I have not commented on the recent atrocity committed at the night club in Orlando by Omar Mateen that resulted in 50 deaths and an approximately equal number of injured. This is partly because of the sense of despair that these kinds of mass killings have become so common and nothing ever seems to get done about the easy availability of semi-assault weapons and high capacity magazines that enable even a single person to kill so many people in so short a time.
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Wall Street is in a bind. Normally, the presidential election features two candidates who are both beholden to its interests and thus enables them to watch the process with complacency but this time the picture is a little confused.
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I came across this op-ed by Elbridge Colby (a fellow at the neoliberal Center for a New American Security and son of former CIA director William Colby) who is disturbed by the fact that pope Francis is reconsidering the ‘just war’ philosophy.
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Glenn Greenwald says that it is really telling how the media are avoiding calling the murderer of British MP Jo Cox a terrorist, a label that they have no difficulty assigning if the killer is a Muslim or if the motive for the attack involves the various wars being waged against Muslim-majority countries.
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The city of Cleveland has put in place very strict rules governing what the public can do during the Republican convention starting July 18. The rules are so restrictive that the Ohio chapter of the ACLU has sued the city in federal court saying that such rules infringe on the free speech and other rights of the public, including the homeless who just happen to live in the 3.3 square mile area designated as the Event Zone. They are suing on behalf of three organizations: Citizens for Trump, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, and Organize Ohio. (The lawsuit can be read here.)
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Throughout the primaries Donald Trump said that, unlike the other candidates, he was so rich that he was going to finance his own campaign and thus would not be beholden to the big money interests that contribute to campaigns and fund SuperPACs and thus get to buy access to candidates. This was one of the major factors that added to the image he created of being someone who was truly independent and not part of the corrupt political system.
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While some parts of the country are in a lather about who should be allowed to use what bathroom leading to abominable laws like HB2 in North Carolina, Washington, DC has had laws for 10 years about their use that seem to have worked pretty well and could serve as a model for others.
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