rightly labeled a “coup” -- was the final straw. He responded by taking Crimea, a peninsula he feared would host a NATO naval base, and working to destabilize Ukraine until it abandoned its efforts to join the West.   Mearsheimer asks us to imagine the American outrage if China built an impressive military alliance and tried to include Canada and Mexico. He proposes the West rethink its Ukraine strategy:  There is a solution to the crisis in Ukraine, however -- although it would require the West to think about the country in a fundamentally new way. The United States and its allies should abandon their plan to westernize Ukraine and instead aim to make it a neutral buffer between NATO and Russia, akin to Austria’s position during the Cold War. Western leaders should acknowledge that Ukraine matters so much to Putin that they cannot support an anti-Russian regime there. This would not mean that a future Ukrainian government would have to be pro-Russian or anti-NATO. On the contrary, the goal should be a sovereign Ukraine that falls in neither the Russian nor the Western camp.

The Permanent War Infrastructure
David Vine, writing at tomdispatch.com, discusses the long-standing US military presence in the Middle East  and the consequences of that policy.  Approaching its 35th anniversary, the strategy of maintaining such a structure of garrisons, troops, planes, and ships in the Middle East has been one of the great disasters in the history of American foreign policy. The rapid disappearance of debate about our newest, possibly illegal war should remind us of just how easy this huge infrastructure of bases has made it for anyone in the Oval Office to launch a war that seems guaranteed, like its predecessors, to set off new cycles of blowback and yet more war.  Vine traces the development of our base building policy and the morphing of the Rapid Deployment Force into the U.S. Central Command from 1980 through the present day.  Originally intended to maintain access to the oil-rich region during the Cold War era, the bases have become a "catalyst for anti-Americanism and radicalization” since a suicide bombing killed 241 marines in Lebanon in 1983....The garrisoning of the Muslim Holy Land was a major recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and part of Osama Bin Laden's professed motivation for the 9/11 attacks....Part of the anti-American anger has stemmed from the support U.S. bases offer to repressive, undemocratic regimes....Of course, using bases to launch wars and other kinds of interventions does much the same, generating anger, antagonism, and anti-American attacks....Rather than providing security, the infrastructure of bases in the Greater Middle East has made it ever easier to go to war far from home. It has enabled wars of choice and an interventionist foreign policy that has resulted in repeated disasters for the region, the United States, and the world.  By one estimate, the United States has spent $10 trillion protecting Persian Gulf oil supplies over the past four decades. Vine concludes: The sad irony is that any legitimate desire to maintain the free flow of regional oil to the global economy could be sustained through other far less expensive and deadly means....In addition to the direct damage our military spending has caused, it has diverted money and attention from developing the kinds of alternative energy sources that could free the United States and the world from a dependence on Middle Eastern oil -- and from the cycle of war that our military bases have fed. [TomDispatch, Nov.13]

Bolivia's Evo Morales

Photo of Evo Morales is from greanvillepost.com

While some warn that the rise of a racist far right presents a "clear and present danger "to both Western and Eastern Europe, Sergi Halimi writing in Le Monde Diplomatique wonders why the success of Bolivia's indigenous, leftist president Evo Morales has gone unremarked by the media. In times of crisis, a head of state who gets re-elected in the first round, having already served two terms, is a rarity indeed. One such is Evo Morales, whose win, with 61% of the vote, should have received more attention than it did. All the more so since he pulled off this electoral feat in Bolivia — which had five different presidents between 2001 and 2005. His victory follows a 25% reduction in poverty, an 87% real-terms increase in the minimum wage, a lowering of the retirement age and an annual growth rate of over 5% — all since 2006.  Pointing to the security failures such as the student massacre in Mexico - the students were protesting the neoliberal education reforms proposed by the conservative regime, Sergi Halimi asks us to imagine what would have leapt to mind had the student massacre taken place in Ecuador, Cuba or Venezuela. Or indeed in Bolivia, where President Morales has just been re-elected. [Le Monde Diplomatique, November 2014]

Armistice Day, the Gulf of Tonkin and the Berlin Wall

"The First World War, boys,

It came and it went

The reason for fighting

I never did get"

- Bob Dylan, "With God on Our Side"

In the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, an armistice was signed between Germany and the Allied Powers that put an end to fighting on the western front in the Great War. The war started in 1914 making this year the 100th anniversary of its beginning.  The Great War/World War I was one of the most inexplainable and horrific wars in history.  Bob Dylan is not alone in wondering why an assassination in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist grew into the greatest global conflict the world had yet seen. By the time it was over in 1918, "The Great War" claimed more than 16 million lives, including 7 million civilians. The trenches, machine guns, chemical weapons, and the use of airplanes made this war different - more horrific and more deadly than previous wars. The Treaty of Versailles, by severely punishing the Germans as if they were solely responsible for the war, laid the grounds for the rise of Hitler and World War II, with its even greater death toll.  The "war to end all wars" did no such thing.

This year is also the 50th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which marked the beginning of the massive escalation of United States involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam.  I was at a baseball game with my father that August in 1964.  Fans erupted in applause when some "retaliatory action" against North Vietnam was announced.  I'm sure none of that delirious and deluded mass had any idea what the consequences of the American escalation would be.  Or the background and disputable evidence for the incidents on which the retaliation was supposedly based.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave President Johnson the right to wage all out war against North Vietnam without securing a formal Declaration of War from Congress.  That was in the days of the Cold War with the Soviet Union when the bogus "domino theory" held sway over the American political landscape and military thinking. 

The Cold War came to a symbolic end 25 years ago with the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.  The Soviet Union itself officially came to an end on December 26, 1991.  Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and the man responsible for the liberaliziation of the Soviet system embodied in the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (change), had resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over power to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.  And now the man at the center of the reforms that led to the end of the Cold War and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion is warning us that the world is on the brink of a new cold war.  Speaking in Berlin during the celebration commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev warned that the world was “on the brink of a new cold war” and strongly criticised the west for having sown the seeds of the current crisis by mishandling the fallout from the collapse of the iron curtain.  “Instead of building new mechanisms and institutions of European security and pursuing a major demilitarisation of European politics … the west, and particularly the United States, declared victory in the cold war...Euphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of western leaders. Taking advantage of Russia’s weakening and the lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination in the world.”  The enlargement of NATO, Kosovo, missile defence plans and wars in the Middle East had led to a “collapse of trust”, said Gorbachev, now 83. “To put it metaphorically, a blister has now turned into a bloody, festering wound.” [The Guardian, November 8]

The 3,000 wars of recorded human history have claimed more than 340,000,000 lives.  Hundreds of millions have been forced to leave their homes.  And still the wars go on.

At present, more than 60 countries are suffering armed conflict.

For the first time since World War II, there are more than 50,000,000 refugees and internally displaced persons - more than half of whom are children.

Twenty five years after the Cold War ended, nine countries still possess 17,000 nuclear weapons.

In 2013, the nations of the world spent about $1,700,000,000,000 on their military budgets.

In the United States, Armistice Day is commemorated now as Veterans Day - a day to remember the sacrifices of the men and women sent to fight and die in wars.  As we remember veterans, we should also continue the struggle against the notions that violence is a viable solution and that war is a means of achieving peace.  I refuse to believe that war and violence are ingrained indelibly in human nature. We must continue to believe in the transformative power of nonviolent action and work against the underlying causes of war - the "interwoven systems of domination and exploitation at the roots of inequality and injustice."

"History tells us that the absence of war is not the presence of peace. We have seen time and time again that violence does not end when you put down the gun, that war is not over when you declare a ceasefire. We understand that there are interwoven systems of domination and exploitation at the roots of inequality and injustice, and that to 'remove all causes of war' we must collaborate and stand in solidarity with oppressed people across the globe."  

- War Resisters League Statement of Purpose

"I wonder how foreign policies would look if we ...thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never...wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children."

- Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

Featured Post

Remembering the Fallen, Memorial Day (May 27) 2013

Featured Video
To paraphrase former president Reagan, "Tear down that wall, Mr. Netanyahu."
A powerful video and rendition of "We Shall Overcome" by Roger Waters.

Sunday Roundup - November 9, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at the US midterm elections, Brussels austerity protests, Ukraine, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and, in brief, China's slowdown, Ebola, and Syria.

US Midterm Elections
Republicans made gains across the board in Tuesday's midterm elections.  Most importantly, with their gains in the Senate, they now control both houses of Congress.  The Democrats' get-out-the-vote effort failed to overcome the dark money, the voter suppression laws, and their own inadequate and defensive explanations of their policies.

Democrats failed to motivate their base, particularly the young.
Voter turnout was 36.6% - 4 points lower than in the 2010 midterms and 21 points lower than in the 2012 Presidential elections.  In exit polls from Tuesday's midterms, only 13 percent of voters were under 30.  Nonvoters are also more racially diverse than the voting population....More than 40 percent of likely nonvoters in the 2014 elections identified as Hispanic, black or other racial/ethnic minorities, compared with 22 percent of likely voters...On average, the populations who are likely to avoid the polls are also the populations likely to vote for a Democrat. [US News & World Report Data Mine, Nov. 5]

Voter suppression played a key role in close races.
The voter restrictions passed in Republican-controlled states were aimed to reduce the minority and youth vote.  For the most part, the restrictions worked.  The Brennan Center for Justice examined the results from North Carolina, Kansas, Virginia and Florida and concluded The Republican electoral sweep in yesterday’s elections has put an end to speculation over whether new laws making it harder to vote in 21 states would help determine control of the Senate this year. ...A quick look at the numbers shows that in several key races, the margin of victory came very close to the likely margin of disenfranchisement.  [Brennan Center for Justice, Nov. 5]

Republicans controlled the political conversation and framed the terms of the election.
Stirring up their base with a vigorous anti-Obama campaign, Republicans motivated them to come out and vote.  Democrats did nothing to counteract it and, for the most part, "ran away" from the President.  Jeff Schweitzer, blogging at the Huffington Post, has one of the best analyses of the election . Speaking of Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell's absurd statement that the way to end gridlock was to put Republicans in control of the Senate, Schweitzer writes: This story highlights the major failure of the left. Democrats have not defined the agenda or narrated the story. This capitulation creates a void of reason such that absurdities like McConnell's claim can take hold without everybody doubling over in laughter. Like frightened children Democrats run from Obama's record, as defined by the right, rather than championing his amazing successes as defined by fact. 
Although the rampant, fact-free antagonism to the Affordable Care Act was a major factor, the economy was the issue most on people's minds.  In spite of a recovering economy (unemployment down to 5.8% in October), exit polls indicated that 45% of the voters chose this as the #1 issue.  What's the deal, then? As President Obama alluded to in Wednesday's press conference and the Washington Post's Matt O'Brien explained Tuesday on Wonkblog, the recovery of the economy as a whole has not created wage or income gains for most people. In fact, those gains have gone almost exclusively to the "1 percent" folks you might have heard about.  The beauty of the Republican campaign was that they somehow convinced the American public that this uneven recovery was Obama's fault!  Voting for a party whose representatives in Congress are proud of opposing every Obama proposal to increase public-service spending or raise taxes on high-income individuals isn't necessarily the obvious way to address this issue.  [Slate, Nov. 6]  But then, as H. L. Mencken said many years ago, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

Money wins elections.  
SCOTUS's Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions unleashed virtually unlimited money to be spent on the elections - much of it in the form of dark money (i.e., money from undisclosed sources) . The combined totals for both parties for the most expensive midterms in history was nearly $3.7 billion.   Even in some places where Democrats had an advantage in donations, they lost - although in some states voter suppression may have played a part.  Counting all forms of spending — by candidates, parties and outside groups — Team Red is projected to have spent $1.75 billion, while Team Blue’s spending is projected to ring in at $1.64 billion. CRP’s analysis of last night’s results finds that in House races, the candidate who spent the most prevailed 94.2 percent of the time; the Senate figure is slightly lower, 81.8 percent. [OpenSecrets.org, Nov. 5]

In Brief / Related Links - What will Republican control of the Senate look like?

"Republicans Just Took Over the Senate—Here’s Why That Sucks" From staffing the executive branch through keeping the government open, The Nation describes eight reasons why this new alignment is going to be hugely problematic for progressive governance—perhaps for governance, period. [The Nation, Nov. 4]

"The Pressure to Escalate: The Phantasmagoric World of Washington"  Tom Englehardt asks us to think of this otherwise drab midterm campaign as the escalation election.  Republican candidates will arrive in Washington having beaten the war and disease drums particularly energetically, and they’re not likely to stop. [TomDispatch, Nov. 4]

"A Red Tide Swamps the US Political Landscape"  What do we have to look forward to from this extremist Congress and a ham-strung moderate President in the next two years? [The Left Bank Cafe, Nov. 5]

"How a Republican Congress could Entangle the US further in the Middle East" [Informed Comment, Nov. 5]

Brussels Austerity Protests
Europe's recovery from the Great Recession of 2008 has been much slower than that in the US. Unemployment remains above 10% for the region as a whole, ranging from a low of  5% in Germany to a high of 26% in Greece.  One of the reasons for the slower recovery has been the austerity (deficit reduction) measures demanded by the European Central Bank.  The Guardian reported on Thursday's labor protests in Brussels:  About 100,000 workers marched across Brussels on Thursday to protest against government free-market reforms and austerity measures, and the demonstration ended in violence when people set fire to cars and threw cobblestones and police responded with tear gas and water cannons.  About 50 people were injured and 30 detained, police said, in one of biggest postwar labour demonstrations in Belgium, a country long vaunted as a shining example of an efficient welfare state.  The violence overshadowed a raucous but largely peaceful march for better protection of workers during the economic crisis. The workers were angry at government policies that will raise the pension age, freeze wages and cut into public services.

Ukraine
Elections were held in the separatist Donbass region in eastern Ukraine on Sunday November 2 - two weeks after the general election in the rest of Ukraine.  Kiev refuses to recognize the elections in eastern Urkaine – but has not provoked any hostilities either.  The Donbass elections resulted in a predictable outcome, bringing victory to Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the Oplot battalion, who scooped more than 70 percent of the votes. Turnout varied from 65 percent to 100 percent at 350 polling stations, where 1,148,000 people had registered to vote...Not a single shot has been fired in Donbass since November 2 – a situation unseen since spring, including the ceasefire declared in early September after the Minsk talks.  [Russia Times, Nov. 3]  Russia has backed the vote and called on the elected representatives "to hold negotiations with central Ukrainian authorities."  Russia has given cautious backing to a vote in separatist regions of east Ukraine, which local rebels said proved they would never again be ruled by Kiev. Russia has not recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” as independent, but said the vote should be respected.  Kiev said it would open criminal cases against the organisers. Most other countries have dismissed the vote as illegitimate and there were no recognised international observers present. Nevertheless, the poll was one more step in the de facto separation of the region from the rest of Ukraine.  Moscow’s talk of negotiations between the separatists and Kiev, however, was at odds with comments from the separatists' electoral committee. [The Guardian, Nov. 3]

Occupied Palestinian Territory
East Jerusalem remains tense, and the International Criminal Court ruled on the Gaza Flotilla incident.

In an Al Jazeera op-ed, Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University, describes how "a silent intifada" is taking place in Jerusalem due to Israel's policy of denying Palestinians their natural rights.  After forty seven years of occupation, physical isolation, and weakening of leadership structures, the Palestinians of Jerusalem are totally stateless. The few Palestinians holding any sort of symbolic leadership position, such as members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, or religious leaders are regularly hauled to the Israeli police station for questions, short-term arrests and are sometimes forbidden to enter Islam's third holiest mosque, Al-Aqsa Mosque....Palestinians seeking housing permits are routinely denied because the requests are not based on an approved zoning plan. Arab East Jerusalem neighbourhoods have purposely not been planned, leaving the local communities to build illegally and then to suffer regular house demolitions for violating city laws. At the same time, Israel builds settlements in East Jerusalem in violation of international law.This has led to the rise of groups trying to fill the political void.  In several locations around Jerusalem,  local groups have sprouted attempting to organise their own community in defence of the Israeli onslaught that attempts to move them out of their homes and city with the goal of making Jerusalem an even more Jewish city.  While Israel regularly denies it, these Judaisation attempts are synchronised by the Israeli government, police, courts, Jewish settlers, radical groups and Knesset members, with each group doing its part.

The Guardian reported on November 6 of the International Criminal Court's decision on the Gaza Flotilla incident of 2010.  The international criminal court (ICC) will not prosecute over Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, in which 10 Turkish activists died, despite a “reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed”.  The chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said there would be no investigation leading to a potential prosecution because the alleged crimes, including the killing of 10 activists by Israeli commandos, were not of “sufficient gravity”....Nine Turkish nationals died when Israeli commandos staged a botched raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip on 31 May 2010. A 10th activist later died of his wounds.  The air-land-sea blockade, now more than seven years old, has devastated the economy of Gaza, and combined with Israeli sieges since 2007 have commentators warning that Gaza will be "unlivable" by 2020.

Gaza photo appeared in Al Jazeera/photo credit AFP

Let's just hope the ICC takes a much closer look at the war crimes committed in Gaza during this summer's Israeli siege.  More than 2000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians, were killed during the 50 day assault.  Inger Andersen is responsible for World Bank strategy and operations throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.  In an op-ed piece, Andersen reports on her recent visit to Gaza: Throughout my career at the World Bank, and at the United Nations or even before, I have come across many war zones but none compare to what I have just seen in Gaza: no scene of destruction, desolation and despair I have witnessed is equal to the tragic stage of Gaza.  Today, I feel obliged to add my voice for the voiceless and to plead that none of us forget the Palestinian people. It is our collective and historic responsibility to step up support and mobilise a response commensurate to the needs of the Palestinian people....For the Palestinians struggling daily, the access to water, electricity and municipal services [is critical]. I saw the destroyed water reservoir in Al Monttar area (Shujayea) which would have serviced 250,000 people. I walked into the shell-struck electricity storage facility that now resembled a lunar landscape. While visiting al-Shifa hospital, I discussed with doctors the dire need for medical equipment and supplies, staff and fuel, all severely strained by shortages and outages.  Numbers fail to capture the human realities of the daunting scenes I witnessed at the hospital. As winter sets in, the partial or total destruction of 60,000 housing units has led to 100,000 people without shelter. [Al Jazeera, Nov. 6]

In Brief/Links
China
China's gross domestic product grew 7.3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the weakest rate since the first quarter of 2009, adding to concerns the world's second-largest economy is becoming a drag on global growth.  [Reuters, Oct. 21]

Ebola
WHO released its data for the period up to Nov. 2 saying that Ebola has now been blamed for 4,818 reported deaths.  The group said that the weekly incidence of Ebola seems to be stable in Guinea, rising in Sierra Leone, and declining in Liberia   [NPR, Nov. 5]

Syria
"Syria: Mapping the conflict" According to the Syria Needs Analysis Project (Snap), IS jihadists are now in full control of the eastern region of Raqqa and hold significant swathes of territory in Aleppo to the north and Hassakeh and Deir al-Zour in the east. [BBC News, Nov. 7]
"US plan for proxy army to fight Isis in Syria suffers attack": Syrian opposition leader blames Washington for rout as air strikes on Isis seen as aiding Assad crackdown [The Guardian, Nov. 2]
"US Dilemma in Syria: Moderate Stronghold Falls to al-Qaeda, Fighters desert to Extremists" - Juan Cole analyzes the chaotic situation in Syria and potential consequences of arming and training so-called moderate rebels: a present Syrian moderate is all too often a future al-Qaeda member; many of these affiliations are not particularly ideological, but have to do with who is winning and who has more money. [Informed Comment, Nov. 3]

BBC News map of areas of control:

Map sources: areas of control and border crossings from the Syria Needs Analysis Project; all other geographical detail from humanitarian organisations and Google