Overwhelming public support for tighter gun laws is failing to spur action in Washington, where lawmakers are struggling to pass a “watered down”gun control bill that pro-gun groups have stuffed with measures actually loosening many restrictions on gun purchases. Five months after the Newtown tragedy that briefly united the public and their politicians into a [...]
“PROPAGANDA ALWAYS WINS…IF YOU ALLOW IT.” British investigative journalist John Pilger quotes Leni Riefenstahl, whose World War II era movies helped smooth the way in public opinion for the rise of Hitler. She credits a form of “liberal fascism” of that time that succumbed to her form of propaganda. Just so, the main stream [...]
SENATE DEAL ON BACKGROUND CHECKS DOES NOTHING TO CLOSE GUN SALE LOOPHOLE. In a sign of hoe fractured the national political landscape has become on even the most widely supported of issues, cheers went up from gun control advocates after the Senate merely allowed debate on a bipartisan bill that would expand federal background [...]
THAT’S ONE GIANT STEP FOR WORLD LEUKEMIA SUFFERERS. An Indian court rules that a “copycat” (generic) version of a brand name drug cannot be prohibited by the patent claimed by the brand name company. This decision could have “ripple” effects on the availability of generics for people throughout the world. Prohibition of copycat [...]
THE HISTORIC FAILURE OF THE BLACK POLITICAL MISLEADERSHIP CLASS. Bruce A. Dixon thus describes the spectacular failure of these leaders to stem the tide of privatization of schools and other public institutions—or the massive gentrification of black neighborhoods—or the criminalization and incarceration of huge portions of the black population. Dixon spares not even Martin [...]
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 [...]
SRI LANKA IS “COUNTRY OF CONCERN” TO BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE FOR ITS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES; BUT A MAIN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY FOR U.K. ARMS DEALERS. Expose article by U.K. Independent shows that millions of pounds worth of small arms have flown into the country, many of them used in the escalated violence of the government [...]
SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HEARING THROWS A WHIFF OF TRANSPARENCY INTO TARGETED DRONE ASSASSINATIONS BY U.S. AGENCIES. Hearings for John Brennan, current counter-intelligence chief and Obama’s nominee for director of C.I.A., show signs of restlessness of some Senators like the chair of the committee, Dianne Feinstein. Expressing frustration at the difficulty of the committee in [...]
FIRST THE SENTENCE, THEN THE VERDICT: THE WAR ON TERRORISM IN WONDERLAND. Lewis Carroll’s classic depiction of a trial of Alice evokes the kind of “legal procedure” in which people are convicted and punished before or even instead of being found guilty after presentation of the evidence of their crimes. A legal memorandum from the Office [...]
“YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS IF YOU HAVE TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT IN ADVANCE.” A Canadian professor warns northern countries that they must begin now to make “advance” plans about how to deal with species-threatening effects of climate change on Arctic polar bears. If they wait for the most drastic conditions to [...]
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