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Patrick Cockburn – What is Russia Doing in Syria?

The military balance of power in Syria and Iraq is changing. The Russian air strikes that have been taking place since the end of September are strengthening and raising the morale of the Syrian army, which earlier in the year looked fought out and was on the retreat. With the support of Russian airpower, the army is now on the …

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Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway – A Brief History of Climate Denialism

In the late 1970s, scientists first came to a consensus that global warming was likely to result from increasing greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels. This idea had been around since the turn of the century, but the development of computer models made it possible to make quantitative predictions. Almost immediately, a small group of politically connected …

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Yong Jung Cho, Waleed Shahid, Devontae Torriente, Sara Blazevic – Millennials Can No Longer Be Silent About Our Broken System

It’s election season. One side promises incremental reforms without a plan for how they would get an agenda passed through a gridlocked Congress. The other side uses thinly-veiled racist language about immigrants to talk about plans to bring our country back to a fictionalized, lily-white version of our nation’s history. Too often, both parties put the demands of big money …

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Paul Craig Roberts – Vladimir Putin Speaks Honestly

Russia’s president is a refreshing contrast to the liars who inhabit Western governments and Western media. The agenda of the Russian government is peace and international cooperation under the rule of law. Washington’s agenda is hegemony. President Putin endeavors to lead the world to peace, while the neoconservatives who control Washington’s foreign policy try to drive the world to war. …

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Yves Smith – “Stunning” Rise in Death Rate, Pain Levels for White Middle-Aged, Less Educated Whites

One of the long standing patterns in economies showing economic growth is longer life spans, and falls are see the result of severe distress and dislocation, as took place in the period right after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the expectancies of adult men fell by over seven years. The US has just become the first country to …

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Stephen Lendman – A Hillary Clinton Presidency Would be a Disaster, A Nightmare for Americans

Make no mistake. A Clinton presidency would be disastrous – the worst of all possible deplorable choices, none worthy or any public office, all aspirants beholden to wealth, power and privilege exclusively.  Don’t let their duplicitous rhetoric fool you. They’re all cut out of the same cloth. Otherwise, they wouldn’t get public attention. Populist Green Party aspirant Jill Stein gets …

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‘Super-agers’ study may reveal secrets to staying young

Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class. She giggles as the aerobics instructor shouts—”Swagger! Like you are going to meet someone famous!”—then she and a dozen seniors throw shoulders back, lift their knees high and …

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Michael T. Klare – Why the Paris Climate Summit Will Be a Peace Conference

At the end of November, delegations from nearly 200 countries will convene in Paris for what is billed as the most important climate meeting ever held.  Officially known as the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP-21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the 1992 treaty that designated that phenomenon a threat to planetary health and human survival), …

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A long established pattern of mortality decline has reversed, due to drugs, alcohol and suicide

PRINCETON, N.J.–Despite advances in health care and quality of life, white middle-aged Americans have seen overall mortality rates increase over the past 15 years, representing an overlooked “epidemic” with deaths comparable to the number of Americans who have died of AIDS, according to new Princeton University research. The results are published in a new paper in the Proceedings of the …

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Saddam-style: ISIS oil exports worth $500m a year ‘conducted through Turkey’

The lion’s share of Islamic State illegal oil exports is conducted through Turkey and Kurdish areas. Although Washington could curb the illegal traffic, it has chosen to focus on other issues, a former CIA officer told the Sputnik news agency. “It’s a question of priorities. They have never allocated enough resources to do so. Other goals and missions have been …