Новости за 04.07.2018

The latest Trump scandal hitting the news – the interment of children in cages, the forcible separation of screaming toddlers from their parents. It seemed to have touched a level of inhumanity which is breathtaking, even by the standards of the current US administration; an administration which already feels like the court of Caligula set to an episode of bad reality TV, with a soundtrack handily provided by the loony toons.  More

I’m in Houston for a week, not having been here since the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. Houston (population of 6.1 million in the greater metropolitan area) is built on an ancient network of rivers (“the bayou”) that has been increasingly prone to flood over-run in recent times. More

There is a powerful yet enduring myth in America that was shattered as the Supreme Court closed out its 2017 term.  That myth is that law and politics are separate, or at least that the law can constrain political choices.  With 5-4 decisions upholding President Trump’s travel ban, striking down mandatory public sector union fees, More

Every year on the third day of July, a dozen Iranian children on board a ship throw gladiolas into the sea to commemorate the memory of innocent men, women, and children whose bodies were afloat, like the flowers, on the waters of the Persian Gulf. This year, the humble ceremony marks the 30thanniversary of the More

Other than shouting about building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, one of Donald Trump’s most frequently proclaimed promises on the 2016 campaign trail was the launching of a half-trillion-dollar plan to repair America’s crumbling infrastructure (employing large numbers of workers in the process). Eighteen months into his administration, no credible proposal for anything near More

“I once rescued a friend from drowning when he was swept away by the force of the current as we were swimming in the Diyala river,” says Qasim Sabti, a painter and gallery owner in Baghdad. “That was fifty years ago,” he recalls. “I went back there recently and the water in the Diyala is More

“The terrorists! The snakes! The cockroaches! Burning tires to poison our brave men and women protecting us at the fence! And horrible, too, for the environment! But Hamas doesn’t care…” I’ve seen all these assertions in Israeli articles and comments since the Great March of Return began, and crowds gathered weekly at the Gazan fence. More

If the rumors are true, Donald Trump will be coming to Montana this week to stump for Matt Rosendale, the Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. Given his past behavior, we can expect the usual insults, name-calling and chest-thumping that are the trademark of a president who has no experience in government More

The following was born out of a series of notes that I have taken, notes that are observations that I have had as an organizer in Los Angeles about democracy. Its title is “Angazi but I’m sure” which is a popular saying in urban South Africa to mean “I know but I don’t know” and More

An epidemic is sweeping across America at record speed. This epidemic is ignorance -– a fatuousness way beyond the malady of merely ill-informed. Alarmingly, this epidemic of ignorance has received too little attention despite the quintessentially existential danger it presents to the very existence of America. America’s Founders proclaimed that an ‘informed electorate’ was essential More

The Washington Post recently published a revealing and heartbreaking story about forced separation of children from their illegal immigrant parents — not the Trump-ordered fiasco we’ve watched over recent weeks at the U.S.-Mexico border, but in the Midwest as the result of brutal ICE raids that have ripped families apart under Presidents Obama and Bush More

My FB Livestream arriving in Gijon and the dock of the Flotilla, Gijon Spain ???????? going to see Flotilla docked Posted by Cat Watters on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 Short Livestream before losing signal,, with Ron Rousseau, crew member, Posted by Cat Watters on Wednesday, June 13, 2018   livestream CCOO union here to show More

It is common practice for people who completely missed the housing bubble to warn about another impending debt crisis which will sink the economy when it bursts. In this vein, we have a New York Times editorial telling us about the dangerous increase in credit card debt. The piece tells readers: “And now rates are More

An estimated 12 BILLION rounds of ammunition is sold each year in the USA. Not all of that ammo is shot off each year so it is reasonable to assume the total number of rounds in the US just in civilian hands alone is in the tens of billions. Imagine every civilian gun owner shooting off every More