PRESIDENT OBAMA “THROWS IN THE TOWEL” ON POPULISM AND “INTEGRITY” IN HIS ADMINISTRATION Two obscure cabinet appointments with an outsized impact on the daily lives of Americans made by President Obama in the last month offers a startling look at the true course the president’s second term will take, argues Norman Solomon. Penny Pritzker [...]
FOILED BY CONGRESS, GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES TURN TO STATE BALLOTS IN BID TO END VIOLENCE. Lawmakers and organizations in several states are considering whether to place gun-related amendments such as universal background checks on state ballots as soon as the 2014 elections.Though the piecemeal approach is not ideal, activists are beginning to tire of [...]
U.S NAVY PREPARES TO DEPLOY LASER “DEATH RAY” IN PERSIAN GULF After years of speculation that the Pentagon was working on a secret laser weapon project, euphemistically described as a “death ray” by observers, the Navy revealed the finished product this week. It’s a curious device that can shoot lethal laser rays at objects, [...]
COLLEGE STUDENTS: FORGET ABOUT THAT DUMB PROFESSOR WHO GRADES YOUR ESSAY EXAMS; ED-EX OFFERS YOU AN “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” TO DO THAT JOB FOR YOU. ” EdEx” is a creation of Harvard and MIT which machine-grades essay exams as “objective” tests have long been graded. Proponents praise the system for the “instant feedback” offered students [...]
EGYPT’S “MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD” LEADERSHIP HAS PRACTICED PRECIOUS LITTLE “BROTHERHOOD” TOWARD ITS MUSLIM BRETHREN IN GAZA. The post-Mubarak regime in Egypt was elected to the immense delight of Palestinians in Gaza as elsewhere, with the expectation that the new government would cease the collaboration of Egypt in maintaining the seige of Gaza by maintaining border [...]
MILITARY UBER ALLES: LIBERTARIAN WRITER DECRIES THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICAN LIFE. Jason Raimondo examines two chunks in the edifice of the structure of military dominance of the culture. (1) the recent decision to allow women into combat roles, which he sees as a triumph of equality over liberty, an “opportunity” for women to share in the [...]
VAMPIRE CAPITALISM ON THE PROWL FROM DETROIT TO ATLANTA. Bruce A. Dixon describes the process by which predatory “banksters” use their political clout to manufacture fiscal “crises” in Detroit and the Atlanta suburb of DeKalb County, to force political leaders to declare their elected governments in default, and impose bankster-profitable austerity and privatization measures. [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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