Jonathan Cook has a good analysis of the upcoming Israeli elections to be held on March 17, 2015 and the role that US-Israeli relations are playing in it. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be hoping to win by pandering even more than he does presently to the right wing, religious, settler, racist elements in the country. Meanwhile Cook says that European opinion is rapidly shifting towards the Palestinians.
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Many people may not have heard of Barrett Brown. He is a 33-year old journalist who has been hounded by the US government because he exposed its wrongdoings using documents that had been obtained by the hacktivist group Anonymous. He seemed to have informal links to Anonymous and was willing to publicly engage with reporters about what they were doing. As a result, he was sometimes referred to as their spokesperson though he and they denied it. In some ways, he was a precursor to Edward Snowden. Kevin M. Gallagher gives us the back story.
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As Stephen Colbert points out in a debate with himself, the America that many Americans live in is a concept and an idea, an ideal that has little resemblance to the reality. But they don’t care, because believing that fiction gives them a warm sense of self-admiration.
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In a move that is long, long, long overdue, the US government has taken steps to begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba. These moves were the result of 18 months of secret talks facilitated by the Vatican and pope Francis
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In a Congress that is notable for the craziness of some of its members, she truly stood out. Why the people of Minnesota saw fit to elect her so many times is something I will not understand. Stephen Colbert gives her a fond send-off.
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A Cleveland Browns football player Andrew Hawkins wore a shirt during pre-game warm-ups that said “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford”. This was viewed by the local police union chief as an incredible act of disrespect to the police and he demanded an apology from the football team, which they have quite rightly declined to do.
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John Kasich, the current governor of Ohio, has been suspected of having presidential ambitions, just waiting for the right moment to join the vast throngs of Republican elected and non-elected people who think they have what it takes to do the job. He has been coy about expressing his ambitions openly but he just gave an indication that he is seriously considering it by taking an action that is blatant pandering to the religious nutters.
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The release of the torture report has brought out the torture architects, perpetrators, and apologists in full force and they are all over the media explaining why brutalizing people in disgusting ways was good and noble and why just the fact that this report was released somehow absolves America for committing these horrendous crimes and proves how great and noble we are.
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Torture is barbaric and immoral and goes against all civilized norms of behavior. Those considerations alone should be sufficient to not do it and prosecute those who do. But there are those who argue that that is trumped by the fact that it generates information that can prevent even worse outcomes. But there are some things that we have known for a long time about the efficacy of torture that the US senate report has made even more clear and that is that it is not useful for getting information since tortured people will tell you what you want to hear or whatever they think will stop the torture.
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Samantha Bee looks at the efforts by corporations to use a breast campaign awareness campaign to ‘pink wash’ their actions and distract people from the fact that their business actions may actually be increasing the risk of cancer. The charity Susan G. Komen that promoted using the pink color has already been accused of exploiting the campaign for its own benefit and that of its executives and this is not going to help them either
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