02 September 21
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Juan Cole | Biden: Afghanistan Withdrawal Is "About Ending an Era of Major Military Operations to Remake Other Countries"
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "Biden wanted to get out of Afghanistan in 2009, but lost that battle inside the Obama White House. He finally has his way, and unlike smarmy pundits or the former guy he actually has reasoned arguments for what he does."
EXCERPT:
That was the take-away of Biden’s speech. This is a pivotal turning point in American foreign policy. The “empire” imagined by Bush’s campaign manager Karl Rove and by Kristol and the warmongers of the New American Century has been brought to a close.
It wasn’t much of an empire. It wasn’t even done right. A proper empire loots other people. The French Empire even collected 10% of the GDP of desperately poor African colonies like Dahomey and sent them to Paris to pay for ostrich feathers for the mistresses of Third Republic politicians.
The US “empire” consisted of ramshackle countries like Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq, on which we actually had to be the ones spending the money. Our national debt is some $28 trillion, outstripping our annual GDP and threatening the soundness of our economy. If you add up the expenses of the “empire” and add in the interest we paid and will pay on the money we borrowed to create and perpetuate it, my guess is that it accounts for the bulk of the national debt. The interest on the borrowed Afghanistan war costs alone is $6.5 trillion.
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The Sackler Family Has Won Immunity From All Future Opioid Lawsuits
Brian Mann, NPR
Mann writes: "Members of the Sackler family who are at the center of the nation's deadly opioid crisis have won sweeping immunity from opioid lawsuits linked to their privately owned company Purdue Pharma and its OxyContin medication."
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Far-Right Extremist Groups Planning to Attend September Rally at Capitol
Michael Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Far right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are planning to attend a rally later this month at the U.S. Capitol that is designed to demand 'justice' for the hundreds of people who have been charged in connection with January’s insurrection, according to three people familiar with intelligence gathered by federal officials."
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Arizona Launches a Bold New Experiment to Limit Racist Convictions
Ian Millhiser, Vox
Millhiser writes: "Arizona's conservative state Supreme Court took a surprising step last week that could lead to juries in that state being more racially diverse, and thus less likely to treat racial minorities more harshly."
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Amazonians United Is the Other Face of the Amazon Labor Movement
Alex N. Press, Jacobin
Excerpt: "While many people are familiar with the unionization campaign in Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon workers are organizing with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), other campaigns are less well-known."
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'We Were Very Lucky’: Afghan Refugees Arrive in US, Exhausted but Relieved
Ashish Malhotra, Guardian UK
Malhotra writes: "As he stepped outside the sliding doors at Virginia’s Dulles airport last Wednesday, Abdul Waris allowed himself a moment to smile in relief. It was his first time in the United States, and just days earlier he was at the Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, desperately trying to get out of the country."
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After Decades of Waiting, Indigenous Peoples Are Finally Getting a Say in Global Conservation Policy
María Paula Rubiano A., Grist
Excerpt: "The General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, will gather next week to shape a collective strategy to protect the world’s increasingly at-risk flora and fauna."
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