Sunday Roundup - April 27, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and, in brief, the ongoing Republican efforts to deny affordable health insurance to Americans, Jon Stewart's take on the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown, the states-led effort to decide the Presidency on the basis of the national popular vote, and the giant Antarctic iceberg that is now entering the open seas.

Israelis Walk Away from the Table

From the antiwar.com website

The Israeli walk-out comes as no surprise but is still something of a disappointment.  The Kerry-driven peace talks were going nowhere and were scheduled to end later this month.  The incredible "reason" the Israelis gave for abandoning the talks a few days early was the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Palestinian Authority.  After continuing to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the midst of the peace talks, after demanding that the Palestinian authority abandon the Palestinian right of return and acknowledge Israel as a "Jewish state", after reneging on the fourth and final round of freeing Palestinian prisoners, the Israelis decided that they had had enough.  So the Kerry talks are dead and Palestinians may need to turn to international organizations such as the International Criminal Court for justice and statehood.

Juan Cole, in an Informed Comment post on April 24, writes of the move that prompted the Israeli withdrawal from the talks:  This week the Fateh Party (secular Arab nationalist) of Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas met in Gaza with members of the Hamas Party (fundamentalist Muslim), seeking a reconciliation and a government of national unity.  The two sides agreed that in 5 weeks a government of national unity will be appointed by Mahmoud Abbas. There will then be new elections for a president and parliament, to be held no later than 6 months after the new government is sworn in.  Cole reminds us of something seldom mentioned in the Western press - the reason the two sections of Palestine are politically separated: In January 2006, the fundamentalist Hamas Party won the parliamentary elections. This outcome was not acceptable to Israel and the Bush administration, and they connived with the secular Palestine Liberation Organization to overthrow the Hamas government in the West Bank, in which they succeeded. A similar attempt at a coup in the Gaza Strip failed, however. Gradually journalists and politicians have forgotten who was elected and who made the coup, so that you often see the Hamas government in Gaza described as the one that came to power by force. Rather, it is the remnant of the decision the electorate made in 2006.  In 2007 Israel put Gaza under a severe blockade, including its civilian population, which has destroyed the economy, created massive unemployment, and caused a majority of families to be food insecure. It is illegal for an Occupying power to impose collective punishment on a civilian population for which it has responsibility.

Water shortage in the Gaza Strip -  PressTV file photo

Zvi Bar'el writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asks why the Palestinian reconciliation is driving the Israeli government into a panic, pointing out the contradictions inherent in Israel's refusal to engage in dialogue with Hamas.  The discussions with the PLO that led to the Oslo Accords were begun when the PLO was defined as a terrorist organization and had not recognized Israel.   Another contradiction in Israeli policy is that they objected to talks with Hamas "because it was a terror group and served as an Iranian agent in the region. But when Hamas cut itself off from Iran and moved to join the PLO, Israel used it as an excuse to stop the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and blame Abbas for the talks’ collapse."  Bar'el sums up the situation: The reconciliation will lead Hamas and Islamic Jihad into coalition with the PLO, making them an inseparable part of the formal framework that signed the Oslo agreements. It is possible of course that the new PLO will move to revoke these agreements unilaterally. But so far no inclination has been reported on Hamas’ part to condition its joining the PLO on revoking the agreements.  On the contrary, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stated that there is no contradiction between the peace talks and the reconciliation agreement. This could indicate an agreement between Fatah and Hamas to maintain the peace talks, as [Hamas po;itical leader] Meshal made clear already in 2012, when the basic reconciliation agreement between the two movements was ratified.  The dilemma that Abbas has laid at the US and Israeli doorstep is this: If they want to advance a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, they cannot demand to neutralize Hamas and at the same time claim that Abbas does not represent all of the Palestinians.  Israel is expected to cut ties with the unity government and the US will likely turn a cold shoulder towards it.  Bar'el concludes: the European Union and Arab states, most of which support the reconciliation, will have to make a decision. Will they allow some 5 million Palestinians to be left with no services, no funds and no hope of a political horizon, or will they take this opportunity to shape reality in the Middle East, rather than merely observe from the side?

Who knows?  Perhaps a break in the talks will lead each side to reconsider its position and maybe peace and justice will eventually come to all in that troubled land.  The makings of an agreement are clear. Palestinians, including Hamas, recognize Israel and renounce the use of violence in their pursuit of statehood.  Israel stops taking land from the Palestinians, removes the blockade on Gaza, and drops the demand that it be recognized as Jewish state (or somehow guarantee the Palestinian right of return in a Jewish state).  Until an agreement on the final borders of a viable Palestinian state can be reached, the Arab League and Europe step up and support the Palestinians.  They have been stateless since 1948.  It's long past the time when they are due some justice.

Links
A new comprehensive UN report on the situation in the Gaza Strip says the besieged territory will not be “livable” in 2020 unless immediate action is taken to improve the humanitarian situation there. [PressTV, April 25]

Americans for Peace Now statement on the pause in discussions [APN website, April 25]

In Brief
Back in February, news broke of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's efforts to make sure that no governor of Georgia could ever decide to take Medicaid expansion, giving the legislature veto power over any future governor's decision to do so. But it's not just Deal. Kansas's Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is doing it too.  Georgia and Kansas have left a combined 487,000 residents uncovered under Obamacare because they refused to expand Medicaid. And, though the law remains unpopular, a recent poll found that majorities of Georgians (54 percent) and Kansans (55 percent) support Medicaid expansion. [Daily Kos, April 22]

New York has become the latest state to join an agreement that would transform the U.S. presidential election. Under the compact for a National Popular Vote, states across the country have pledged to award their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. [Democracy Now, April 17]

Jon Stewart's hilarious take on the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown [Daily Kos, April 22]

And our climate change article of the week comes from Reuters: Scientists are monitoring an iceberg roughly six times the size of Manhattan - one of the largest now in existence - that broke off from an Antarctic glacier and is heading into the open seas.  [Reuters, April 23]

Sunday Roundup - March 30, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the happiest cities, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Iran nuclear talks, the US surveillance reforms, and Venezuela.

The Happiest Cities

Provo looking towards the mountains-from utahvalley.com website

Not sure what it is about the Spring but, in the past week, I've read two lists of "happiest cities" - one for the US and one for Italy.  Maybe it was occasioned by the UN declaration of March 20 as the International Day of Happiness.  Gallup teamed with Healthways to rank the US cities based on a "well-being index" that  looked at sense of purpose, social, financial, community, and physical well-being factors. [Gallup Poll website]   The top five US metropolitan areas using the well-being index are: Provo-Orem, Utah; Boulder, Colorado; Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado; Honolulu, Hawaii, and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California.  The Italians, on the other hand, analyzed 40 million tweets, characterizing them as happy (or not) using the iHappy Index..  Corriere Della Sera reports: Analysis of more than 40 million tweets collected daily from Italy’s 110 provinces reveals that in 2013, Italy’s happiness capital was Genoa. The Ligurian capital’s province topped the rankings with 75.5% of its tweets classified as happy. Hard on Genoa’s heels was Cagliari with 75.1% while other top ten towns included Parma (fourth with 72.9%), Bari (seventh on 71.7%) and Bologna (71.4%), which came second in 2012 but last year slid down to ninth place.  It appears that, more than anything else, weather affects the people's happiness in Italy.  Monday is the saddest day of the week and Christmas is the happiest holiday, followed closely by Mother's Day.  Living further south in Italy or in a coastal city also increases people's happiness.

Genoa Bay - from miriadna.com website

  
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
John Kerry met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, in an attempt to rescue the faltering peace process.  As reported in the The Guardian on March 26: Kerry arrived in the Jordanian capital hours after an Arab League summit in Kuwait released a statement emphatically declaring that Arab leaders would never recognise Israel as a "Jewish state", a key demand Netanyahu has made of Palestinians.  Increasingly harsh rhetoric is coming from both sides centered around Israeli settlement building on Palestinian land and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.  After months of deadlock Kerry has given up hopes of brokering a deal and is instead concentrating his efforts on convincing the sides to agree to extend talks.  Otherwise, the negotiations are planned to end in April.

Iran Nuclear Talks
Writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Arms Control Today, George Perkovich recommends the Obama Administration and Congress divert a fraction of the time and energy now spent debating whether to add sanctions on Iran to the more difficult challenge of figuring out how to cooperate in removing them if a final agreement is reached.  Perkovich notes that the US and its negotiating partners seem to have reached a general understanding regarding key components that should be included in a satisfactory deal.  Iran must significantly constrain its activities related to uranium enrichment, revise plans to build a heavy-water reactor, resolve outstanding questions with the IAEA about Tehran’s past activities, and implement additional protocols to strengthen the IAEA’s ability to carry out inspections in the country and...[to] require Iran to provide design information as soon as decisions are made to construct a nuclear facility. To these Perkovich adds four less talked about components that would result in a well-rounded nuclear deal: constraints on enrichment activities, irreversible safeguards, circumscribed R&D, and new transparency and verification measures.  These measures would help build confidence “that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons” and thus open the way to the final removal of sanctions.

Surveillance Reforms
President Obama confirmed on Tuesday March 25 that US plans to end the NSA's bulk collection of telephone records.  The House Intelligence Committee is close to an agreement with the White House to revamp the surveillance program.  The bipartisan USA Freedom Act, under consideration in both the House and Senate, would, in addition to ending bulk record collection, put limits on Patriot Act practices targeting people in the US, require the government obtain a court order before using information about Americans collected during foreign intelligence operations, and create a public advocate to advise the secret surveillance court. [ACLU webpage]   

The Guardian was instrumental in bringing NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden's revelations to the world's attention. A Guardian March 25 article gave Snowden's and Obama's comments on the surveillance reforms:  In a statement through the American Civil Liberties Union, Snowden said the plans outlined by Obama were a “turning point”...Snowden said none of these reforms would have happened without the disclosures he precipitated. “I believed that if the NSA's unconstitutional mass surveillance of Americans was known, it would not survive the scrutiny of the courts, the Congress, and the people.” ...Obama said he believed that reform proposals presented to him by the US intelligence agencies were “workable”, and would “eliminate” the concerns of privacy campaigners. “I am confident that it allows us to do what is necessary in order to deal with the threat of a terrorist attack, but does so in a way that addresses people's concerns."
[The Guardian, March 25]


Venezuela

"Chavismo" pro-government rally in Caracas (Feb 2014) (axisoflogic.com)

Democracy is under attack in Venezuela as opposition leaders attempt to thwart the will of the Venezuelan people.  Misinformation in the Western press and on social media have added to the problems facing the Maduro government.  On March 14, Al Jazeera published an open letter from 46 experts on Latin America calling on US Secretary of State John Kerry to "stand by democratic institutions and the rule of law" and to respect the legitimacy of the Maduro government in Venezuela.  The authors note that Maduro won the Presidential election in 2013 by a greater margin than did Kennedy in 1960, Nixon in 1968 and Bush in 2000.  They continue: Just two months ago, Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and allied parties won a majority of municipal elections nationwide by a 10-point margin over the opposition. Those elections were widely seen by the Venezuelan opposition, the Venezuelan private media and the international media as a plebiscite on Maduro’s government, and the pro-government parties clearly won...It appears that a sector of the political opposition is determined to use those who want to protest peacefully as part of an effort to...overturn the results of democratic elections.  The authors note the histories of the two most prominent opposition leaders in trying to remove elected officials from office - in particular the role played by Leopoldo Lopez in the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez.  We are troubled to note that so far the U.S. government has taken the most aggressive and partisan stance of any country in the hemisphere regarding the recent violence....the U.S. State Department has made statements that will only encourage the most radical, violent sectors of the opposition to continue on their current path.

Links
Lists of Most and Least Happy US Cities [Business Insider, March 25] 

The Top 10 Places in the World for Beautiful Weather [care2.com based on March/April 2014 Weatherwise Magazine article]

Viña del Mar, Chile - #1 for best weather (care2.com)

Sunday Roundup - March 23, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at Ukraine and Crimea, the new Cosmos series, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the  collapse of industrial civilization.

Ukraine
The US and Russia traded sanctions on Thursday and the EU is mulling additional sanctions against Russia. The new sanctions have been prompted by the Crimean vote to leave Ukraine and Russia's subsequent annexation of it.   Le Monde Diplomatique gives some background on the protests that led to the ouster of the Moscow-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych and discusses the aftermath.  "Who were the protesters and what were their goals?...The protest movement emerged in November last year, after Yanukovych suspended negotiations on a free trade agreement with the European Union."  The pro-Western protesters were soon joined by "several nationalist groups... and... ultra-radical, non-democratic movements without European sympathies...Dormant during the Soviet era, the nationalist movement reappeared after independence in 1991, when the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) was formed. Until the early 2000s, the SNPU was a marginal, xenophobic and ultra-nationalist organization."  Then the SNPU changed significantly. "It shed its fascist trappings ...in 2004, renaming itself Svoboda (freedom) and abandoning its neo-Nazi badge, the Wolfsangel (wolf hook), in favour of a more neutral symbol."  Svoboda's nationalist and anti-system stance won it 10% of the vote in 2012.  Svoboda wants to end Russian influence in the Ukraine.  Its strong nationalist stance translates into a foreign policy that wishes "to see Ukraine join NATO, rearm with nuclear weapons and leave all post-Soviet cooperative organisations."  Another opposition group gaining in popularity after the street clashes is Pravy Sektor, which supports "none of the opposition parties, especially not Svoboda, disappointed by its 'appeals for calm and negotiation with the authorities.' ... Svoboda’s success over the past few years and the presence of neo-fascist groups such as Pravy Sektor in Independence Square are signs of a crisis in Ukrainian society...Though Independence Square will go down in history as an extraordinary example of collective and popular action, the political outcome is as yet unclear. Ukraine is in need of a new force that truly serves the people and transcends its many social and political divides."

Map of Ukraine with Crimean Peninsula highlighted (adapted from ESL-in-Canada's website)

Crimea
Crimea has a Russian-ethnic population and they voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in a referendum last Sunday.  Western nations have declared the referendum and annexation illegal.  Juan Cole at Informed Comment agrees but notes that "Crimea had been Russian territory since the late 18th century and was only attached to Ukraine by Khrushchev in the 1950s, at a time when Russia and Ukraine were part of the same country. Whatever the status of Sunday’s referendum, it seems likely that if Crimeans could vote fairly and freely, a majority would probably accede to Russia."  Cole notes that "Russia’s annexation of Crimea is among the few significant territorial acquisitions since the end of World War II by one country from another, more or less by force. The only clear parallel... is the Israeli annexation of the Palestinian territories in 1967."  Cole concludes that Israel's steps in occupying the Palestinian territories "are more egregious than Russia’s incorporation of Crimea. No local populations in any of those areas would vote to accede to Israel....Unlike with Mr. Putin, the US has not imposed sanctions on Israel for its territorial aggrandizement, and instead has de facto supported it."

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
If you enjoy good science, you need to watch the new Cosmos series on Fox and National Geographic TV. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is an updated re-imagining of Carl Sagan's 1980 series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.  Hard to believe that the original Cosmos aired more than 30 years ago.  Neil deGrasse Tyson hosts the new series, which began Sunday, March 9. "According to National Geographic, it was the largest global rollout of a TV series ever, appearing on 220 channels in 181 countries and 45 languages."  Mother Jones discusses Tyson's Inquiring Minds podcast and notes the contrast between him and Carl Sagan in debating the anti-science (or bad science) forces.  "Carl Sagan himself often took strong stands on science-based political issues of the day. He clashed with the Reagan administration over arms control and the 'Star Wars' program, and the debate over his ideas about 'nuclear winter' served as a kind of preview of the current battle over global warming. 'Carl Sagan would debate people on all manner of issues,' said Tyson.'And I don't have the time or the energy or the interest in doing so. As an educator, I'd rather just get people thinking straight in the first place, so I don't have to then debate them later on.'...In other words, Tyson's view appears to be that in an age rife with science denial, Cosmos rises above that fray by instilling in us wonder about the nature of the cosmos and our quest to understand it. And given the breathtaking quality and stunningly wide distribution of the show, there's much to say for that approach. " 

Image is from NatGeoTV.com

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
"Right wing Israeli officials ....expressed rage [last weekend] at US Secretary of State John Kerry for saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should “drop” his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state."  Both the Arab League and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have "rejected Netanyahu’s diction. It is a red line for them. Insisting on it will mean no agreement."  To agree to Netanyahu's statement would jeopardize the Palestinian right of return.  In a March 12 speech, Abbas explained that "his commitment to the negotiations was time-bound, for a nine-month period, while Kerry tried to hammer out an agreement, especially on security and borders."  Abbas laid out the Palestinian position in the negotiations - East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, complete Israeli withdrawal from "the West Bank or from territories equivalent to the extent of the West Bank as it existed in 1967", and compensation and a right of return for Palestinians displaced in 1948 and 1967.  "This speech may help explain why President Obama told PM Netanyahu that the US can’t protect Israel if there is no agreement. Mahmoud Abbas has not put going to the International Criminal Court off the agenda, he just postponed it for nine months. The nine months is expiring. If the Kerry negotiations crash and burn, pressure will build on Abbas and other Palestine officials to go to the ICC." [Informed Comment, March 16]

Industrial Civilization's Collapse?
The Guardian's Earth Insight blog on March 14 had this ominous lead: "A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution."  Examining the collapse of civilizations through history, the project identified "the most salient interrelated factors which explain civilisational decline, and which may help determine the risk of collapse today: namely, Population, Climate, Water, Agriculture, and Energy." These factors can result in civilizational collapse when they result in the aforementioned resource exploitation and wealth maldistribution.  "Modelling a range of different scenarios, [lead researcher Safa] Motesharri and his colleagues conclude that under conditions 'closely reflecting the reality of the world today... we find that collapse is difficult to avoid.'... However, the scientists point out that the worst-case scenarios are by no means inevitable, and suggest that appropriate policy and structural changes could avoid collapse, if not pave the way toward a more stable civilisation."  They write: "Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion."




Links
You can watch full episodes of Cosmos here.

Sunday Roundup - March 9, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Pentagon budget, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Netanyahu's visit with President Obama, the Ukraine, the Central African Republic, and climate change.

The Pentagon Budget 
TomDispatch contributor Mattea Kramer writes about the Pentagon's phony budget war.  Washington is pushing the panic button, claiming austerity is hollowing out our armed forces and our national security is at risk...Yet a careful look at budget figures for the U.S. military -- a bureaucratic juggernaut accounting for 57% of the federal discretionary budget and nearly 40% of all military spending on this planet -- shows that such claims have been largely fictional. Despite cries of doom since the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration surfaced in Washington in 2011, the Pentagon has seen few actual reductions, and there is no indication that will change any time soon.  Kramer analyzes the positioning of the military-industrial-political-complex in an excellent March 6 post at TomDispatch.  "Ike" must be turning over in his grave.

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
The original time frame for the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is rapidly approaching with no visible progress to report.  Former Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Ishtayeh doesn't believe there is much hope for an extension of the April 29 deadline for a framework deal.  “What we have seen in the talks is that the gap is growing, rather than narrowing,” said Mr. Ishtayeh, who resigned as a negotiator in November to protest accelerated Israeli settlement building.  For the Palestinians, the biggest obstacle is a new demand ... that they accept Israel as a Jewish state, he said. The Palestine Liberation Organization recognized the state of Israel when peace efforts began two decades ago and Mr. Abbas has argued this is sufficient.  Mr. Abbas cannot “under any circumstances” recognize Israel as a Jewish state because this would restrict the return options of Palestinian refugees...Israel’s land demands pose another serious obstacle.... Israel wants to annex these “settlement blocs,” but never has presented a detailed border proposal. The Palestinians say these blocs add up to about 12% of the West Bank. Israel also wants a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley, which makes up 28% of the West Bank. [National Post/Associated Press, March 6]

Obama's Message to Netanyahu
Meanwhile Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington speaking with President Obama.  Juan Cole's March 5 Informed Comment opinion piece called Netanyahu’s visit even more of a disaster for him than might have been expected...It did not help that the Crimea crisis had broken out.... Most observers in Europe and even some in the US could see the hypocrisy of the US denouncing Russian troops in Crimea but supporting Israeli troops in Hebron.  Prior to his meeting with Netanyahu, Obama had been interviewed by Jeffrey Goldberg for Bloomberg.  Obama had a strong message for the Israeli Prime Minister on the peace process (see below).  Juan Cole called Obama's words more candid than those of any sitting president since the 1970s.  Cole's take on the President's statement is that Obama is trying to tell Netanyahu that we can see him...that the world is deciding that the Israelis intend to keep the Palestinians stateless and to constrain their lives with checkpoints and arbitrary arrest and property theft virtually forever...What Obama was...saying was that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to respond to Israeli colonialism against the Palestinians is unfolding in other venues where the US government doesn’t have a veto. The US cannot force the European Union states to disregard EU law. It cannot forestall lawsuits by Palestinian concerns in Europe against European companies involved in helping occupy them. Moreover, ...Palestine [as] a non-member observer state at the UN...could take Israel to the International Criminal Court over criminal Israel actions in the Occupied territories. Obama was simply observing that as the scales fall from the world’s eyes, Israel will be subject to sanctions, and the US government cannot do anything about it.

Ukraine
Crimea declared its intent to rejoin Russia after the demonstrations that removed President Viktor Yanukovich from office.  Russia Times reported on March 7: Over 65,000 people gathered on Friday for a demonstration in central Moscow to support residents of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea. 

Juan Cole in an Informed Comment March 7 post noted the hypocrisy of US politicians for opposing the Crimean decision as a violation of international law.  He points to Yugoslavia, the Sudan and Iraq as countries where US politicians supported breaking up countries and suggests that George Mitchell’s careful agreement [for Northern Ireland]...would be a good model for keeping Crimea in Ukraine while recognizing Russian interests there.

Central African Republic
The Central African Republic, a land-locked nation of about 4.6 million people, is one of the world's poorest countries.  The Human Development Index,  a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income, places it in 179th place of the 187 countries with data.  These facts make the sectarian violence engulfing the country even more senseless and tragic.  The CAR has been in chaos since Muslim rebels seized power a year ago and then lost it around December as Christian militias fought back...Since then, revenge attacks on the Muslim minority community, including summary executions, torture and looting, have become more common. [The Economist, Feb 15]  A new president, Catherine Samba-Panza, has pledged to put a stop to the violence and to bring reconciliation to the country.  She took office on an interim basis in January but so far the violence has not abated.  Muslims are fleeing to neighboring countries, French troops are trying to maintain some semblance of order and the UN is considering bringing in a large peace-keeping force. With the mass exodus, the Bangui economy has gone into rapid decline, made worse by violence on the roads into the capital that has all but cut the city off from outside supplies.  A recent statement by Oxfam and Action Against Hunger highlighted the increased threat of food shortages in a country where 1.3 million are already in dire need of food. [The Guardian, Feb 14]
(Image of children in refugee camp at Bangui airport is by Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images and appeared in The Guardian Feb 21)

Climate Change
The world's oceans play a major role in maintaining our climate.  They convey heat from warm regions to cold and vice versa.   A disruption in the "thermo-haline" conveyors of the world's oceans and seas can lead to severe, and possibly abrupt, climate change.  Temperature (thermo) and salt (haline) content determine the density of ocean water.  Differences in ocean water density drive this (literally) world-scale conveyor belt.  If this conveyor belt receives a big enough shock - for example, large amounts of fresh water from melting glaciers or increased precipitation - the oceans will experience a decrease in salt content and density.  This will interfere with or shutdown the ocean conveyor belt.  The result would be somewhere between the Younger Dryas event (10-20 degree F. temperature drop) and a return to a full-blown glacial period.  If this catastrophe does occur, the change will be very quick - on the order of a decade.  Now a recent study reported at Smithsonian.com concludes that a surge in freshwater at the surface may have shut down mixing of water layers in the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic or in the more dramatic words at the Daily Kos website - The Antarctic Half of the Global Thermohaline Circulation is Collapsing - adding that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate models have not considered the effects the collapsing production of Antarctic Bottom Water and political policy has not kept up with the IPCC. We are moving rapidly into uncharted waters as the Arctic melts. Global political policies are not keeping up with the rate of change and our models have, to date, underestimated the rate of change. We are witnessing a total failure of global leadership to deal with changes we caused that are spiraling out of control.

Related Links

Obama's Interview with Jeffrey Goldberg: Time Is Running Out
In an hour long interview Thursday in the Oval Office, Obama, borrowing from the Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel, told me that his message to Netanyahu will be this: “If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, then who?” He then took a sharper tone, saying that if Netanyahu “does not believe that a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for Israel, then he needs to articulate an alternative approach." He added, "It’s hard to come up with one that’s plausible....There comes a point where you can’t manage this anymore, and then you start having to make very difficult choices,” Obama said. “Do you resign yourself to what amounts to a permanent occupation of the West Bank? Is that the character of Israel as a state for a long period of time? Do you perpetuate, over the course of a decade or two decades, more and more restrictive policies in terms of Palestinian movement? Do you place restrictions on Arab-Israelis in ways that run counter to Israel’s traditions?” [Bloomberg View website, Jeffrey Goldberg, March 2]

Central African Republic
Can Catherine Samba-Panza save the Central African Republic? [The Guardian, March 2]

President Eisenhower's Warning About the Military-Industrial Complex
You-Tube of the warning given in his Farewell Address (1961)

Sunday Roundup - February 23, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Iran nuclear talks, Arctic ice, Gaza, soccer in Brazil, video games as treatment for learning disabilities, the Syrian Civil War and the chaos in the Ukraine.


Iran
With the breakdown in the Syrian Civil War talks and with the apparent stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, it's encouraging to find at least one ray of hope for the troubled Middle East.  As reported in The Guardian Thursday: "Three days of talks between Iran and six world powers in Vienna have ended to 'a good start' as diplomats negotiating for a final nuclear deal, agreed on a mutual framework before they could discuss details in future sessions."  EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who acts as "the convenor of talks on behalf of Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the US – the group known as P5+1 – is negotiating directly with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister."   Ashton said both sides had "agreed to start the technical work and further political discussions as early as March. They would set a timetable over four months to discuss the differences that have so far prevented settlement of the decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme."



Climate Change
It's been a wild winter in the Northern Hemisphere - drought in California, avalanches in the Rockies, winter storms in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast, massive flooding in the UK.  Anyone out there still unconcerned about global climate change or humankind's role in causing it?  Ryan Koronowski reported Thursday on the ClimateProgress website of a new "record".  In February, Arctic sea ice dipped to "record low levels in February. On the 18th, sea ice covered 5.544 million square miles of the Arctic, while the previous low on that date was in 2006, at 5.548 million square miles."   The sea ice is dwindling even in the almost perpetual darkness of winter "because there is less of its bright whiteness to reflect back sunlight into space. As the ice melts, more of the surface area changes to darker ocean water, which absorbs the sun’s energy, warming the ocean and allowing more ice to melt."  Some researchers are blaming the frequent strong winter storms in the UK on this phenomenon.
(Image of flooding near Tewksbury is from the Daily Mail; copyright by Adam Gray/SWNS.com)



Gaza
Bad as the Palestinian situation is in the West Bank, it's much worse in the Gaza Strip, where Israel, with assistance from Egypt, has maintained a blockade on Gaza's 1.7 million inhabitants since 2007.  Gaza is back in the news in recent weeks.  After the Arab Spring there was some easing of restrictions on the Egyptian side.  Unfortunately,  Egypt closed supply tunnels on its border with Gaza after the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power.  Earlier this month, far-right members of the Israeli Knesset walked out on a speech by European Parliament President Martin Schulz when he criticized Israel for its blockade of the Gaza Strip and for the Israeli water policy in the Occupied Territories.  On February 12, a dozen human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, called upon the European Union to urge Israel to "immediately, unconditionally and completely...lift the unlawful closure of the Gaza Strip, and demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law."  Calling Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip a collective punishment of 1.7 million Palestinians and a "breach of international humanitarian law", the rights organizations noted that the "impact of the closure and the violence on the population’s right to life, health, education, food, water and an adequate standard of living has never been clearer."
(Photo of two Gaza children looking through rubble after an Israeli airstrike is by EPA/Mohammed Saber and appeared in The Telegraph in Nov 2012)


Brazil and Soccer - The Beautiful Language
As we all know, the World Cup is being played in Brazil this year.  In a brilliant article for Roads & Kingdoms' "Far Post" series, sportswriter Jack Lang writes about the unique Brazilian "language" for the sport.  As the World Cup approaches "amid the FIFA-approved images of soccer stars in sun-drenched stadiums, much of what truly defines Brazilian football will be concealed, lost in translation. For while Neymar, Thiago Silva et al represent one aspect of this nation’s continuing clout in the sport, there is another sphere in which it excels. No other nation can match the verve with which Brazil talks and writes about o jogo bonito."  From players' nicknames to sportscasters' commentary to their creative shorthand descriptions of play, the article is a great romp through the language and character of Brazil's soccer culture. 


Your Brain and Video Games
On Tuesday, the Utne Reader reported on an Oxford University study that "indicates that video games may be able to help the 5 to 10 percent of the world’s population who are affected by dyslexia.  UR notes that this is not the first study to point out the benefits of video games. "Past research has shown that playing video games can improve mental reasoning and decision-making skills as well as precision and self-esteem."


Ukraine
The violence in the Ukraine, which has resulted in as  many as 100 deaths over the past week, seems to have ended thanks to a deal to cut the President's powers, revise the Constitution and release an opposition leader.  Mother Jones tries to describe "why Kiev is burning":  "The EuroMaidan protests, which started on November 21 in response to President Viktor Yanukovych's rejection of a European Union trade deal, have been going on for nearly three months....the conflict is fueled by sharp political and ethnic divides. A significant portion of the population wants closer ties to Europe, but Putin has been pressuring Yanukovych's government toward closer economic integration with Russia."

In Brief/Other Links 

For more on the second reason for the Israeli far-right-wing walkout during Martin Schultz' address to the Knesset, see  Haaretz, February 16 "The Israeli 'watergate' scandal: The facts about Palestinian water"


For other soccer culture articles, here's a link to the home page of "The Far Post" series.


Syrian and American diplomats "blamed each other for a lack of progress at peace talks in Geneva aimed at opening a dialogue between Damascus and opposition representatives from the Syrian National Coalition, who are fighting a civil war that activists say has claimed 140,000 lives. The peace talks broke off Saturday (Feb 13), and it’s not clear when, or if, they’ll resume." [Al Jazeera, February 16]

Sunday Round-Up - February 9, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Syrian Civil War, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Eurozone recession, the cuts to the US food stamps program and climate change.



Syria
With a three-day ceasefire in place, the first stage of the evacuation of the besieged city of Homs began on Friday.  As reported in The Guardian: "Scores of Syrian women, children and elderly men from the besieged old city of Homs have been evacuated to safety and humanitarian supplies are expected to be allowed in in the first stage of a limited relief operation agreed between the UN and the government of President Bashar al-Assad."  The Assad government has agreed to attend the second round of Geneva II peace talks. The NGO Save The Children welcomed the deal but sees it as a temporary measure: "We need all parties to the conflict to allow immediate humanitarian assistance into Homs and other besieged areas all across Syria, from Aleppo to Damascus." [The Guardian, February 7]


Israel-Palestine

Palestinian workers from Hebron at a checkpoint. Image credit:Emil Salman; Haaretz, February 7

AIPAC and Benjamin Netanyahu are still reeling from their failed ham-handed attempt to derail the Iran nuclear negotiations.  Support for the new Iran sanctions bill is diminishing with several former cosponsors now saying they changed their mind.  So back to the main issue of concern for Israelis - how are the US sponsored negotiations with the Palestinians going?  Recent polls suggest that neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli public believes a deal can be reached.  The negotiations are stalled and the US is signaling that the original April 29 date for a final agreement is in jeopardy.  There is Palestinian anger at the ongoing Israeli permitting of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and the destruction of Palestinian homes is at a five year high.  A key stumbling block for the Israelis is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  It seems to me that one solution might be Arab and Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state combined with a recognition of the Palestinian right of return, a guarantee that Palestinians will be accorded full rights in Israel should they choose to return, and an end to settlement activity and home destruction on Palestinian lands.


Russia Today reported on Friday of the protests lodged by aid groups and the UN on the destruction of the Palestinian homes.  "In a statement Friday, 25 aid organizations said the number of demolitions went up by almost half and the displacement of Palestinians by almost three-quarters between July 2013 – when peace negotiations began again – and the end of the year, compared to the same time period in 2012.  The groups said that of the 663 Palestinian structures destroyed by Israel in 2013, 122 were constructed with international donor aid. The 663 demolitions mark the highest number in the last five years. 'International and local aid organizations have faced increasingly severe restrictions in responding to the needs created by the unlawful demolition of civilian property, in violation of Israel's obligation to facilitate the effective delivery of aid,' wrote the groups, which included Oxfam. 


On Thursday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the meeting between "chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat  [and] U.S. Middle East peace talks envoy Martin Indyk, against a backdrop of tension between Israel and the United Sates and criticism in Jerusalem of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry...Erekat said Thursday in an interview on Al Jazeera television that the Palestinian response to Israel’s continued construction in East Jerusalem was to join the Geneva Convention, in preparation for declaring the settlements a war crime and bringing Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague." 

Eurozone Recession
The Guardian reported on January 31 that  Eurozone unemployment dropped for the third straight month in January.  Overall unemployment in the Eurozone is still at 12%, ranging from ~5% in Austria and Germany to over 25% in Spain and Greece. "Youth unemployment fell by 23,000 to 3.53 million, with the youth jobless rate falling to 23.8% from 24% in November."  European policymakers are "becoming increasingly concerned about the risk of deflation, with the latest data showing inflation fell to 0.7% in January from 0.8% in December."

Food Stamp Cuts
The Republican assault on the social safety net continues.  Not only have they blocked the extension of long-term unemployment benefits - the measure fell one vote short of the required 60 to break the Senate filibuster - but they managed a big win in the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program passed as part of the farm bill.  Mother Jones reporter Erika Eichelberger wrote on January 31 of the impending passage of the Farm Bill by the Senate with its subsequent sign-off by the President.  Both of these steps have now been executed and $8.6 billion will be taken from the food stamps program over the next 5 years.  It's less than the Tea Party wanted but double the amount in the original Senate bill.  Eichelberger explains why the compromise level of cuts is a Republican win: "In addition to the [nearly] $9 billion in food stamp cuts in this five-year farm bill, another $11 billion will be slashed over three years as stimulus funding for the program expires. The first $5 billion of that stimulus money expired in October; the rest will disappear by 2016. In the months since the first $5 billion in stimulus funding was cut, food pantries have been struggling to provide enough food for the hungry. Poverty remains at record high levels, and three job applicants compete for every job opening.And yet, despite the $5 billion in cuts that already happened and the guarantee of $6 billion more, Republicans succeeded in getting their Democratic peers to cut food stamps further."  As the non-profit Feeding America noted "The $8.6 billion cut means that 850,000 SNAP recipients will lose an average of $90 in monthly benefits. That’s not a talking point. That’s real food for families that are struggling."

Climate Change
Haven't heard much on climate change in the news recently?  You're not alone.  Tom Engelhardt bemoans the lack of coverage in a February 2 essay on the TomDispatch website.  "That the anything-but-extreme Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers an at least 95% guarantee of human causation for global warming is not a story, nor is the recent revelation that IPCC experts believe we only have 15 years left to rein in carbon emissions or we’ll need new technologies not yet in existence which may never be effective.  Nor is the recent poll showing that only 47% of Americans believe climate change is human-caused (a drop of 7% since 2012)...Climate change isn’t the news and it isn’t a set of news stories.  It’s the prospective end of all news.  Think of it as the anti-news."




Link
Food bank locator - find a food bank in your area - from the Feeding America website

Sunday Round-Up - February 2, 2014

 

Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pete_seeger.html#VmFfacgEv5oWbgDW.99

 Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live. - Pete Seeger

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside American mainstream media.  Today we remember Pete Seeger, look at the Year of the Horse, and, in brief, the Syrian peace talks, the surprise cover of the Rolling Stone, and John Kerry's quest for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger passed away on January 27 at the age 94.  Infamously blacklisted after his appearance before the McCarthy-era "House Un-American Activities Committee", he was a tireless advocate for workers, civil rights, the environment and peace.  Pete Seeger influenced generations of songwriters.  "Once called 'America's tuning fork,' Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Tuesday. "Over the years, Pete used his voice—and his hammer—to strike blows for worker's rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along." [Mother Jones, Jan 28]  Mother Jones has a phenomenal musical tribute to Pete Seeger which you can reach by clicking this link.  For more on his appearance before HUAC and the "black list", see Corey Robin's excellent post of January 29.  Pete Seeger was a genuine force for good and he will be missed.




The Year of the Horse has begun.  Lunar (aka Chinese) New Year celebrations started January 31 with as many as 2 billion people joining in across the globe - particularly in the Far East.  The celebrations continue for 15 days.  In China alone 3.62 billion journeys are expected to be taken in the 40 day period surrounding the New Year. "The staggering figure of passengers is set to make Chunyun, which literally means Spring Festival, transportation the largest seasonal human migration on the globe." [Xinhua news agency]  According to Chinese Zodiac lore, "People born in the year of the horse are said to be a bit like horses: animated, active and energetic – they love being in a crowd. They are quick to learn independence – foals can walk minutes after birth – and they have a straightforward and positive attitude towards life. They are known for their communication skills and are exceedingly witty." [The Guardian, January 31]

(Lunar New Year images appeared in the International Business Times and are by Reuters)

In Brief

The first round of peace talks to end Syria’s civil war have concluded with little tangible progress to speak of, delegates said Friday, as rights groups reported nearly 1,900 deaths in Syria as the summit was being held in Switzerland.  A second round has been scheduled to start February 10. [Al Jazeera, January 31]

Pope Francis made it to "the cover of the Rolling Stone".  A feature-length article on "a man whose obvious humility, empathy and, above all, devotion to the economically disenfranchised has come to feel perfectly suited to our times" appears in the February 13 issue. [Rolling Stone website, January 28]


US Secretary of State John Kerry and an elite team of US diplomats return to Israel as goals shift for the US's once-ambitious peace plan.  [The Guardian, January 30]

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't. 

- Pete Seeger

Sunday Round-Up January 19, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at Syria, Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Syria


Peace talks to end the Syrian civil war are (hopefully) about to get underway in Geneva on January 22.  The UN, US and Russia have been trying to bring both sides to the table for months.  "The Syrian government announced on 27 November that it would participate in the talks, but added that its official delegation would not be going 'to hand over power to anyone'...The National Coalition [the coalition of rebel groups fighting the Assad government] is split over whether to attend, and is due to vote on the issue.  The opposition alliance long resisted calls to commit, but after intense pressure from its Western and Arab backers it voted on 11 November to participate if a number of conditions were met."  Whether anything will be accomplished is anybody's guess.  The two sides appear to have "irreconcilable objectives: Syria has repeatedly said President Assad's departure is out of the question, while the National Coalition has made it clear that President Assad must have no role in the transitional governing body called for in the Geneva Communique." [BBC News, January 17]

In a January 17 article, James Robbins, Diplomatic Correspondent for BBC News, examines how peaceful protests in March 2011 erupted into this all out civil war that has been going on for nearly 3 years and has left more than 100,000 people dead and has made 2.5 million people flee their homes.  The two side are intractably deadlocked with neither side strong enough to win nor weak enough to lose.  What many on the rebels side thought would be over in months has now stretched into years.  "Fighting between jihadists and more moderate opposition forces have added another layer to the conflict....Former US ambassador Ryan Crocker is among those urging the West to reconsider the unthinkable - a future Syria still controlled by President Assad.  He believes the alternative is that an al-Qaeda affiliate could seize power in Damascus. 'We rather blithely took the position that Assad must go,' he told [James Robbins].  'But if he goes because the radical Sunni opposition pushes him out we face the prospect of a country in the hands of al-Qaeda.  As bad as Assad is, I think from a Western perspective that is far, far worse.' "

(Image is by Reuters)

Iran

World powers and Iran are "likely to start talks on a final settlement to the long dispute over its nuclear ambitions in February, shortly after a six-month deal curbing its atomic activity takes effect, a diplomatic source said on Monday...Iran and the six powers said ... the deal would go into effect on January 20, pending verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran is meeting its end of the bargain.  The preliminary accord appeared to arrest a drift towards regional war ..." [Reuters, January 13]

Meanwhile nuclear talks between Iran and International Atomic Energy Agency have been postponed to February 8.  "The UN nuclear watchdog has said a planned meeting with Iran next week to discuss how to allay concerns over its nuclear programme had been postponed to 8 February, without giving a reason.  The talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are separate from – though still closely linked with – broader diplomacy between Tehran and six world powers over Iran's disputed nuclear activity....The IAEA already regularly inspects Iranian nuclear sites to make sure there is no diversion of sensitive material for military purposes.  It will increase the frequency of such visits and see some additional facilities, including plants where Iran manufactures equipment for refining uranium. Enriched uranium can have both civilian and military purposes." [The Guardian, January 14]

Israel-Palestine

Reuters reported on Thursday of the hardening settlement demands of Benjamin Netanyahu and on his trip to Jordan. "Israel's prime minister has increased the amount of occupied territory he wants to keep after any peace deal with the Palestinians, Israeli radio reported on Thursday, a move that could complicate U.S.-backed efforts to reach an accord.  Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman declined to comment on the report that he had added a bloc of Israeli-settled land near the Palestinian governmental seat in the occupied West Bank to a list of enclaves Israel intends to retain.That would leave 13 percent of the West Bank in Israeli hands, Israel's Army Radio said, a prospect likely to dismay Palestinians who want the area for a future state."  An unidentified Palestinian official, while rejecting the notion of Israel keeping large clusters of settlements is quoted as saying "once we agree on the withdrawal to 1967 borders, we can accept minor exchanges of land on a case-by-case basis."  Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994.  Netanyahu visited King Abdullah in Amman and an Israeli statement said "Netanyahu 'emphasized that Israel places a premium on security arrangements, including Jordan's interest in any future agreement' with the Palestinians."


Haaretz expanded on Netanyahu's discussions in Jordan.  This was at least the fourth such trip since the negotiations restarted last year.  "The Americans and Palestinians have updated the Jordanians on the negotiations at every step of the way, prompting some disagreement when it comes to Jordan's stake in the core issues....Among the issues pertaining to Jordan are the western border of the Jordan Valley, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and water supplies."  Haaretz has learned "that the Americans have suggested the force placed in the Jordan Valley contain Palestinian and Israeli soldiers or police along with American or international boots on the ground."

Sunday Round-Up - January 5, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the expiration of long-term unemployment benefits, the Tea Party-controlled states of North Carolina and Florida, the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the violence in South Sudan, and Australia's record heat wave.

Thanks to Congressional inaction, long-term unemployment benefits expired the weekend after Christmas.  To see what might happen nationally if this remains the case, take a look at what's happened in North Carolina, which is in the process of becoming one of the most regressive states in the nation. A December 17 piece on the Bloomsberg website by Evan Soltas does just that.  North Carolina Republicans cut long-term unemployment benefits earlier this year. The result: "The state is experiencing the largest labor-force contraction it's ever seen -- 77,000 fewer people were working or searching for work this October than a year ago. This should, but won’t, settle a partisan debate. Cutting unemployment insurance apparently hasn’t encouraged the unemployed to look harder for work: It has caused them to drop out of the labor force altogether."  When there are no jobs to be had, cutting unemployment benefits does nothing but add to the burdens of those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. 

Mother Jones' Kevin Drum in a December 23 article gives 10 reasons why the long-term unemployment constitutes a national catastrophe.  Besides the widespread human effects, "it turns cyclical unemployment into structural unemployment."  Cutting off long-term unemployment benefits makes the situation worse by causing people to drop out of the job market as they did in North Carolina.  Drum concludes with a faint hope for the restoration of long-term unemployment benefits. "Republicans in Congress have declined to extend unemployment benefits further, and they show no sign of changing their minds when Congress reconvenes in January. Democrats have a plan to fight for further benefits by linking them to a farm bill that Republicans want to pass, and right now that's pretty much the best hope we have to offer the workers who have been most brutally savaged by the Great Recession."

(Image from the Mother Jones article)

 

 

As the country prepares for the 2014 elections, things are looking up (believe it or not) for Republicans.  Some polls show them taking control of the Senate for the last two years of Obama's Presidency.  With the huge number of gerrymandered, safe Republican Congressional districts brought about in red states since the 2010 census and with the voter suppression laws about to take full effect, I expect Democrats to pick up very few, if any, seats in the House without a major Republican meltdown. 

 

So let's imagine what a Tea Party country would look like.  In an article appearing earlier this year, Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer asked "What's It Like to Wake Up From a Tea Party Binge? Just Ask Florida!"  She writes: "In just one year, Scott and his conservative allies slashed state spending by $4 billion even as they cut corporate taxes. They've rejected billions in federal funds in one of the states hardest hit by the recession. They've axed everything from health care and public transportation initiatives to mosquito control and water supply programs."  Mencimer provides the following sidebar in her article:

"From high-speed trains to care for terminally ill kids: a few of the federal grants Florida has turned down:
$2.4 billion: High-speed rail

$37.5 million: Support for people moving out of nursing homes

$31.5 million: Home visits for new mothers
$11.1 million: Teen pregnancy and STD prevention
$8.3 million: Three county health centers
$2.1 million: Helping Floridians navigate the health insurance industry
$2 million: Hospice care for children
$2 million: Aid for seniors to pay for Medicare premiums and buy prescription drugs
$1 million: Strengthening state review of insurance premium increases
$1 million: Insurance exchange to help consumers compare plans and buy subsidized coverage
$875,000: Cancer prevention"

Florida, the state with the second highest number of medically uninsured, has been in the lead in the fight against the Affordable Care Act.  The demon has been let out of the proverbial box.  Even though Governor Scott reversed his initial position and supported expansion of Medicaid, the Republicans in the legislature turned him down.  The Kaiser Foundation has estimated that about 4.8 million low-income people in states choosing not to expand Medicaid would have been covered had they lived in another state.  For Florida this number is over 750,000. 

The MJ article was written at a time when Scott was down by high double digits to a generic Democrat in the 2014 election.  Scott made his way back to as close as 4 points during the healthcare.gov rollout debacle and a November Quinnipiac poll has him trailing by just 7 points.  And that's before the big money starts to flow in. 

In Brief - Links to Other Stories of Interest

From The Guardian, Dec. 31
Rightwing Israeli government ministers have stepped up their opposition to a peace deal with the Palestinians before US secretary of state John Kerry's visit to the region this week by backing a parliamentary bill to annex a strategically significant swath of the West Bank.

From The Guardian, Jan. 3
South Sudan's government and rebels finally began talks to end weeks of bloodletting on Friday after days of delay as the United States ordered out more of its embassy staff.  However, there was no face-to-face meeting, and fighting was reported near the key town of Bor, suggesting that a halt to fighting between President Salva Kiir's SPLA government forces and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar is still a long way off. At least 1000 people have died in the fighting that began last month.

From Informed Comment website, Jan. 3
Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday, enduring the longest heat wave ever recorded Down Under as well as destructive bushfires.

From The Guardian, Jan. 4
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, is engaged in intense efforts to coax reluctant Israeli and Palestinian leaders towards an agreement to end their decades-old conflict, against the unhelpful backdrop of mounting political pressure on both sides to reject concessions.

Sunday Round-Up: December 15, 2013

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the compromise budget, Syria, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Mother Jones assesses the defense portion of the new compromise budget passed by the House in a Dec. 13 post: "The passage of the Ryan-Murray budget plan in the House sends a strong signal that the Pentagon's budget is basically untouchable.  Under the deal, the military's base budget (which doesn't include supplemental funding for overseas operations and combat) will be restored to around $520 billion next year—more than it got in 2006 and 2007, when the United States was fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan."  The post cites as Exhibit A in Pentagon excess and lack of project control the F-35, which is called "the pricey plane with a reputation as the biggest defense boondoggle in history".  Originally estimated to cost $233 billion, the program to acquire the new jets now will cost nearly $400 billion. 

Another Mother Jones post, "Can't Touch This", examines the Pentagon budget in more detail.  Among other topics, it discusses the size of the military budget (the US spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined), the Pentagon's "inauditable" financial statements (the Pentagon insists that they will "achieve audit readiness" by 2017, 20 years after it was required to do so), and ideas from various think tanks that could save billions in the defense budget. 

An Al Jazeera post on Friday reminds us of the harsh conditions facing refugees from the Syrian civil war.  Describing the scene at the refugee tent camp in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, Josh Wood writes: "...snow dumped by Lebanon’s first storm of the season melts when the temperature rises a few degrees above freezing during the day, turning the narrow paths between tents into shin-deep patches of mud. Thursday found children standing shivering by a puddle, their rubber sandals sinking into the mud and their pajama pants rolled up in a futile attempt to keep them clean....At least 80,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living at winter’s mercy in tent settlements like this one, according to Dana Sleiman, a public-information officer with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  Hundreds of thousands more are living in unfinished buildings, garages and other structures offering insufficient protection against winter’s bite." 

BBC News noted the increasing concern in the West of "the violence perpetrated [across Syria] by the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), hardline Islamic radicals linked to al-Qaeda."  Although the position of the West publically is that Assad must go, privately some are beginning to question that position.  "As the year draws to a close, and the West's chosen allies in Syria suffer one setback after another, have policymakers started to ponder the unthinkable - that there's more to be gained from working with Mr Assad than against him?"  

Ahead of John Kerry's trip to the Middle East to try to breathe some life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Al Jazeera reported on the pessimistic assessment published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations: the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine has become increasingly unlikely.  The two-state solution has been the "default negotiating position of the United States and the international community" since the 1993 Oslo Accords.  "According to researchers, the two factors found to place the most strain on a two-state solution were the 'territorial issue' and 'the dynamics of the Israeli political and public debate.' Researchers noted strain added by the decreasing physical space available to establish a territorially contiguous Palestinian state, as a result of ongoing Israeli settlement growth. They noted that as of July 2013, there were 367,000 Israeli settlers in the Israeli occupied West Bank, whereas the total had been a little over 100,000 at the beginning of the Oslo process 20 years ago.  Israeli discourse also strained the likelihood of realizing two states. Levy said the “indifference of the Israeli public” to the Palestinian issue and “a government that includes – something that is relatively new – a significant cohort opposed to two states, and who say that there are other options” has weakened the appeal of the two-state paradigm in Israel."

Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz opined on November 27 that, with the EU intent on preventing funds from flowing to Israeli companies operating on Palestinian land, "Israel is now beginning to pay the price of its deeds in the occupied territories.  Four years after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at Bar-Ilan University, in which he recognized the principle of two states but nevertheless refused to stop construction in the settlements - following the government’s extremist statements and decisions to build thousands of housing units in the settlements; and following Israel’s ongoing harassment of Palestinian residents of the territories - the international community is beginning to take practical measures against Israel’s tactics of deception and the apartheid it practices toward the Palestinians."  In an article published December 13,  Haaretz reported that "The European Union is expected to announce on Monday that it will offer an unprecedented assistance package to Israel and the Palestinians, if the two parties sign a final-status agreement.   The organization also promised to upgrade relations with both parties to the highest level possible for nonmember nations in the event of a peace treaty."


Image of Syrian refugee camp is from the Al Jazeera article and by Ahmad Shalha/Reuters.