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The “ADVANCE Act,” a bill to promote nuclear power, was passed 88-to-2 in the U.S. Senate last week. The ADVANCE stands for “Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy.” The only senators voting against it were Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. 

It was approved in the House of Representatives in May, also by a lopsided margin:  393-13. And it now has gone to President Joe Biden,

After twelve years — including five years of solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison in London — Julian Assange is free. God bless America! He wasn’t extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, where he faced a sentence of 170 years in prison for violating the so-called Espionage Act.

Instead, he took a plea deal with the U.S. government, pleading guilty to one count of violating that act — you know, threatening America’s freedom — for which he had paid by his time already served. He was officially pronounced free at a U.S. federal court in Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. territory), after which he flew home to his wife and two children in Australia.

My emotional relief at his escape from the clutches of this government far outweighs my feelings about the broader implications of the guilty plea, which has justifiably stirred concern and controversy. The government got its little triumph: a “legal” acknowledgment of its right to keep monstrous secrets about what it does and punish any unauthorized spilling of the beans as “espionage.”

New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman lost a primary election Tuesday because of unprecedented spending against him by powerful forces that insist Israel does no wrong.

Why Palestine matters: The most important moral test of our time
[References at end]

This was said 30 years ago: “This is a unique colonialism that we’ve been
subjected to where they have no use for us. The best Palestinian for them
is either dead or gone. It’s not where they want to exploit us, or that
they need to keep us there in the way of Algeria or South Africa as a
subclass.” (Edward Said, in The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with
Edward Said, by David Barsamian, 1994.)

Day 262 of the murderous and genocidal attacks on Gaza Strip. Over 150,000
Palestinians killed or injured. 80% of buildings destroyed including
residential buildings, hospitals, schools, universities, streets, and other
infrastructure [R01]. But this genocide is implemented not merely with
bombing civilians but with starvation and denial of water, medicine, and
all aspects of livability. More people are now dying of diseases and famine
than from bombings. The environmental impact of this genocidal war has also
been devastating [R02]. In parallel with this, there is an attack here in

When are American soldiers not really engaged in combat?

Generations of political leaders have eroded America’s prosperity. They've exported jobs, supported casino capitalism, funded wars. Now it's not just our tax dollars they’re after. It’s our children.

The coming wars are not patriotic. They are the result of the abject failure of political leadership and a long trail of lies stretching back decades. 

Those who control the narrative and push for ever-increasing war as a solution to all ills are leading America, and America’s future generations, into an abyss from which we may never be able to recover. 

Generations of political leaders have destroyed America’s economic largess through the signing of trade agreements which exported jobs and industry abroad. They have removed consumer protections and supported massive bailouts of casino capitalism, and now - again - predators are circling to extract every cent possible from the public purse through the forever war machine. 

This time, however, it’s not just our tax dollars they’re after. It’s our children.