“In the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, academic-freedom disputes routinely took a particular shape. In a small town, somewhere in the heartland, there would be a college campus on which a young academic loudly voiced his opinions on controversial matters — mostly political, but sometimes also on sexual morality, or even on legalizing drugs. This would offend the sensitivities of some local townspeople. Someone like the local mayor would lean on the college president (probably a personal friend), the president would then lean on the department chair, and the young professor was soon gone. The American Association of University Professors would then intervene, and the individual would be reinstated, because the AAUP would in effect threaten blacklisting. Reports of cases like this were reasonably common.” (12/03/22)
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. will not shrink from its unwavering support for Israel despite stark differences with Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu and concerns the Biden administration may have about potential members of his incoming right-wing government. Speaking to a left-leaning group that some on the right accuse of being too sympathetic to the Palestinians and Iran, Blinken said the United States will remain a stalwart friend of Israel even as it pursues goals that Netanyahu has opposed, including a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a restoration of the languishing 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The U.S.-Israel ‘partnership – and all that it’s produced for the people of our nations and the world – has always been underwritten by the United States ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, a commitment that has never been stronger than it is today,’ he said.” (12/04/22)
“Preliminary findings from a Commerce Department investigation into trade violations in the solar industry show that four companies based in Southeast Asia have circumvented decade-old anti-dumping and countervailing duties, by serving as a transshipment point for imports of Chinese solar components. The investigation was a source of controversy, as large solar installers in the U.S. claimed it was leading to delays in projects. The main solar trade group driving the controversy, the Solar Energy Industries Association, counts as members the parent companies of the firms that Commerce has found to be circumventing duties and violating U.S. trade law: BYD, Canadian Solar, Trina Solar, and LONGi Solar. Duties on solar imports from China have been imposed since 2012, a result of the fact that China gave illegal subsidies to its manufacturers and dumped cheap solar panels on world markets to gather market share.” (12/04/22)
“Elon Musk’s decision to remove Twitter’s COVID ‘misleading information protocol’ should be applauded not attacked, as it’s been in the media. His move is a nod to free speech and, more important, to the idea that when you assert people are spreading misinformation there’s an implicit understanding you know the truth and they don’t. This is dangerous posturing because the truth itself is often flexible, changeable, dependent on vantage point, never certain — especially in the case of a virus we are still learning about, with no consensus on effective public-health protocol or absolute measures to prevent spread. When it comes to COVID, what was yesterday’s misinformation has become tomorrow’s truth and vice versa, a reality that goes beyond Anthony Fauci’s and others’ infamous flip-flopping on masks.” (11/30/22)
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“As the war in Ukraine has dragged on for nine months and a cold winter is setting in, people all over the world are calling for a Christmas truce, harkening back to the inspirational Christmas Truce of 1914. In the midst of World War I, warring soldiers put down their guns and celebrated the holiday together in the no-man’s land between their trenches. This spontaneous reconciliation and fraternization has been, over the years, a symbol of hope and courage. Here are eight reasons why this holiday season too offers the potential for peace and a chance to move the conflict in Ukraine from the battlefield to the negotiating table …” (12/01/22)
“Last Tuesday, General Skrmetti joined eight other attorneys general in sending a letter urging a handful of solar lending companies to suspend loan payments and interest for those financing a purchase from a solar company called Pink Energy. After an onslaught of complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Pink Energy, a solar installation company, filed for bankruptcy and closed their doors this October. With 27 former locations in Tennessee, the multistate business was touted as Music City’s ‘premier solar company.’ That is, until Pink Energy locations began closing down and Tennesseans began filing complaints. ‘What do we do now? I’m paying money for basically a paperweight on my roof,’ Geoff Edwards told WSMV back in October after the Pink Energy location in Murfreesboro disconnected its phones and shut its doors with no formal announcement made to local customers.” [editor’s note: So PE is the new Solyndra? – SAT] (12/01/22)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“NATO has doubled down on its determination to eventually add Ukraine to its membership, renewing its 2008 commitment to that goal in a meeting between the foreign ministers of the alliance in Bucharest, Romania this past Tuesday. … It has become fashionable among the mainstream western commentariat to claim that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO expansion, but as recently explained by Philippe Lemoine for the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, that’s a completely false narrative that requires snipping past comments made by Putin out of the context in which they were made. Many western experts warned for years in advance that NATO expansion would lead to a conflict like the one we’re seeing today, and they were of course correct.” (12/01/22)
“A New Hampshire man is accused of posting a fake Craigslist ad for a free trailer with a legislative candidate’s number on the day of the election, later telling investigators he meant it to be a joke after a flood of unwanted calls and texts jammed up the candidate’s cellphone. Michael Drouin, 30, of Merrimack, was indicted on a felony charge of interference with election communications …. The candidate, Bill Boyd, a Republican who went on to win, turned off his phone after receiving more than 37 phone calls or text messages in 45 minutes on the morning of the election, prosecutors said.” [editor’s note: I’ve been tempted to do something like this to the spam calls from Warnock’s minions; hell, I don’t even live in Georgia! – SAT] (12/01/22)
“Let’s talk about pedophilia. One of the all-time great, you know, pickup lines. So, you know, the whole Balenciaga story, they did a photo shoot with kids that involved stuffed animals in bondage gear. … That was the weird part, the whole child porn case thing. So Balenciaga went into crisis mode, throwing everyone else under the bus until they realized it was a bus full of kids. Hopelessly cornered, they then apologized. But that’s not what this monologue is about, it’s about what really troubles the left [sic]. It’s never the crime or the criminal, it’s about when such incidents force them to agree with conservatives [sic], and they hate that. … But they can’t agree with the right because then they lose their cachet. So they won’t.” (12/01/22)
“Yale University is accused in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday of discriminating against students with mental health disabilities, including pressuring some to withdraw from the prestigious institution and then placing ‘unreasonable burdens’ on those who seek to be reinstated. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut on behalf of current and former students seeks no monetary damages. Rather, it demands changes to Yale’s withdrawal policies, including the required forfeiture of health insurance and tuition payments, among other rules. ‘Yale’s withdrawal policies and practices push students with mental health disabilities out of Yale, impose punitive consequences on students who have withdrawn, and place unreasonable burdens on students who, after a withdrawal, seek reinstatement’, according to the suit, which contends that the burden is most harsh on students ‘from less privileged backgrounds.'” (12/01/22)
