“This past weekend, when Iran attacked Israel directly for the first time, reaction among Iranians was not exactly what the regime in Tehran expected. Yes, many people rushed to buy gasoline and food, fearing a wider war. Some expressed a deep dread of war, recalling a 1980s conflict with Iraq. Yet one common response, expressed online and in street graffiti, was hope that Israel would somehow bring down the regime. That sentiment was so prevalent that Iran’s rulers quickly issued a notice urging citizens to report any support of Israel, saying it was a crime. For all the gloom among Iranians – about the economy, suppression of women, and Iran’s role in regional conflicts – they show an independent streak that’s evident in a constant redefining of their nation’s identity. Well before the weekend attack, for example, one poll showed more than a third of people have a positive view of Israel.” (04/15/24)
“Plastic pollution has become an omnipresent threat, infiltrating every corner of our planet and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. From endangering human health to exacerbating social injustices, decimating biodiversity, and intensifying the climate crisis at every turn, the urgency to address this crisis cannot be overstated. In just a few days, world leaders will convene in Ottawa, Canada, for the fourth round of negotiations to develop a Global Plastics Treaty. Mandated as a critical tool in the fight against pollution, the treaty’s significance is underscored by the resounding support it receives from the global public. In a recent Greenpeace International poll spanning 19 countries, an overwhelming 82% of respondents called for reducing plastic production to halt pollution, 75% backed a ban on single-use plastics, and a staggering 90% advocated for a transition to reusable packaging.” (04/16/24)
“Ed Rollins, a forever strategist, possibly starting with Thomas Jefferson, says: ‘Politics needs strategy. An old boxer, I don’t intimidate easily. First, analyze your candidate. Anticipate what the other side can do. Make a control system. Nixon told me: ‘Every day something will come up. Keep your head clear. Be a war general.’ I had 700 people working for me but I only dealt with the president. I restricted access to me. And worked to discipline my candidate. Also necessary to investigate your opposition. Get in the helicopter, on the boat, look personally at what’s happening, make decisions on the spot. Biden’s the old guard. Representing a very small state for 50 years. His game’s only to give away more stuff. He is what he always was.'” (04/16/24)
Source: The American Prospect
by Jordan Haedtler & Kenny Stancil
“Climate change doesn’t need to reach civilizational collapse levels before its economic and political ramifications are acutely felt. Even now, as more intense impacts begin to manifest, the public is feeling the pain in one key way: Catastrophic climate disasters have driven insurance markets into an active state of meltdown, making a core aspect of homeownership less attainable. President Biden seemed to appreciate the economic dimensions of climate change when he directed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the other members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to begin studying climate-related risks to the financial system early in his term. As FSOC’s climate risk supervision framework has come into place, regulators have flagged insurance markets as a key driver.” (04/16/24)
“This weekend, I wrote a column on the continuing controversy at NPR and the bias detailed in a recent bombshell essay by respected editor Uri Berliner. The company has long been criticized for its partisan coverage, including running debunked stories. Now NPR CEO Katherine Maher has responded and appeared to confirm that the publicly supported media company has no intention of bringing greater balance to its coverage or editorial staff. Berliner detailed the complete exclusion of any Republicans among the editors of NPR’s Washington office and various examples of raw bias in favor of Democratic narratives and claims. Maher responded to none of these specific points in substance. Instead, she attacks Berliner as ‘profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning’ to his colleagues by calling out the company for its political bias.” (04/16/24)
“In a little more than two years as CEO of a small hospital in Wyoming, Dave Ryerse has witnessed firsthand the worsening financial problems eroding rural hospitals nationwide. In 2022, Ryerse’s South Lincoln Medical Center was forced to shutter its operating room because it didn’t have the staff to run it 24 hours a day. Soon after, the obstetrics unit closed. Ryerse said the publicly owned facility’s revenue from providing care has fallen short of operating expenses for at least the past eight years, driving tough decisions to cut services in hopes of keeping the facility open in Kemmerer, a town of about 2,400 in southwestern Wyoming. South Lincoln’s financial woes aren’t unique, and the risk of hospital closures is an immediate threat to many small communities.” (04/15/24)
“Call it the ‘propaganda two-step.’ A corporate or political actor makes dubious claim X, which quickly appears as stronger claim X +1 in headlines. Insinuation married to exaggeration creates deception. With the two-step, neither party is fully responsible for the end claim. In May of last year, an observational study concluded Pfizer’s ubiquitous Covid-19 treatment Paxlovid was ‘associated with a decreased risk’ of hospitalization or death. A short time later, in the January 4th New York Times story, ‘Paxlovid Cuts Covid Death Risk. But Those Who Need It Are Not Taking It,’ the same study was cited to make the claim that Paxlovid is ‘stunningly effective in preventing severe illness and death.’ It was a classic example of two-stage exaggeration. Matt Bivens is in a unique position to see both ends of the construction of medical misconceptions. He entered the workforce as a journalist.” (04/15/24)
“Words can’t express the horrors of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. To actually feel the nightmare, you would have to be there under the bombs, fleeing with Palestinians desperately seeking a safe place that doesn’t exist; seeing building after building destroyed; treading through blood in one of the few, only partially standing hospitals; and witnessing children and other patients sprawled on hospital floors, limbs amputated without anesthesia (Israel having blocked all medical supplies). It has taken the Jewish state’s savagery to break decades of silence about its history of crimes against humanity. U.S. military historian Robert Pape has called the onslaught against Gaza ‘one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history.’ Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour has said that we are witnessing ‘probably the highest kill rate of any military … since the Rwandan genocide of 1994.'” (04/15/24)
“Donald Trump has outlined his plans for federal taxation should he be elected. ‘I will make the Trump tax cuts permanent. You know they expire in a year. And we will cut your taxes even more than that,’ he said in a speech in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 14, 2024. Trump made the direction clear. Lower. Biden’s plan calls for a small business tax hike, a corporate tax hike, a capital gains and dividends tax hike, income tax hikes, energy tax hikes and even a second Death Tax on top of the first one. But President Biden has also made his plan clear: He wants to wallop Americans with a $5 trillion tax increase.” (04/15/24)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Anyone who wants the US and its allies to attack Iran is a psychopath. People who want to unleash a war of that scale upon our species should be rejected from our society as aggressively as child molesters and Nazis. … A new CNN report says multiple Biden administration officials ‘saw Iran’s attacks on Israel Saturday as disproportionate to Israel’s strikes in Damascus that prompted the retaliation.’ There are zero reported fatalities as a result of the Iranian retaliation. The Israeli strikes on the Iranian embassy in Damascus killed 16 people, including multiple high-level Iranian military officials. To see Iran’s response as ‘disproportionate’ is to admit you believe Israeli lives are worth literally orders of magnitude more than Iranian lives.” (04/15/24)
