More fallout from NSA revelations

It looks like Edward Snowden is settling in to life in Russia, learning the language and the culture. He may well decide to stay on there if the Russian government lets him. Although he apparently travels freely and is unrecognized by people, he is living incognito at a secret location with security, presumably just in case the US government gets an insane idea to kidnap or even kill him. They are less likely to do that in Russia than in some smaller country like Venezuela or Ecuador because the US government, like all bullies, only picks on people that cannot fight back. [Read more…]

Dude, Where’s My War?

Now that the chances for an imminent bombing campaign against Syria have receded, the bloodthirsty warmongers that infest the top levels of the US political and media worlds are sad, even though US support for the rebels continues. They were so looking forward to seeing the US once again demonstrate its high-tech weaponry by unleashing death and destruction on a small country containing Muslims and Arabs, whom we all know are sub-human and thus their lives don’t count. [Read more…]

Let’s not forget the other war within the US

With all the focus on foreign wars, let’s not forget another vicious war that is being waged in the US and that is the war on the poor. The Republicans in the US Congress are proposing to cut funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program (the one that used to be called ‘food stamps’) by $40 billion. These disgusting people, who think that raising the taxes of the immensely wealthy by even the slightest amount is a travesty of justice, think that we need to reduce aid to those people who are already struggling mightily to just survive. [Read more…]

Political activity at CWRU

On my way across the campus earlier today for a meeting, I saw that a big (roughly 4ft x 16ft) yellow board had been set up in front of the library asking people to write what they thought about a US war with Syria. There were a mix of comments, with those opposed slightly outnumbering those who were either ambivalent or in favor of direct US intervention. I noticed that the board had been put up by the student group Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a libertarian counterweight to the more establishment conservative Republican Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) which seems to be dormant. (Warning: Audio may begin upon clicking. I hate it when they do that.) [Read more…]

What are the reasons for the push for attacking Syria?

The US government says that its goal is to not to overthrow the Syrian government militarily, something it could do easily if it were not for overwhelming public opinion against such a move. It also says that it is not allied with the Syrian rebels, an understandable public distancing since some reports indicate that about half of that motley group consists of extremely undesirable elements, including violently anti-US groups. [Read more…]

Summers over

So Larry Summers will not be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. He has withdrawn his name from contention, stating that the confirmation process would be too acrimonious. Whether he chose to do this on his own or whether president Obama nudged him to do so because he could not afford another bruising fight with Congress and his own party supporters who objected to Summers is not clear. [Read more…]

US and Israeli hypocrisy on full display with Syria

It should have come as no surprise that US secretary of state John Kerry scurried over to Israel as soon as he could after reaching a deal with the Russians that averted the bombing of Syria, at least for now. Israel and its lobby in the US had been going flat out for the US to bomb Syria. AIPAC went all-out in support of the congressional resolution authorizing bombing Syria, after being signaled by the Obama administration that it needed help in getting the legislation passed. Back on September 5, when it looked like Congress was going to balk at going to war, the lobby went into overdrive. [Read more…]

Israel going against the trend?

In general, I find that the next generation to be more tolerant, more accepting of diversity, less religious, and less warlike than the earlier ones, which gives me some hope for the future. But on a recent visit to Israel, Philip Weiss finds (admittedly based on personal experiences and not as part of a scientific survey) that the younger generation there was more warlike about Syria than the old-timers. [Read more…]

Why is the US always looking for places to bomb?

Bill Maher is puzzled by it.

New rule: 12 years after 9/11, and amidst yet another debate on whether to bomb yet another Muslim country, America must stop asking the question, “Why do they hate us?” Forget the debate on Syria, we need a debate on why we’re always debating whether to bomb someone. Because we’re starting to look not so much like the world’s policeman, but more like George Zimmerman: itching to use force and then pretending it’s because we had no choice. [Read more…]