The real drama may take place before the convention

There has been much speculation about a possible contested Republican convention in July if Donald Trump does not arrive there with the 1,237 pledged delegates he needs to give him a majority on the first ballot. It is clear that the main effort right now in the Republican party and even in the mainstream media establishment is to try and prevent that from happening. We have seen an astonishing coordinated attack by the party and media establishments to coalesce against him and now a group of billionaires has joined in the effort. The Stop Trump alliance seems to be increasingly confident that they will be successful though whether this is largely wishful thinking is unclear.
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Film review: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)

This is an excellent documentary that deals with a complicated and troubled period in American history and the role in it of an organization that is still shrouded in controversy. The documentary covers the six-year period from 1967 to 1973 that saw the rise and fall of the original Black Panthers. It uses archival footage, mixed with current interviews of former members who look back on those events and provide perspective.
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Sanders and ‘Clinton’ make pitches for New York votes

Bernie Sanders had difficult moment yesterday at the end of a town hall event at the landmark Apollo Theater in Harlem, when a questioner raised some ugly stereotypes about Jews. I thought Sanders handled it as best as he could by addressing the Israel-Palestinian question. The crowd became pretty raucous, largely in support of Sanders and against the questioner. You can see Harry Belafonte sitting on the stage.
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Serving on an interfaith panel

have been invited to take part in an ‘interfaith’ panel to be held at the Cuyahoga Community College’s Western Campus, as part of their Diversity Day Program. The program is open to the public and is titled Voices – A Spiritual Mosaic of Humanity. It will be held on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at noon in the Galleria (Student Services building—center of campus). 11000 Pleasant Valley Road in Parma, OH.
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Michael Hayden’s blatant double standards

The former head of the CIA is making the rounds plugging his book. He was interviewed by Mehdi Hasan of Al Jazeera news and it was a refreshingly hard-hitting interview where Hasan pressed him on the issue of whether waterboarding was torture. The whole 15-minute interview is good but the key point to listen to is the part beginning at around 5:00 minute mark where Hayden tries to defend the abominable practice of ‘rectal feeding’ of the prisoners at Guantanamo. Then at about the 6:00 mark, Hayden suggests that waterboarding when done by the US is not torture but if done by (say) Syria it would be.
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