We have seen how religious individuals and groups are using the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and state versions of it to try and avoid complying with laws that they feel infringe on their religious beliefs, such as issuing same-sex marriage licenses or providing contraceptive benefits in health insurance polices or selling various goods and services to the public.
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Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone gives a blow-by-blow account of the way that Eric Holder saved the banks many billions of dollars and kept their top executives out of jail and now expects us to believe that the reason he chose to return to working at a high salary for the law firm Covington and Burling that represents some of those same banks is because of its pro bono work on behalf of the public! Yes, he really expects us to believe that he is driven by high-minded altruism.
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The buzz and the massive crowds surrounding Bernie Sanders’s run for president (the latest is 7,500 turning up in Maine) has taken jaded political observers by surprise and has them puzzled about exactly who Sanders is and what he stands for and why people seem so enthused about him. Some are suggesting that he may have already peaked and that after a good early showing, perhaps even winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, he will flame out. He has so far avoided getting dragged into the mudslinging and trivialization that is now routine in US politics and he says he would welcome the opportunity to debate anyone, anywhere on the issues.
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I have written many times of the evil of civil asset forfeiture by authorities in many states, whereby the property of people is seized by the police and other state authorities even though the people are never charged with any crime. This constitutes nothing less than theft by the state and the victims (as usual) are ordinary people who do not have the resources to fight the authorities and get their property back. Police and local government were using this as a form of revenue to pay salaries, buy equipment and cars, and renovate their facilities.
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Today marks the first anniversary of the extremely brutal assault called Operation Protective Edge that Israel perpetrated on the people of Gaza. Glenn Greenwald interviews Max Blumenthal who has a new book out that deals with that event called The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. (You can read Greenwald’s review of the book here.)
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If you have been listening over the last year or so to the mainstream media discussing Greece, you would have got the impression that Greece is like a spoiled trust fund child used to living a carefree life at others’ expense and now throwing a major tantrum when the ‘adults’ (i.e., the IMF and the European Commission and Germany) say that they are cutting their allowance and can no longer expect the rest of Europe to subsidize their lazy, hedonistic lives.
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I tend to favor the underdog. And there is no question that the oligarchy, the one-percenters who control so much of the nation’s wealth and seek even more as their just due, have been taking a beating in parts of the media. It is just not fair. Thankfully, someone has recognized this imbalance and started a news channel called “One Percent News so that they can get their side of the story out to combat all the negative propaganda being waged against this fine group of people.
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The news that the Obama administration and Cuba will reopen embassies in each others’ countries made quite a bit of news. But almost ignored was another news report that showed that despite the crippling US-imposed embargo, that country manages to maintain a high standard not just of medical care but also of medical research.
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The attempts by opponents of same-sex marriage to stall the inevitable continue. There was a pathetic effort by a Catholic youth group called Catholic Vote to produce a video that mimics the It Gets Better Project and video series that encouraged young gay people who felt victimized to not lose hope. The Catholic Vote video shows young people hesitantly revealing their belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, implying that young people who feel that way nowadays suffer the same level of ostracizing that gay teens feel.
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