Israel said set to okay new Palestinian homes and 4G cell plans ahead of Biden visit

Key economic Israeli-Palestinian forum reportedly to be

 convened amid concerns Abbas could renew efforts for

 Israel to be tried at ICC

By TOI STAFF10 July 2022, 

A Palestinian boy walks while backdropped by his home village of Susiya in Area C of the West Bank on July 24, 2015. (AP/Nasser Nasser)

Israel will advance a stalled plan to approve the construction of some 1,000 new Palestinian homes and make several other gestures toward Ramallah ahead of the visit to the region this week of US President Joe Biden, according to a report Saturday.

The move to authorize the housing units had been planned for a number of months but was frozen amid the deadly terror wave earlier this year, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

The report was apparently referring to a May plan for Palestinian housing that was initially advanced as the government simultaneously greenlit projects for about 4,400 Jewish settlement homes, a move condemned at the time by the Biden administration.

According to Kan, Biden’s visit also means there will be moves made for progress on long-stalled plans to set up Palestinian 4G cellular networks.

Israeli officials tentatively greenlight 4G service for Palestinian cellular companies in November, but there has been little progress on the matter since then, reportedly due to pushback from the Israeli security establishment.

Israel maintains security control over the West Bank and Gaza, including over telecommunications.

US President Joe Biden arrives at Andrews Air Force Base after delivering remarks in Cleveland about the American Recovery Act, Wednesday, July 6, 2022, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP/Evan Vucci)

While Israel upgraded to 4G in 2013 and has since begun building super-fast 5G networks in urban centers, Palestinian companies in the West Bank still use 3G networks, which they received in 2018. In Gaza, Israel has only permitted 2G networks to operate within the enclave, which is ruled by the Hamas terror group.

Israel will also promote a meeting of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), the report said. The forum was established under the Oslo Accords but last met in 2009. Israel has come under increasing pressure from the international community for the committee to meet to aid the strengthening of the Palestinian economy.

An unsourced report on Channel 12 news said that the Israeli security establishment was concerned that if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas believes he has not secured any new assurances from Biden’s trip, he may renew efforts to have Israel tried for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

However, the report said that there were “low” concerns that disappointment from Biden’s trip could lead to an uptick in violence.

Illustrative: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, March 27, 2022, in Ramallah. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Biden is expected in Israel on Wednesday for a packed two-day visit that will also include a trip to the Palestinian Authority, followed by a visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday ahead of a meeting Saturday with Mideast leaders.

Biden will land at Ben Gurion Airport, where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Yair Lapid in an official welcome ceremony.

Over the following 24 hours, the US president will meet with Israeli officials, tour several Israeli security systems and visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

On Friday morning, Biden will head to the Augusta Victoria Hospital on East Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, according to an Israeli source familiar with the matter. It will be the first visit by a sitting US president to the largely Palestinian section of the capital outside of the Old City.

The Biden administration will use the opportunity to announce a significant funding initiative for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, a senior Israeli official said, adding that the initiative has been pushed by US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides. In addition to the new US funding, Biden will be announcing similar donations to the hospital network from several Gulf states, a Middle Eastern diplomat said.

Biden will then travel to Bethlehem for a meeting with Abbas. The atmosphere may be clouded by the announcement last week by the US that it did not find Israel to have intentionally killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in clashes that broke out during an IDF raid in Jenin on May 11.

Biden will announce alongside Abbas a package of steps aimed at strengthening the PA, a senior US official told The Times of Israel. Some of these “deliverables” will be US initiatives and others will be Israeli ones that Biden will announce on behalf of Lapid, who prefers keeping some distance from the concessions.

Sudan Protesters Mark Eid Al-Adha at Anti-army Sit-in


Sudanese protesters take part in an anti-military sit-in in the capital Khartoum on Saturday, the Eid al-Adha holiday ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

Asharq Al-Awsat
Sunday, 10 July, 2022 - 

Sudanese protesters celebrated Eid al-Adha among barricades on Saturday during a sit-in against military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his October coup.

Protesters have continued to press the army chief to resign, days after he vowed to make way for a civilian government -- an offer quickly rejected by the country's main civilian umbrella group as a "ruse".

Burhan's surprise move has been met with wide skepticism, and pro-democracy groups announced on Thursday the formation of a "revolutionary council" as protests held firm, AFP reported.

The sit-in continued in the capital's twin city of Omdurman Saturday, as an imam took over the microphone usually reserved for protest chants to deliver the Eid sermon.

Protester Ibrahim al-Haj told AFP after the prayer that demonstrators hope to show that "no matter what is happening in the country, our message is ongoing".

Burhan led a coup in October that derailed a transition to civilian rule, unleashing near-weekly protests and prompting key donors to freeze much-needed funding, sending Sudan deeper into economic crisis.

The protests against Burhan were reinvigorated on June 30, when tens of thousands gathered and nine people were killed by security forces, according to pro-democracy medics.

A total of 114 people have been killed in the crackdown by security forces against protesters since the October coup, the medics say.

Worshippers on Saturday held up flags showing the faces of protesters killed in the crackdown.

"We are committed to the martyrs' rights," Haj told AFP. "We are not going to forget our martyrs even for a day, no matter what."

Strandbeest skeleton art sculptures shock beachgoers in Netherlands

'Strandbeests' sculptures shock beach-going public. Video / Aurora Borealis Observatory via Facebook

9 Jul, 2022
news.com.au
By Kate Schneider

Tourists soaking up the sun at picturesque beaches in the Netherlands are being greeted by a "strange and scary" surprise.

A series of rare and eye-catching sculptures by Dutch artist and inventor Theo Jansen are being found at various beaches.

Artist and inventor Theo Jansen. Photo / Theo Jansen, Facebook

Said to be a fun fusion of art and engineering, the "Strandbeest" are kinetic sculptures that are like skeletons ... that move.

Made from yellow plastic tubes, they can walk on their own, getting energy from the wind.

Jansen has previously said of his creations: "I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind, so they don't have to eat. Eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."

And so he did.

The sculptures have become so well-known that they were even featured in an episode of The Simpsons called The Nightmare After Krustmas with Theo Jansen as a cartoon character.

Many people are freaking out over a recent video and images posted online, saying they look straight out of a nightmare.

The video was posted by popular travel group Aurora Borealis Observatory on its Facebook page.

The kinetic sculptures are quite the sight. Photo / Theo Jansen, Facebo

Commenter Sue wrote: "Actually quite horrifying. I'd hate to be surprised by one of these crazy-looking thing

You Can’t Go Back: the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s 2022 Show

BY JONAH RASKIN

 JULY 8, 2022
Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

San Francisco Mime Troupe. Photo: Jonah Raskin.

After a hiatus of three years because of the pandemic, the San Francisco Mime Troupe launched its summer 2022 season with a lively production that was staged outdoors in Dolores Park on July 4th. A musical comedy that veers into melodrama and that offers rousing songs, pointed dialogue – and some speeches—Back to the Way Things Were is quintessential Mime Troupe theater.

The small but versatile cast invited the audience to reject nostalgia, stay in the present, no matter how anxiety-producing it might be, and fight like hell for social, economic and political changes that might be called revolutionary. The SFMT has delivered that same message with variations for decades, though this season, like every previous season, it presents topical and timely material. The cast references Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, abortion, surveillance, fast food, the homeless, the obfuscations of language and the privitization of just about everything in America today.

Lizzie Calogero and Norman Gee gave stellar performances, especially when they belted out the theme song, “Back to the Way Things Were.” At least one of the main characters expresses major illusions and wants to go back to a past that never really existed. But he changes his mind and realizes that a return to yesterday wouldn’t solve any of the multiple problems of the present day. The upbeat SFMT Band Members —Will Durkee, Jason Young and Daniel Savio, Mario’s son—energized the crowd and enlivened the songs.

By turns sad and funny, frightening and inspiring, the musical dramatizes the dialectic between victims and change agents. The characters are prisons of the past and the present day, but also capable of liberating themselves and those around them. Michael Gene Sullivan authored “Back to the Way Things Were” with help from Marie Cartier. Daniel Savio provided the music and the lyrics to the songs. Velina Brown, the director, kept the production on track. A “magic gun” adds a strong comic book element by sending the characters forward and backward in time and thereby propelling much of the plot.

A large appreciative audience cheered, booed, laughed and seemed to leave Dolores Park and then scatter to destinations all over the Bay Area, with a feeling that the afternoon had been well spent under a blue sky and with the SalesForce Tower looming in the distance—a reminder of corporate America.

By all means, see this production even if you have to travel to SF. It’s free – though it depends on donations and on grants— and it’s a living part of our extended cultural revolution that made the July 4^th crowd a tad uncomfortable without leaving anyone in a state of despair or hopelessness. It hit just the right balance.

Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERIKA

An Ugly New Era of States Rights

BY PETER CERTOFacebook

TwitterRedditEmail

The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade — and with it, half a century of constitutional precedent.

At least 26 states are now likely to criminalize abortions, often without exceptions for rape, incest, or life-threatening pregnancies. In Louisiana, people seeking abortions could even face execution, which doesn’t strike me as particularly pro-life.

A few states are already rushing to attack contraception too, with officials in Idaho and Louisiana pushing to ban IUDs, the morning after pill, and other common birth control methods. Hardline lawmakers are also likely to ban methods of conception, including in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.

Down the line, experts warn that the rights to interracial marriage, same-sex marriage, and even divorce, parental custody, and the right to accept or refuse medical treatment could be in jeopardy. People’s control over their own intimate decisions and private lives is at stake.

But among the most alarming things in the ruling is its sneering pretense that this is somehow about safeguarding democracy. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito.

That’s the same “states’ rights” deceit once used to defend segregation. The truth is that in many states, so-called “elected representatives” pick their voters — not vice versa. And that’s leading to a new wave of extremism in statehouses.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called states “laboratories of democracy.” These days, as former Hamilton County, Ohio commissioner David Pepper put it in his book of the same name, many have become “laboratories of autocracy.”

Pepper and I share a home state that’s a case in point. In Ohio, a Trump-appointed federal judge just allowed Ohio Republicans to force illegally gerrymandered maps on voters, who twice voted overwhelmingly for fairer districts. The state Supreme Court ruled four times that the maps illegally diluted Ohioans’ voting power, but we’re stuck with them anyway.

Most Ohioans are pro-choice, but thanks to maps like these we now have one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. That’s why “returning power over basic civil rights to illegally gerrymandered states like Ohio is an absolute disaster in waiting,” concludes David DeWitt in the Ohio Capital Journal.

It gets even more absurd elsewhere.

In states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina, Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly gotten more votes than their Republican counterparts. But rigged maps keep giving Republicans sizable majorities — which they’ve then used in all three states to strip power from Democratic governors elected statewide.

Across the country, methods like these are used to ram through extreme legislation that ignores the will of voters. For example, recent polling suggests at least 34 states plus D.C. have pro-choice majorities or pluralities. Many are banning abortion anyway.

It’s not just abortion. Again and again, unaccountable state governments are showing themselves incapable of decent governance.

Florida is ripping up K-12 math books — yes, math books — that allegedly teach “critical race theory.” Unhinged Tennessee lawmakers are calling for literal book burnings. And one-party states nationwide are making it harder to vote.

Frankly, things aren’t much better at the federal level — and Alito should know.

Five of the six conservative seats on the Supreme Court, including Alito’s, were appointed by Republican presidents who initially lost the popular vote — and confirmed by Republican Senate “majorities” representing a minority of Americans.

The same Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression while lifting bans on money in politics. This court, in short, has made it much harder for people to choose their own representatives.

The loser here isn’t the big-D Democratic Party. It’s small-d democracy. When politicians can do whatever they want to us, everyone loses.

Decades ago, it took a national civil rights movement and federal legislation to reclaim common sense and decency from extremist state governments. Today, it’s also going to take reforming the Supreme Court.

How Alito Cherrypicked History in Dobbs

BY MAURIZIO VALSANIA
JULY 8, 2022

Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

Justice Samuel Alito appears spellbound by the 19th century.

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision Alito wrote overruling 50 years of constitutional protection for women’s right to get an abortion, he deploys arguments that are based on several historical precedents. He uses the phrase “history and tradition” regularly.

But for Alito, the 19th century looks like the true golden age: “In 1803, the British Parliament made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy and authorized the imposition of severe punishment.”

He goes on and on: “In this country during the 19th century, the vast majority of the States enacted statutes criminalizing abortion at all stages of pregnancy.”

“By 1868, the year when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified,” Alito concludes, “three-quarters of the States, 28 out of 37, had enacted statutes making abortion a crime.”

But in his rather selective forays into history, Alito doesn’t ask what to me, as a historian, constitutes a set of fundamental questions: Why was abortion eventually criminalized during that time? What was the broad cultural and intellectual context of that period? And, more important, is there something peculiar about the 19th century?

As far as women’s bodies and abortion are concerned, the 19th century saw a decrease in the trust in, and power of, women themselves.

William Buchan’s book ‘Domestic Medicine,’ first published in 1769 and found in many American homes, contained instructions for an abortion. National Library of Medicine.

18th-century woman: Active and in control

To begin with, 17th- and 18th-century legal authorities Edward Coke, Matthew Hale and William Blackstone had all advocated for or condoned abortion. They fretted only when the procedure was carried out after “quickening,” the moment when the mother realizes that the fetus moves in her womb, approximately the fourth month of pregnancy.

As a medical procedure, abortion was widespread in Colonial and 18th-century America. By using more or less safe techniques, midwives and medical practitioners performed many types of operations on their patients. The woman could easily die, of course; but when she sought an abortion, no social, legal or religious force would have blocked her.

Also, a woman could choose from many available remedies rather than have an operation. Derived from juniper bushes, “savin,” or Juniperus sabina, was one of the most popular abortifacients. Other herbs and concoctions were similarly taken: pennyroyal, tansy, ergot, Seneca snakeroot or cotton root bark.

Benjamin Franklin inserted an abortion recipe in a popular textbook he republished in Philadelphia in 1748. He didn’t prompt any scandal.

The truth is that America’s founders, together with their contemporaries, had a rather democratic understanding of the female body. They believed that women, physiologically speaking, weren’t qualitatively different from men; the two sexes were equal and complementary.

Men’s and women’s composition, medical doctors argued, was identical in essence – the only difference was anatomical, in that male sexual organs were more externally distended than female organs.

Just like the male, the female was thought of as fully in control of the workings of her physiology, including her sexuality. It was believed that both the man and the woman had to reach orgasm, better if simultaneously, for pregnancy to ensue.

This made 18th-century men attentive to the satisfaction of their female partners, though for utilitarian reasons.

Especially when sex was aimed at procreation, the woman had to be as active as the male partner. The 18th-century woman was active and in control. She trusted her bodily feelings, including her pleasures.

And crucially, only she could detect whether quickening had taken place in her womb. Consequently, she could immediately tell whether terminating a pregnancy at a given time was acceptable. Or if it was a crime.

1917

19th-century American abortionist Ann Trow Lohman, who performed abortions in New York City and was referred to by one anti-abortion advocate as ‘the monster in human shape.’ Wikipedia.

19th-century woman: Weak and chaste

The 19th century changed all that. The understanding of physiology and the mechanisms of the female body underwent a deep transformation. European and American doctors, now, saw women as essentially different from men: From a “one body” model, the medical discourse shifted toward a “two body” model.

Women’s level of self-determination decreased accordingly. Suddenly, they were not only weaker or softer than men, but inherently passive, too. Instead of being encouraged to take part in sex, actively and with vigor, 19th-century women were expected to be withdrawn.

They were thus recast as pure, chaste and modest. Commendable women were virgins, wives, mothers. Or else they were prostitutes, nearly criminals, which reflects the Victorian dualistic mindset. Instead of being urged to trust the quickening and other physiological events happening in her womb or her vagina, the honest woman had to trust her doctor.

Anti-abortion campaigns began in earnest in the mid-19th century. They were waged mostly by the American Medical Association, founded in 1847, and were fundamentally anti-feminist. They chastised women for shunning the Victorian “self-sacrifice” expected of mothers.

Anti-abortion campaigns were targeted against midwives and tried to discredit women’s firsthand experience of pregnancy. Male doctors claimed pregnancy as a medical terrain – a realm that belonged to them exclusively.

Based on women’s own bodily sensations – not on medical diagnosis – quickening was denigrated. Quickening, of course, made doctors dependent on women’s self-diagnosis and judgment. Dr. Horatio R. Storer, the leader of the medical campaigns against abortion, described quickening as “in fact but a sensation.” In such a context, it could no longer be framed as the basis from where all moral, social and legal standards emerged.

In the Dobbs decision, Alito says: “The Court finds that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” This is a historical fact: Protection of the right to abortion wasn’t around in America before Roe.

But it is also an incomplete picture of the full story. The criminalization of abortion, plus the decentralization of the woman’s experience, plus the medicalization of her feelings that led to that decision, are facets that belong to the long-gone 19th century.

No American lives in that century any more – not even Justice Alito.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.


Maurizio Valsania is Professor of American History at the Università di Torino.

Ukraine Reconstruction, Peace and Justice

BY DANIEL WARNERFacebook

\Twitter\Reddit\Email

Is it possible to speak of reconstruction while a war is still going on? The Swiss government and Ukraine co-organized an international conference in Lugano July 4-5 to deal with rebuilding Ukraine. Although not as high-level as the recent G-7 or NATO summits, the aim of the conference, according to Ignazio Cassis, the Swiss Foreign minister who also holds the rotating Swiss presidency, was to have a “Lugano Declaration” similar to the Marshall Plan that described the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. One thousand participants from 40 countries and representatives from international organizations attended as well as almost one hundred representatives from Ukraine.

With the Ukraine war still going on – the conference was initiated prior to the February 24 invasion – the challenge to rebuild is daunting. “We will help Ukraine to win this war and to win peace,” said the head of the European Commission. “The challenges are colossal,” she added, “but not insurmountable.”

Rebuilding Ukraine during the fighting adds further complexity to the relation between peace and justice. Those who favor peace point to ending the fighting as soon as possible. “Priority number one remains ending the war, because without the war ending, the suffering will definitely continue,” said a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representative in Ukraine. Those who insist on justice first, say that human rights and humanitarian violators must held accountable immediately. “No peace without justice,” they advocate.

What about rebuilding? The final Declaration, besides condemning Russian aggression and re-iterating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, was designed as a road map to help Ukraine develop a Recovery and Development Plan. With many people returning home, “It is essential that quick repairs, improving infrastructure and public services happens as soon as possible,” said the UNDP representative. The World Health Organization also sent representatives to the conference, underlying the need to rebuild hundreds of health facilities hit by Russian strikes. Cassis stressed that “full transparency and surveillance of financial flows,” were also on the agenda in a country that ranked 122 out of 180 in Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perception Index.

Even if the war ended tomorrow, the rebuilding needs are enormous: More than 10 million Ukrainians have been affected by the war with one/fourth of the population needing basic food supplies; 24,000 km of road and 5.5 million houses have been damaged or destroyed; environmental damage is considerable; almost five million jobs have been lost and it is estimated that the economy will shrink 41.1 per cent this year.

But the war has not ended.  Experts say optimistically that certain areas can be helped immediately at the same time planning should go on for the future. The blend of humanitarian needs and development projects is part of a hopeful holistic approach: “We need innovative partnerships between humanitarian actors who have the capacity to go as close as possible to the frontlines, and financial institutions and development actors who traditionally engage with state entities on much more long-term programs,” said a Red Cross official.

It is estimated that Ukraine needs $700 billion dollars to rebuild.

The final Declaration focused on seven principles, including government reforms and transparency, sustainability and fighting corruption. Future conferences on rebuilding Ukraine have already been planned in Britain and Germany in the next two years.

Is it premature to talk of rebuilding Ukraine during the war? Historians point to discussions of rebuilding Europe during World War II leading to the final Marshall Plan once the war had ended. And one could easily point to the final Declaration as a wish list of liberal ideals for a country that has a history of corruption. “Corruption in Ukraine is still very present,” said the former head of the European anti-corruption office. “Systemically, this is not a state based on law, or just a little,” he observed.

Russia will not go away. Although the aim of the Western powers seems to be more and more to weaken Russia – as stated forthrightly by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin – President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s statement about winning the war and winning the peace overstates the reality on the ground. Some negotiated settlement will have to take place rather than an outright victory or surrender.

Rebuilding Ukraine and the Lugano Declaration are part of a process. But focusing on the aftermath of the conflict should not take energy and time away from ending the war. And while the ideal of having a stable, functioning government in Kiev is admirable, fundamental questions remain such as does the future of Ukraine include the Donbas region? And if so, how?

Certain aspects of the geopolitical reality of Ukraine cannot change. In addition to its frontier and history with Russia, one cannot start from scratch in rebuilding. Can one imagine a modern, digital, rules-based functioning state? A new Finland or Estonia? There are good reasons why Ukraine was not included in the Membership Action Plan of NATO and why some countries hesitate to include Ukraine in the European Union.

No amount of money or promises from exterior sources will change the internal situation in Ukraine. While the Russian military invasion has shocked the world, meetings like the Lugano conference risk repeating errors made after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It will finally be up to the Ukrainian people, including those in the Donbas region, to rebuild their country, with, we assume, considerable help from their friends.

Daniel Warner is the author of An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations. (Lynne Rienner). He lives in Geneva.

The Illusion of Military Dominance

BY KEVIN MARTIN - BRAD WOLF

TwitterRedditEmail

Image by Diego González.

United States military analysts love strategies and the theories behind them. The theories provide what appear to be perfectly reasonable and rational approaches to warfighting, even offering a sense of certainty about the outcome. After all, they’ve been designed with military precision. Authorized personnel at the Pentagon or military think tanks are assigned to create strong, catchy names for the theories. A longtime theory is “Escalation Dominance,” which has a close cousin called “Full-Spectrum Dominance.”

Both theories promote the idea that effective deterrence comes from being able to defeat the enemy in every step of a potential conflict, in any place, and at any time, from small-scale skirmishes between proxy guerillas up to and including nuclear war, and possible escalation within a specific conflict. Such strategies would, in theory, deter any adversary from initiating any step up the escalation ladder.

Like all military strategies they sound convincing enough on paper, even alluring. What red-blooded American, or Russian, would walk away from dominance? But in the concrete, these theories fail to deliver, and we could quite likely end up with escalation disaster. Escalation Dominance has already failed given that Russia invaded Ukraine and took a substantial step up the escalation ladder, with perhaps more to come.

A hubris undermines such military theories, a woefully misplaced and dangerous self-confidence, not to mention a stunning disregard for the millions of lives sacrificed if such theories are put to the test, and fail. Gaming this out with computers is one thing, unleashing it on the world another. Reading the enemy’s mind once the escalation begins and missiles are flying is futile, even suicidal.

Some say Ukraine should not have relinquished its vast nuclear arsenal when the Cold War ended in exchange for protective assurances from the West. In the eyes of some commentators, President Zelensky implied that Ukraine might now have to develop its own nuclear deterrence program. Putin quickly responded with retaliatory threats. Meanwhile, military analysts tinker with their theories and fine-tune their messages as world events continue to stump them.

These military analysts are paid well, often by the U.S. government, weapons manufacturers, and the mass media, all of whom have an interest in warmaking. Military think tanks are funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars, as are military research programs at American universities across the nation. We spend tens of millions of dollars playing computer war games. We spend close to $1 trillion a year funding personnel and machinery for actual warmaking.

Where are the millions for peace? Is it unfathomable to think that the same money, talent, and resources could be invested in creating a strategy for a new security arrangement in Europe that would include Russia? After the atrocities that Putin and his military have inflicted on Ukraine, it is a bitter pill to swallow. But the alternative is either a drawn-out proxy war with Russia which bleeds the Ukrainian and Russian people (while bleeding Western economies), or to continue up the escalation ladder with deadlier weapons delivered and deployed by Ukraine. In either case, far more die. And as the fog of war sets in, escalation dominance becomes escalation guesswork. At some point, the military must concede it possesses only a theory. Given their track record, risking all of humanity on one of their theories is a gamble for the delusional.

A new security arrangement including Russia would mean the gradual phase out of NATO. Russia, one of the major Petro-states, could be weaned off its fossil fuel exports and brought into a new economy of alternative energies. As opposed to our unkept promises of the 1990s, we would truly integrate the Russian economy into Western economies without the perceived threat of NATO. Compromises would be necessary, on both sides. We could slowly, gradually escalate towards peace.

Peace is no harder (or easier) than war, and yet we are obsessed with war. We have simply not dedicated the resources to wage peace in the same determined, relentless way we have waged war. No million dollar think tanks to develop peace strategies. No big dollar grants for university peace initiatives. No highly paid peace analysts.

We posit no sexy title for our strategy. Peace, and only peace. That’s it. We can split the atom and rocket to the stars. Surely we can resolve our disputes without incinerating each other. We need set our minds, money, and resources to it. Dominance is for tyrants. It must fall and humanity must prevail. Peace is everything.

Kevin Martin, is President of Peace Action Education Fund, the country’s largest grassroots peace and disarmament organization with more than 100,000 supporters nationwide.  Brad Wolf, a former lawyer, professor, and community college dean, is co-founder of Peace Action Network of Lancaster, PA and writes for various publications.

FAUX OUTRAGE

MSNBC guest faith leaders slam Supreme Court over Dobbs, reverend claims abortion is ‘not a biblical topic’

Nikolas Lanum
Fri, July 8, 2022

An MSNBC guest reverend vocal about her disagreement with the recent Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade said Friday on "Morning Joe" that abortion is not a "biblical topic."

During a conversation with faith leaders supportive of abortion rights, co-host Mika Brzezinski asked Reverend Dr. Selene Jones about the SCOTUS decision and whether the Bible is being used "incorrectly" to curb abortion access.

Jones, who also serves as the president of the Union Theological Seminary, told Brzezinski that abortion is "not a biblical topic" and claimed there are only "one or two" biblical references to abortion that undoubtedly prioritize the "life and agency" of the mother over a fetus.

"To turn around and act as if the Bible has a mandate that is anti-choice when the Bible on every page is affirming the agency of people and the care of the vulnerable, the poor, the orphan, the woman at every turn," Jones said.

ROE V. WADE OVERTURNED: REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, OTHER FAITH LEADERS REACT TO 'SIGNIFICANT' ABORTION RULING

The reverend noted that 50 years ago the Southern Baptist Convention, which she said is now "100% anti-choice," came out with multiple platforms affirming women’s privacy and said that the state should not have a role in women’s pregnancy decisions.

Jones, alongside another reverend, Fred Davie, wrote an opinion piece published in The Hill in May that asserted overturning Roe threatened LGBTQ+ rights, and served as a rallying cry for faith leaders to defend them.

Earlier in the segment, Jones said that the Supreme Court ruling was about a "small minority" imposing their views on others.

"It runs directly against religious freedom," she added.

AS ABORTION DEBATE CONTINUES, SUBURBAN WOMEN SHARE HOW SUPREME COURT DECISION WILL INFLUENCE MIDTERM VOTES

Reverend Jennifer Butler, who shared the segment with Jones, chimed into the conversation by stating that religious freedom is now being used as a "weapon" by the Supreme Court in order to "discriminate against others."

The segment did not include any faith leaders who were pro-life.

The complete and staunch support for abortion among the MSNBC panel of faith leaders is notable given the breakdown of opinions on abortion among religious Americans.

According to Pew research, less than half of Catholic’s believe abortion should be legal in most cases. Meanwhile, 47% believe it should be illegal in most cases.

WHY DEMOCRATS ARE NOT PURSUING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS

Furthermore, only 33% of evangelical protestants agree that abortion should be legal in most cases, while 63% think it should be illegal.

Generally Christians are close to a split on the legality of abortion, with 53% saying it should be legal while 45% said it should be illegal.

Two weeks after SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on abortion access Friday.

The economy is experiencing something not seen in decades, economist says

Nick Papantonis

Fri, July 8, 2022 

You’d be forgiven for thinking the economy has been sending mixed messages recently, with stellar jobs reports rolling out of Washington – and more dollars rolling out at payments at the grocery store due to inflation.

On Friday, a report showed the US added another 372,000 jobs in June, continuing the trend of economic recovery that gave President Biden a rare moment to cheer, while acknowledging the pain many are going through.

This period of high inflation and low unemployment is something that hasn’t been seen in more than 70 years, University of Florida Economist Dr. Amanda Phalin explained.

“If you’re someone who’s worried about a recession happening, today’s jobs report was fairly good news. It came in better than expected, we have replaced 98% of the jobs that we lost during the pandemic,” she said. “If you’re someone who’s worried about inflation, this is bad news. Because the economy is still humming along, prices are still rising.”

For much of the last year, Phalin has been predicting that inflation wouldn’t peak until mid-2022, something she stuck by in her interview Friday. According to her, supply chain issues should be beginning to resolve themselves, easing up on the pressure being put on prices.

However, she said the Biden administration could be doing more to facilitate that, while pressuring corporations to increase their inventory supplies to ensure this post-pandemic situation doesn’t repeat.

Phalin upgraded her future outlook ever so slightly, saying the chances that the Federal Reserve will be able to ease the nation out of inflation while avoiding a recession – a so-called “soft landing” – were better than before thanks to the continued strong jobs numbers.

“If the GDP data shows that we have negative growth, or have had negative growth for two consecutive quarters, one rule of thumb says, yes, we are in a recession,” she said. “But, our unemployment rate remains very low. It’s not even ticking upward, so that says we’re doing just fine.”

She summarized her thoughts by saying the economy wasn’t in bad shape, nor was it in great shape. It was somewhere in between, though a person’s outlook on it tended to be colored through their political views.

While she said it would still be very difficult to avoid a recession as it’s never been done before, she said if one were to happen, it would be far less severe than 2008.