One of the signs that a nation has reached an oligarchic state in which control over major decisions has become vested in a super-wealthy class working through its puppets is that the normal institutions of governance by elected representatives start to sink into irrelevance and become almost clownish in their operations.
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One of the common misconceptions heavily promoted by successive Israeli governments and their lobby in the US is that Israel keeps making generous offers of peace towards the Palestinians but keeps getting rebuffed, and that this is the main hindrance to achieving peace. That this goes against all the facts has been repeatedly pointed out but it has become one of those zombie lies that is trotted out routinely and is reinforced by the western media to justify Israeli excesses, apartheid policies, and the steady and continuous encroachment of Palestinian lands by the expansion of settlements in the Occupied Territories.
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While modern computer technology enables special effects artists to produce remarkable results, we should not forget that it is not just technology but also human ingenuity that is the foundation for good effects. Gifted people with lots of patience but very little else can do amazing things , while those without imagination will produce pedestrian stuff even with all the technology at their disposal.
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Last Wednesday I wrote about the strange experience that I had with my computers three years ago when the camera light would unexpectedly come on and stay on until I put it into sleep mode or shut it down. This problem baffled even senior engineers at Apple but then the problem disappeared just as suddenly and inexplicably as it started.
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Via reader Marcus Ranum, I learned of this story where it has been revealed that the US government agency known as USAID (US Agency for International Development) set up a fake Twitter network to create the impression of popular unrest against the Cuban government.
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It was clear that Jon Stewart was livid at what he saw as the implications of the US Supreme decision in the case McCutcheon v. FEC and he devoted three segments to the topic.
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Sri Lanka played an excellent final game and managed to defeat the favored India quite comfortably. After winning the 50-over World Cup in 1996, Sri Lanka had reached the final in world championships four times before (twice in the 50-over format in 2007 and 2011 and twice in the 20-over format in 2009 and 2012) and lost in all of them, twice to India. So although they have been consistently strong over the last decade, they needed to overcome the feeling that they had lost the ability to win the big game.
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While using money to influence politicians is becoming increasingly blatant following the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United and McCutcheon rulings, there are still a few fig leaves that exist. One is that there should be no coordination between political campaigns and the SuperPACs that support them. Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Colbert’s lawyer Trevor Potter had a brilliant series during the 2012 elections showing how easy it was, using nods and winks, for politicians get around SuperPAC restrictions.
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Stephen Colbert had two segments that explained clearly how the US Supreme Court decision last week in McCutcheon v. FEC has pushed the US further along the road to where just a handful of people will be able to purchase the government. This ruling said that while a contributor was still limited to donating $5,200 to individual candidates, there should be no limit to the total amount they can give to all candidates in an election cycle, which used to be $123,200 before this ruling. Only about 600 people bumped up against this cap in the past.
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US District Court judge Timothy Black of Cincinnati, Ohio said yesterday that he intends to issue a ruling by April 14 that will strike down Ohio’s ban on recognizing same-sex marriages that are legally performed in other states. The reason that he announced his intentions in advance is to allow the state to prepare to file an appeal, which Ohio’s Attorney General has promised he will do.
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