Another day, another unarmed person dies in police custody. This time it is a black woman Sandra Bland who is the victim when a traffic stop for what is a minor offense ends up with the police officer seemingly taking umbrage because she did not cower sufficiently before him, resulting in him assaulting her and throwing her in jail for three days before she was found dead in her cell. The authorities claim it was suicide but it is being investigated. It should be noted that the county where this occurred is notorious for being racist.
[Read more…]

The reactions to the deal between the P5+1 nations and Iran have been predictable. The most vociferous opponents have been the Republican party who have dutifully brought out the Munich appeasement analogy that seems to be now the standard trope for any foreign policy deal negotiated by the Obama administration. Then of course Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out in apocalyptic terms, calling the deal a ‘historic mistake’, and this is usually the precursor to him extorting even more aid from the US in order to keep him quiet until he next feels the need for more aid. This was even predicted on July 14, 2015 by the satirical site The Onion.
[Read more…]

Ohio’s governor John Kasich announced today that he is running for the Republican nomination for president, making him #16 to do so. In his favor is the fact that although he is pretty much a standard issue pro-oligarchy conservative, he is not a totally hateful nutso candidate, which makes him slightly different from most of his competitors.
[Read more…]

I have written before about the case of Barrett Brown, a 34-year old journalist that the US government decided to throw the book at because he, in the manner of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, exposed some of its wrongdoings. He is now in prison, serving a sentence of 63 months.
[Read more…]

Martin Longman argues that Jeb Bush seems out of his depth when it comes to knowing what to do about Donald Trump. That seems to be a common for the Republican party as a whole but it is more dangerous for the presumed front-runner and establishment candidate to have such an unpredictable element in the contest.
[Read more…]

The conventional wisdom on the 2016 presidential race seemed to be settling into the media narrative of a romantic metaphor, that what we are seeing is the supporters of each of the two major parties having a fling with the one who has swept them off their feet with his dashing attitude (Donald Trump for Republicans, Bernie Sanders for the Democrats) before they settle down later with the more boring, sedate, and reliable partner (Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton). Parallels are being drawn to Herman Cain and Howard Dean to suggest that Trump and Sanders will also fade away.
[Read more…]

In yesterday’s press conference held by president Obama, much of the attention was naturally paid to the deal reached with Iran. But for reasons that mystify me, US presidents are often asked about other things that have nothing to do with their role in office and, even more mystifyingly, actually answer them instead of asking why the hell they are being asked such random questions.
[Read more…]

Glenn Greenwald writes that he and First Look Media, the parent company that publishes The Intercept that he and others write for, has announced a $60,000 matching gift to help Chelsea Manning in her legal defense. We should never forget Manning’s heroic actions and revelations that preceded those of Edward Snowden, and had such a major positive impact. Her release of the video that showed a US gunship mercilessly and gleefully mowing down Iraqi civilians in the street in broad daylight horrified the world and exposed the brutality of the US occupation.
[Read more…]

I have been amused by the reactions to the deal arrived at between the P5+1 nations and Iran. Even before the full text of the final deal was released, some people had denounced it, invoking as usual the tired example of Neville Chamberlain at Munich. When reporters have interviewed these critics about it, you may have noticed that they never ask the question “Exactly what sections in the text of the deal are you objecting to and why?”. This is because it is understood that neither the politician nor the reporter have likely read the agreement at all or if they have, they merely skimmed through the document and have not fully understood it.
[Read more…]