Finally, some good news on the environment

As I have said repeatedly, the US national parks are a genuine treasure, meant for everyone to enjoy. But in recent years the Republicans have been pushing for more mining and exploratory activities to be allowed on them. The last government shutdown that resulted in irresponsible visitors to the parks causing needless damage because of the absence of park rangers was also infuriating. They even cut down ancient trees in the Joshua Tree park and vandalized the desert.
[Read more…]

So that’s how ‘Executive Time’ is being spent

The report that Donald Trump’s recent schedule contains about 60% ‘Executive Time’ (i.e, no meetings with anyone) will come as no surprise to those who have realized that he is one of the laziest and most ignorant presidents in modern history. But there has been some curiosity as to what he does with all that time. Speculations have ranged from watching TV to watching TV. But a new report sheds some light on this issue.
[Read more…]

Great moments in nuclear war planning

Daniel Ellsberg is famous now as a strong whistleblower advocate who released the Pentagon Papers that showed that the publicly stated premises on which the US waged its invasion of Vietnam were based on lies. But before that, he was steeped in the Cold War military establishment as a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation. In that role, he was asked to evaluate various proposals suggested by the military.
[Read more…]

“The system is fundamentally broken”

In this video below from a congressional hearing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in just a few minutes, demonstrates how the political system in the US has been structured in such a way as to enable, even encourage, corruption. It shows clearly why the oligarchy is freaking out over her because she seems to have an instinctive knack for succinctly and clearly demonstrating in a very short time with few words how fundamentally flawed the current system is.

Tennessee – a state where hopeless causes never die

You would think that following the US Supreme Court decision in 2015 outlawing bans on same-sex marriage, opponents would admit defeat and wait for their god to deliver the retribution to these sinners that these religious zealots long for. Not the Tennessee legislature. They are considering a law that would ban such marriages in their state.
[Read more…]

The Bezos case should not overshadow the invasions of privacy by Amazon

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has garnered many kudos for his decision to not knuckle under to the blackmail attempts by the sleazy tabloid National Enquirer. But Glenn Greenwald writes that while ths action was commendable, it should not blind us to the fact that Amazon’s business practices are truly horrendous and that that company is one of the biggest violators of other people’ privacy and works hand in glove with the NSA, FBI, CIA, and other government spy agencies to develop ever more comprehensive surveillance tools.
[Read more…]

Encouraging signs on climate change

It has been frustrating to see how climate change denialists cling desperately to their alternative narratives to explain away the scientific data that has led to the consensus that the Earth is warming, that human activity is a major cause, and that we need to take action soon to halt and even reverse the trend if the planet is going to be in decent shape for future generations. But just as creationists are finding it increasingly difficult to discredit evolution despite having support from politicians in the US, there are encouraging signs that the climate science consensus is slowly winning over public support from across the political spectrum. Matthew Nesbitt goes further and argues that the battle for hearts and minds on this issue is in fact over.
[Read more…]