US politics

(By Juan Cole) The militarization of American police and humiliating practices of routine strip and cavity searches are the real culprits in the current diplomatic dispute between the United States and India. Police not only arrested the Indian deputy consul, Devyani Khobragade, who claims diplomatic immunity, on a minor visa and domestic labor charge, they […]

Domestic Surveillance

“60 Minutes” does Infomercial for NSA with Security Official posing as Journalist

contributors

(By Techdirt) CBS Airs NSA Propaganda Informercial Masquerading As ‘Hard Hitting’ 60 Minutes Journalism By Reporter With Massive Conflict Of Interest (via Techdirt) Last night I started seeing a bunch of folks on Twitter absolutely trashing 60 Minutes. We had mentioned last week that 60 Minutes would be doing something about the NSA, including the […]

science

The 1% is Hogging so much of our Income that it’s Holding the Economy Back

contributors

(By Anthony W. Orlando) Over the past few years, I have encountered a lot of myths about the so-called “One Percent.” Now that my book Letter to the One Percent has been published, I’d like to share one of the most pernicious myths with you. We all know that inequality has been rising and the […]

US politics

A Government of the Billionaires, for the Billionaires, by the Billionaires

csstester

(By Bill Moyers) I met Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1987 when I was creating a series for public television called In Search of the Constitution, celebrating the bicentennial of our founding document. By then, he had served on the court longer than any of his colleagues and had written close to 500 majority […]

Featured

Photo of the Day: Was St. Nicholas “White”?

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Fox News’s Megyn Kelly maintained this week that Santa Claus and Jesus are “white.” Russian icon of St. Nicholas of Myra on whom the figure of Santa Claus is based. Santa Claus is a Dutch corruption of Saint Nikolaos, a fourth-century saint from the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia in what is now […]

Featured

Presidents shaking Hands with Dictators

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole President Barack Obama’s casual hand shake with Cuban president Raul Castro at the memorial for Nelson Mandela has, predictably, set off a wave of outrage among right wing politicians and pundits who are anyway perpetually outraged by anything Obama does or indeed, just by his being president. Sen. John McCain, who frankly […]

Africa

Can Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation Heal the Middle East?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Every transition from an authoritarian government to democracy is different. Some go relatively smoothly (Poland, South Korea). Others are rocky (Taiwan, Bosnia, Tunisia). In some instances, authoritarianism reasserts itself to a lesser (Russia) or greater (Ukraine, Egypt) extent. In some cases, the country falls into chaos (Iraq, Yugoslavia). What to do with […]

Bush

Uygur: Bush Targetting of Juan Cole proves that NSA can’t be trusted with our Personal Data

Juan Cole

Cenk Uygur at Young Turks makes the point that the National Security Agency and other US intelligence (services who are ending up with massive amounts of electronic surveillance information on Americans –whether that is what they were mainly going for or not) keep saying we should trust them with the information. They maintain that they […]

Featured

Solar would be Cheaper: US Pentagon has spent $8 Trillion to Guard Gulf Oil

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was in the Gulf on Friday at a conference of defense ministers from the region, including the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iran. Hagel underlined American commitment to the security of the Arab states on the littoral of the Gulf, including Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, […]