I am not a big fan of Jack Lew but I disagree with some supporters of the Democratic party who are saying that the treasury secretary hasn’t been direct enough about what they feel are the disastrous consequences of a government shut down on October 17, by speaking of it in less than apocalyptic terms, thus giving those Republicans who think the shut down is no big deal some room to make their case. [Read more…]

A determined assault on women’s health services has been waged vigorously by the religious and the right wing in America, especially on the right to abortion and contraception. While abortion remains technically legal, their strategy has been impose onerous burdens on providers so as to intimidate them or regulate them out of business by imposing rules that make it impossible to operate. Ohio has been particularly vicious in this effort. The Guttmacher Institute keeps track of these state laws. [Read more…]

If you are the president of McDonalds USA and you are speaking at a public meeting and one of your employees turns up and informs you and everyone else present that as a single mother of two she cannot make ends meet on what your company pays her, saying “Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I’ve worked for McDonald’s for ten years?” how should you reply? [Read more…]

The independent investigative journalistic outfit ProPublica reports that when Carmen Segarra, a lawyer who worked as an examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, looked into whether investment banks were following the rules that enabled them to avoid conflict of interest problems in their dealings with their clients, she determined that banking giant Goldman Sachs had a problem in that they had not only not put into place the required safeguards, they didn’t seem to even feel the need to do so and mixed the functions in a way that prevented oversight to ensure that no conflict of interest occurred. [Read more…]

The Guardian has published the first verified photograph of Edward Snowden since he left the Moscow airport, meeting with former US whistleblowers who had traveled to Russia to give him the Sam Adams award for integrity in intelligence. [Read more…]

While the government shut down has adversely affected programs that affect the general public and the poor, speaker John Boehner has ordered that the Congressional gym that is open to only members of the House of Representatives be kept open. The same is true for the Senate gym where presumably majority leader Harry Reid made the call. The House gym features a swimming pool, basketball courts, paddleball courts, a sauna, a steam room and flat screen TVs. But the gym that is used by staffers has been closed. [Read more…]

The news media reported over the weekend two raids by US special forces. One in Libya resulted in the capture of Abu Anas al-Liby while the attempted capture of Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir in Somali was repulsed and the raid aborted. This illustrates how we have now reached the state where it is no longer remarkable that the US thinks it has the right to go into other countries and kidnap people off the streets. [Read more…]

President Obama has been saying quite firmly that while he is not willing to negotiate over a clean continuing resolution to fund the government or over a clean resolution to raise the debt ceiling, that once those are passed, he is willing to negotiate over everything else. [Read more…]

Many people seem to be quite complacent about having the US’s NSA, the UK’s GCHQ, and other government agencies spy on people’s communications and compile dossiers on their lives and associates because they have been convinced that they are under serious threat and that such measures are necessary to keep them safe. [Read more…]