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Cuba Embargo, Denounced at UN, “Violates Sovereignty” and “Freedom of Travel”
“The hypocrisy of politicians like Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio who praise the Trump administration for its moves against Cuba is plain to see when one realizes Saudi Arabia and Israel just kill and maim as official policy and are never sanctioned.”
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Mass Protests in: * Sudan * Honduras
“The fire at the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa last Friday took place in the context of over a month of teacher- and healthcare-worker-led protests against IMF-led legislation to privatize both sectors. The new laws would include massive layoffs and would destroy what’s left of public education and healthcare in Honduras. The ongoing protests also build on the anger against Juan Orlando Hernandez, who came to power with a rigged election.”
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Big Tech Dominance: Is Antitrust the Solution?
“For example, on its face, Google’s AMP [accelerated mobile pages] initiative seems to be about helping publishers with mobile page loads. But upon deeper analysis, AMP is really about Google using its power in search to force publishers into giving up more control over their reader data and consenting to less transparency in how Google is auctioning publisher inventory.”
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Why Are So Many Shooters Military Veterans?
“DeWayne Craddock, the Virginia Beach mass shooter, enlisted in the Virginia National Guard in April 1996 and served for 17 years. Increasingly seems the most predictive trait for mass shooters is not race or religion, but a military/law enforcement background. (And gender: male.)
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On Russia, Did Mueller Overstate His Own Report?
Maté highlighted a passage of the report where Mueller writes that “[GRU] officers appear to have stolen thousands of emails and attachments” from the DNC. “If Mueller knows that the officers stole the emails,” Maté argues, “why use the qualifier ‘appear’?”
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Rowley Scrutinizes Mueller’s Statement
“While Mueller’s comment that it would not be right to accuse a sitting president with a crime when that crime could not be prosecuted in court (due to a DOJ [Department of Justice] policy memo) may be good as far as it specifically goes, his reliance on that prior DOJ memo for his punting decision-making on whether or not to charge Trump with obstruction raises more questions than it answers. Maybe that’s why he would not answer any questions.
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European Crisis Beyond the Elections
“We are facing a choice between a neo-liberal and ‘Green’ alliance versus a radical right, none of which is appealing to progressive ideas.”
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Trump Administration Circumventing Congress on Arms to Saudi Arabia While Knowing Civilians Are Being Targeting
“a narrative that has been gaining traction for years among U.S. officials and in sectors of the Western media: that the Saudis and their allies in the Yemen war, especially the United Arab Emirates, are killing civilians and destroying infrastructure by mistake. But this is not true.”
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“Unprecedented” Attack on Freedom of the Press
“What is most ominous to me, by the way — it’s not obvious — is that they referred to 2010, when he was dealing with Chelsea Manning. … I followed that fairly closely, including in the Chelsea Manning trial. That clearly was shown to result in no damage, no harm to any individual, which was precisely what they’re charging him now with having risked.”
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Arguments for Taxing Wall Street Trading
“I’m skeptical of some of the revenue claims made for a financial transactions tax, because if imposed, it would put a damper on hyperactive trading. A lot of computer-driven trading, for example, relies on tiny oddities in market pricing of no economic significance, but which have a great power to destabilize the markets. Taxing those, even at very low rates, would take away all the profit opportunities. But that would be a good thing, like taxing carbon or tobacco: the point isn’t to raise revenue, though some might be raised, but to stomp out noxious things.”
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn