I wrote a month ago that I expected that after all the posturing ends and the dust settles, all 52 Republicans in the US Senate would do what they always do, and that is dutifully fall in line and vote as demanded by the party leadership and president Donald Trump to gut the health insurance of tens of millions of people while giving the wealthy a tax cut.
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That Israel is on the road to becoming a rightwing theocracy should be no surprise to anyone following developments in that country. As part of that effort, Israel keeps making the plight of Palestinians worse by denying them the basic necessities of life. This atrocious inhumane treatment of Palestinians and other minority groups in Israel, Gaza and the Occupied West Bank has led to increased support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
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The model known as ‘Khulood’ who was arrested and questioned by Saudi Arabian police after a video emerged of her walking around wearing a short skirt and a crop top has now been released without charge, after she said that the video, that outraged religious conservatives, was posted without her knowledge.
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The newest correspondent for The Daily Show talks about the problems he faces because he looks like Donald Trump, Jr.
Many people would have heard about the hissy fit thrown by professional conservative provocateur Ann Coulter when she had her seat on a plane flight switched. Since her entire mission is to gain publicity of any kind in order to get speaking engagements and sell books, this incident was a success for her, however much mockery she received.
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Women in Saudi Arabia have to endure what is probably the most strict dress code in the world, requiring them to wear loose-fitting, full-length robes in public plus, if they are Muslim, a headscarf. But a young model who goes by the name ‘Khulood’ decided to defy that code and had herself filmed as she walked around a historic fort in Ushayqir wearing a short skirt and a crop top. The video has been circulating on Twitter and needlessly to say has all the religious conservatives all of a doo-dah at the sacrilegious sight of women’s skin.
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The neoconservatives in the US have been responsible for the most disastrous turn of events in modern history, wreaking havoc in the Middle East and creating the basis for the blowback the west has experienced as a result. They got the foothold in power they had long wanted during the Bush-Cheney era but then guessed wrong during the last election when they harshly turned against Donald Trump because (at that time at least) he did not seem to want to pursue their goal of imposing US military might around the globe.
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It is easy for those who live in the developed world or the unban centers of the developing world to not appreciate what a tremendous boon it is to have easy access to clean water. For many poor rural communities, getting water takes up much of the time and energy of people who have to make a trek to the source of relatively clean water, and then carry it back to their homes.
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Merriam-Webster defines ‘dox’ to mean to “publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge” and the practice is generally frowned upon. Some of you may be familiar with the recent case involving CNN and the person who modified an old video clip of Trump engaging in a phony wrestling fight with someone. This person had superimposed the CNN logo over the head of the person getting ‘pummeled’ by Trump and Trump had (of course) re-tweeted the clip. CNN uncovered the identity of the person who had created the video and in the process found out that he had also posted racist and anti-Semitic content on the web.
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The deep suspicion with which the West is viewed in the Middle East can be traced way back to the way that the west, especially the British in the early days, exploited that region’s oil reserves. This culminated in the 1953 coup that was organized by the CIA (and backed by the British) to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran Mohammad Mossadeq and replace him with their puppet Reza Pahlavi who was known as the Shah of Iran. His autocratic rule, his secret police that tortured and killed so many, and the lavish lifestyle of his family, laid the ground work for the rebellion led by Ayatollah Khomeini and the subsequent dominance of the Muslim clergy in running the country.
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