CUBA IN A TIME OF CHOLERA. The Raul Castro government tends to deny the scope of the outbreak of the disease and resist some of the public health measures required to deal with it. This denial seems to be based on a desire not to hurt Cuba’s “reputation” as a desirable tourist destination, but [...]
BIG BANKS PLAY BIG ROLE IN NATION’S SHADOWY, CONTROVERSIAL NETWORK OF PAYDAY LOAN OPERATIONS. Interest rates of over 700 percent on a small loan would seem unreasonable to most people, and would be unheard of at most reputable banks. But such outlandish rates and legally questionable behavior are the norm for unregulated “payday” lenders, [...]
Nearly four months after the most expensive election in American history reached its conclusion the record-setting race for political cash goes on for President Obama. Transforming his reelection campaign apparatus into an unprecedented political advocacy extension of the White House, the president is seeking to stock the coffers of his new group with special access [...]
JIM CROW GOES TO PALESTINE. Israel is practicing against its Palestinian minority the same repressive apartheid-maintaining measures that kept blacks in “their places” (literally) in the U.S. in the years leading up to the civil rights movement. The walls that attempt to separate Jews and Muslims are the equivalent to the “red lining” in [...]
AMERICANS ARE A SIGNIFICANTLY “THREATENED” PEOPLE. A new Gallup survey of “1015 adult Americans” shows that 99% perceive Iran’s nuclear development a threat to U.S. “interests.” 83% of them (97% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats) view this threat as “critical” while another 16% see it as “important.” Nor is this fear confined to [...]
The White House has signaled it is willing to make enormous political sacrifices and deep concessions to noisy partisan critics in order to ensure the continued secrecy of the government’s legal justification for using drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists. Having already been forced to offer a limited acknowledgement of the legal details behind the [...]
THEY GIVE OSCARS, DO THEY NOT, FOR FISCAL CHARADES LIKE THE ONE NOW PLAYING IN WASHINGTON, D.C.? If they did, Fix the Debt, the spectacular show produced by billionaire Pete Peterson, with a cast of dozens of fellow plutocrats, would be a shoo-in for an award. The lobby group that Peterson heads has already [...]
THE PIVOT TO ASIA AND THE RISE OF “SYMBOLIC” U.S.-CHINA CONFLICT. Various commentators on Asian affairs comment on the possibility that both the U.S. and Chinese governments are engaged in actions of belligerence toward one another to divert publics in both their countries from failures of domestic economic policies. Filipino Asian expert Walden [...]
THE UNITED CASTES OF AMERICA. Upward economic mobility and the basic premise of the “American Dream” have been been eradicated, argues economist Joseph Stiglitz. Decades of regressive economic and social policies — policies wholly accepted and perpetuated by the current presidential administration — have severed a large and growing segment of the country from [...]
Environmental activists and ordinary citizens joined in what was heralded as the largest rally against climate change in American history on Sunday, marching past the White House to send an unmistakable message to President Obama against construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Stakes are high in the fight to kill the proposed Keystone pipeline that [...]
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