Global
I rarely visit Rome without stopping at the Campo de' Fiori to pay homage to Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher who, in 1600, was brutally burned at the stake by the Roman Inquisition. His crime was daring to challenge entrenched dogmas and to think freely about God and the infinite nature of the universe.
As I stood beneath his imposing statue, a strange ruckus suddenly erupted, growing louder as a sizable group of protesters drew closer. Dozens of people of all ages banged on pots and pans with fervent urgency.
The article on the front page of The New York Times this week began: “Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Tuesday that the Trump administration would revoke the scientific determination that underpins the government’s legal authority to combat climate change.”
“Speaking at a truck dealership in Indianapolis, Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. planned to rescind the 2009 declaration, known as the endangerment finding, which concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases poses a threat to public health,” The Times piece continued.
It quoted Zeldin, the hand-picked appointment of President Donald Trump to be administrator of the agency, saying: “The proposal would, if finalized, amount to the largest regulatory action in the history of the United States.”
The film “Oppenheimer” focuses on the role played by the brilliant physicist, Julies Robert
Oppenheimer, in the creation of the first atomic and plutonium bombs. It suggests that he was
at the center of organizing the scientific and technical work on the first bombs. Then after the
bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, he became tormented by
the destructive power of the bombs and advocated futilely for international control of these
weapons. He lost his security clearance as a result of this position and lived on in relative
obscurity without any influence on policy. However, the U.S. remained committed to nuclear
weapons, to a first-use policy, helped to precipitate the Cold War, and all this continues to this
day.
Here is a summary of what occurred in what became known as the Manhattan Project from the
Wikipedia public encyclopedia (https://wikipedia.org/Manhattan_Project).
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“The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that
Moral injury is the social, psychological, and spiritual harm that arises from a betrayal of one’s core values, such as justice, fairness, and loyalty.
“Moral Injury” - Psychology Today, emphasis added.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Cross-border rocket attacks on the morning of July 29, by U.S.-armed Thailand and China-assisted Cambodia, "violated" a ceasefire brokered by President Trump who linked it to possibly lowering his 36 percent U.S. import taxes on exports from the two Southeast Asian nations.
Thai and Cambodian army commanders however met for lunch on July 29 and appeared to put a halt to their six days of bloodiest fighting in a decade.
Thailand blamed Cambodia for violating the first day of the ceasefire on July 29 by firing their dreaded Soviet-era, truck-mounted, multi-rocket artillery which unleashed unguided warheads onto Thai soil, prompting Thailand to retaliate with higher precision artillery.
Beyond the battlefield, the fighting may be bolstering the hawkish, highly politized, Royal Thai Army's influence which appears to be gaining some domination over Bangkok's fractured elected coalition government after officials indicated the military was being allowed to unilaterally make decisions where and when to open fire.
For decades, countless U.S. officials have proclaimed that the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable. Now, the ties that bind are laced with genocide. The two countries function as accomplices while methodical killing continues in Gaza, with both societies directly – and differently – making it all possible.
