Susie Madrak has been following new-elected US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s performance at the first meeting of the Senate Banking Committee and says she proved her worth by putting regulators on the spot about why they go aggressively after powerless defendants while allowing big banks to make deals with them by paying fines that are just included as the cost of doing business and do nothing to deter future wrongdoing. [Read more…]
Documents obtained by Justin Elliott at ProPublica under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the Obama administration has been supplying arms to the government of Bahrain even while that government has been engaged in brutally suppressing pro-democracy voices. [Read more…]
Via reader Walter, I came across this excellent review by Richard Brody of D. W. Griffith’s 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. Like him, I was both appalled at the racism of the film (especially in the second half that traced the events following the Civil War and dealt with the period known as the Reconstruction), while impressed with the way the filmmaker used techniques to manipulate the viewer. If you want to see a clear demonstration of the power of film as a propaganda weapon in skilled hands that can tug the viewer to sympathize with people and views that are abhorrent, this is the film to see. [Read more…]
Academics tend to be respected because of their reputations for having expert knowledge and some level of objectivity. As a result they are often sought as endorsers for various positions. I have written many times before of the danger that exists when that esteem is abused. This danger seems to be most present in the field of economics and medicine, not coincidentally because there is a lot of money at stake there. [Read more…]
I have written extensively about the fact that the Republican party is increasingly out-of-step with what the country is thinking, especially as a result of demographic changes and that its main problem is that its base has been fed a steady diet of rhetoric against women, minorities, immigrants, and LGBT groups for so long that taking that food away from them is likely to provoke howls of anger. [Read more…]
When the US Supreme Court ruled last year that president Obama’s health care plan (known officially as the Affordable Care Act and popularly as Obamacare) was constitutional, Republicans and Tea Party activists were surprised and livid because they had been confident that the law would be overturned. [Read more…]
I have been highlighting the progress that has been made in advancing acceptance of the LGBT community as deserving of the same rights and privileges as everyone else. But it is only fair to point out that there are still pockets of deep resistance and homophobia. For example, some parents and students and at least one teacher at an Indiana high school want to organize a prom that will be open to only heterosexual students. The reasons given are, of course, religious. [Read more…]
Some defenders of president Obama’s policy of using drones to kill people without even charging them with any crimes, let alone trying to apprehend them, have made the extraordinary argument that this is a good idea since it does not put US forces at risk the way any attempt to capture them would. This use of drones has considerable public support. [Read more…]
Neil Barofsky was a career federal prosecutor who was appointed by George W. Bush at the end of 2008 as the Special Inspector General overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) that was a major part of the bailout program following the financial collapse, and he continued in that role under president Obama until he resigned in March 2011. [Read more…]
Last Saturday’s show was supposed to open with a sketch that parodied Chuck Hagel’s appearance before the Senate committee on his nomination to be the Secretary of Defense. But it was scrapped at the last minute, reportedly by the show’s executive producer. [Read more…]