commentary

Courage Foundation Panel Challenges International Finding of Syrian Reponsibility
For the 2018 Attack on Douma  
 
 

In Praise of Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire
 


The crew gathers to discuss the latest news and nonsense. The crew gathers to discuss the pope’s amazon synod, the new green deal, greta, vegan diets and more!

[Prefatory Note: My interveiw on the Hormuz Peace Endeavor (HOPE); Gulf Peace & Security—Javad Heiran-Nia (Oct 6, 2019), to be published in Farsi.]
 
1-President Rouhani, President of Iran, in his speech at the UN General Assembly depicts Iran’s plan for Persian Gulf security and sub-regional order. What is your assessment of this plan?

[Prefatory Note: The post below is a slightly modified version of an interview published in The Nation on September 25th, following the September 14th attack on Saudi oil facilities. It follows a pattern with respect to Iran of accusations, denials, and public uncertainties. This combination of elements, given the leadership in Washington and Tehran, one blustering, the other inflexible, can easily produce an unintended stumble into war. A second shorter interview is appended, conducted prior to the attacks by an Iranian journalist, M.J. Hassani of Tasnim News Agency.


#THX1138 #demolitionman #movies
In the next movie analysis stream we finally cover Long-requested analyses of THX 1138 and Demolition Man! The 70s meets 90s cheese in this dystopia fest that will blow the neon yellow out of your Snipes Fro and smear other such fluids all over your overalls, should you forget how to use the three sea shells.


 

In the next movie analysis stream we finally cover the alien franchise and take special note of the thematic influences, from Ridley Scott to Cameron to Fincher, Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection, Prometheus and Alien Covenant. We will cover tranzzhumanizm, HR Giger, esoteric weirdness, Dem GMOz, as well as the lesser known God Told Me To and The Fourth Kind. LIVE tonight at 6 PM EST 

[Prefatory Note: The post below of my remarks at the opening session of the Maker Majlis Conference, College of Islamic Studies, Hamed Bin Khalif University (HBKU) on 22 Sept 2019. The theme of the three-day conference was on the role of youth in furthering the UN process associated with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs (as further clarified by 169 targets), ambitiously set to be achieved by 2030.

[Re-posting Second Prefatory Note: To allow for prior German online publication I temporarily removed this post after two hours. The text below is identical to what was previously posted. We are eager to encourage debate, discussion, and democracy, and so encourage dissemination through social media, and whatever means you find effective.

[Prefatory Note:The following collaborative article written jointly with my longtime cherished friend, Hans von Sponeck, who by family experience and moral disposition is acutely aware of the German policy dilemmas associated with its past. These issues have recently surfaced in the context of suppressing pro-Palestinian nonviolent activism, which we believe are being handled in ways that tend to reproduce rather than transcend the evils of the Nazi Era by taking a variety of steps to shield Israeli criminality from pressures exerted by the Palestinian global solidarity movement.