The GOP’s attempt to kill its own creation

The war between the crazies and the not-crazies in the Republican party seems to be shifting into high gear. Always keep in mind that this division in not ideological at all, except on the most minor issues. The party is pretty much united in wanting to march lock step into a future in which the few rich control everything, the poor are kicked to the curb, the social safety net shredded, the diminishing middle class squeezed, and a backward Christian mentality determines all social values. [Read more…]

The Snowden revelations keep coming

The NSA revelations seems to be steadily making relations between the US and Germany worse. Yesterday Der Spiegel had another blockbuster report based on the Snowden documents that the US was spying on chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone for over ten years, even before she became chancellor, and that president Obama has known about it for some time and has lied about it. [Read more…]

More on border abuses

From reader Sarah, I heard the story of Dutch writer Niels Gerson Lohman who describes what happened to him as he was trying to enter the US from Canada by train. He had spent the year traveling all over the world and had hoped to end the trip by visiting New Orleans, a city that his father had spoken of fondly. But the US Customs and Border Protection people had other ideas. After a lengthy questioning and searching of his belongings on the train, they then took him off it so that the train left without him and took him into a corrugated tin shed. [Read more…]