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It is the eightieth anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. Among the many reasons for the popularity of banning alcohol in the US then were the concern of industrialists such as Henry Ford for the creation of a sober, industrious working class. Prohibition was in part intended to regiment and control working people and ensure […]

Energy

Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World

Juan Cole

Those ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt. VOA reports : While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, in many key ways America’s political and financial practices make […]

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Israeli Blockade of 40,000 Gaza Fishermen Briefly Broken by Youth Protesters

Juan Cole

About 200 Palestinian youth ctivists briefly broke the Israeli blockade on fishing off Gaza past an arbitrary 6-mile limit on Monday. World Bulletin writes: “”We want to show the world that there are people under occupation who are being starved in Gaza while the world is watching,” Ishraq Mahmoud, spokeswoman of the Palestinian Uprising Youth […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

Feinstein & Rogers justify NSA Spying with Syrian Rebels (Voted to Arm Syrian Rebels)

Juan Cole

Senator Diane Feinstein and Rep. Mike Rogers took to the airwaves on Sunday to warn that Americans are less safe than two years ago and that al-Qaeda is growing and spreading and that the US is menaced by bombs that can’t be detected by metal detectors. Call me cynical, but those two have been among […]

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Photo of the Day: Palestinian Bedouin outside Jerusalem, 1930

Juan Cole

from Elia Photo Service via Mashriq Note that when this picture was taken the British counted roughly a million Palestinians in British Mandate Palestine, scheduled to achieve statehood as Palestine when the British left. The British likely did not count the Bedouins in their statistics and probably under-counted the Palestinians in general. When the picture […]

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Greenwald to BBC: Journalists must investigate the Powerful in Gov’t since they Lie to the People (BBC Surprised)

Juan Cole

Glenn Greenwald on the BBC’s Hardtalk seems to surprise the anchor by asserting that journalists need to investigate the powerful since the latter tend to lie to the people. This is how the BBC describes the program “Journalist Glenn Greenwald who reported on the data leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden has told HARDtalk it […]