Small protests were held in about 100 cities throughout the US on behalf of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed victim in a shooting incident in Florida whose armed killer was found not guilty this week. Some were demanding that the acquitted killer, George Zimmerman, be charged with depriving Martin of his civil rights. Martin’s parents […]
Egypt’s pro, anti-Morsi Demonstrators Settle in for the Long Game
Friday saw large demonstrations in Cairo and several other cities by Muslim Brotherhood members demanding the reinstatement of deposed Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi. Those who are happy to see him gone, including millions of youth of the Rebellion Movement, Coptic Christians, working class people hurt by his economic policies, and Mubarak regime leftovers, have less […]
European Union Boycotts Israeli Colonies on the Palestinian West Bank
The Israeli government’s de facto annexation and colonization of the Palestinian West Bank is illegal in international law. United Nations members cannot acquire territory by warfare according to the UN Charter (it doesn’t matter from whom they acquire the territory). The UN Charter was written by people who disapproved of the behavior of the aggressors […]
Iraq: 92-Year-Old Iraqi Man marries 22-Year-Old Woman
“A 92-year-old man in Iraq marries a woman 70 years his junior. Muslai Mohammed, one of the most prominent figures in his village, decided to get married three years after the death of his first wife, who died aged 58. “I remained alone when my wife died, there was nobody to share anything with. I […]
Obama: “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago”
President Obama has spoken out on the Trayvon Martin case, saying that “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” He spoke of how African-Americans are marked in US society as objects of special scrutiny, followed for no reason by security in department stores or reacted to with the body language of fear. He […]
Detroit’s Bankruptcy and America’s Future: Robots, Race, Globalization and the 1%
The big question is whether Detroit’s bankruptcy and likely further decline is a fluke or whether it tells us something about the dystopia that the United States is becoming. It seems to me that the city’s problems are the difficulties of the country as a whole, especially the issues of deindustrialization, robotification, structural unemployment, the […]
GOP to Poor American Kids: Silly wabbits, Food Stamps are for Corporations! (Jamiol Cartoon)
The GOP-dominated House of Representatives has stripped food stamps from the farm bill, while supporting subsidies to agricultural corporations and lower taxes on the rich. I mean, you expect representatives elected by corporate campaign funds to go to bat for the 1%. But they didn’t used to be so mean about it. h/t Paul Jamiol
Glenn Greenwald: Growing Backlash Against NSA Spying Shows Why U.S. Wants to Silence Edward Snowden
In an epic boxing match, we have in one corner 600 pound gorillas like Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), head of the House Intelligence Committee that is determined to abet spying on you in your bedroom, and in the other corner we have 98 pound weaklings like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, who are without Rogers’s […]
Top Ten Ways Egypt Actually Does deeply Matter to the United States
A Pew poll shows that far fewer Americans are following events in Egypt closely now than in January-February 2011. Actually, about the same percentage are following it “fairly closely” as then (a quarter now versus 31% in 2011). The big fall-off is in people following events on the Nile “very closely,” which are only 15% […]