US politics

Opposing views points to the scary ignorance and bible-thumping to which GOP representatives in Congress are appealing in their genocidal stand against quick action on climate change. If you have to have a biblical theology about these things, it should be the old-fashioned one that human beings are stewards of the earth and have a […]

US politics

Almost Human: How Robots, Race and Neoliberalism killed Detroit and what it Means for You

Juan Cole

Detroit can go into bankruptcy, a judge has ruled. Likely it means that workers’ pensions will be at least in part stolen from them. It is a good occasion to reprint this recent piece on post-industrial decline, robots and the future of capital and labor: Reprint Edition The big question is whether Detroit’s bankruptcy and […]

Featured

On the 80th Anniversary of Repeal of Prohibition, Why isn’t Marijuana Legal?

Juan Cole

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 […]

Uncategorized

Can even Colbert make us laugh at America’s tragic growing Wealth Divide?

Juan Cole

Stephen Colbert on America’s astonishing wealth divide, which has even the Wall Street Journal worried: Boing Boing gives us the statistics : “#1 The lowest earning 23,303,064 Americans combined make 36 percent less than the highest earning 2,915 Americans do. #2 40 percent of all American workers (39.6 percent to be precise) make less […]

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 […]

CIA

Tony Blair let the American NSA Spy on Millions of Britons and Store their Private Data

Juan Cole

The Guardian and Channel 4 News report that Tony Blair allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on millions of Britons, and to record and store their browser history and email. In 2005, the US had gone ahead and initiated the spying without British permission. Subsequent Prime Ministers, including the current one, David Cameron, […]

Bush

US tries to Censor British Report on Secret Bush-Blair Push for Iraq War (Lazare)

Juan Cole

Sarah Lazare writes at Commondreams.org If the U.S. gets its way, the world will never know the details of top-level discussions between George W. Bush and Tony Blair that paved the way for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. An exclusive report released Thursday by The Independent reveals that the White House and U.S. State […]

Iran

Is the White House Right that More Iran Sanctions put US on “Path to War?”

Juan Cole

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday warned the US Congress that imposing further sanctions on Iran at this juncture, just when negotiations have begun with Tehran, would be tantamount to a “march to war.” Carney’s reasoning is that further sanctions now would strengthen the hard liners in the Revolutionary Guards and around Supreme Leader […]