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Bombed Planes, Bombed Cities, Bombed Countries as Syria War Goes Global

Jon Queally Common Dreams
It's not a world war—at least not yet— but the increased regional and global focus on the Islamic State militant group that currently holds territory in both Iraq and Syria is brewing an increasingly volatile situation that is reverberating from the heart of the Middle East to the major cities of Paris, Beirut, and Moscow, and taking center stage in the political conversations in the U.S., across Europe, and beyond.

Will Labor Back Bernie?

Elizabeth Mahony & Rand Wilson Jacobin
The movement for labor to endorse Bernie Sanders is part of an effort to bring political decision-making back to the rank-and-file.

Things That Can And Cannot Be Said John Cusack in Conversation with Arundhati Roy

John Cusack Outlook
This is the first part of a multi-part series in The Outlook. One morning as I scanned the news-horror in the Middle East, Russia and America facing off in the Ukraine, I thought of Edward Snowden and wondered how he was holding up in Moscow. I began to imagine a conversation between him and Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war). And then interestingly, in my imagination a third person made her way into the room-the writer Arundhati Roy.

‘Keep It in the Ground’ Victory: BLM Utah Halts Oil and Gas Lease Sale

Sage Grouse Rebel Canyon Country Rising Tide
Dozens of citizens were planning to protest the auction Tuesday morning in Salt Lake City. Instead, they will celebrate the Bureau’s decision to postpone the auction of 73,000 acres of publicly owned oil and gas in Utah — which harbor an estimated 1.6 – 6.6 million tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. The planned protest had been led by elders calling on the BLM to act to prevent catastrophic climate change and to ensure a livable future for generations to come.

"Tomorrow's Battlefield": As U.S. Special Ops Enter Syria, Growing Presence in Africa Goes Unnoticed

Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Nick Turse Democracy Now!
The recent U.S. deployment of special operations forces to Syria expands a global U.S. battlefield that is at a historic size. This year, special ops have been sent to a record 147 countries—75 percent of the nations on the planet. It’s a 145 percent increase from the days of George W. Bush. And it means that on any given day elite U.S. forces are on the ground in 70 to 90 countries.

Henry Kissinger and the Legacy of Air Power Diplomacy

Greg Grandin TomDispatch
While Henry Kissinger is not responsible for the evolution of the U.S. national security state into such a monstrosity, his strategies, the use of bombing as an instrument of “diplomacy” in Southeast Asia, the militarization of the Persian Gulf, and the violation of the sovereignty of neutral countries to destroy so-called enemy “sanctuaries,” has created the conditions for the endless wars started by Bush’s neocons and waged by Obama’s liberal hawks.