“The most naïve interpreter of Egypt’s anti-Mubarak rage was the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Encouraged by his populist base, Morsi proceeded to ignore all constitutional norms and cobble together a ramshackle alliance of pro-Qatari Salafists, bureaucrats and army officers. As in all revolutions, the extent of the neglect and abuse by Egypt’s first ideological/social class to…

“It used to be that the threat to people’s freedom from computers was that they used programs that the users don’t control — nonfree programs, that is. The free software movement aims to provide free/libre replacements for nonfree programs. Free software is software that respects the users’ freedom and community. A program that isn’t free…

“I am so dismayed by the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act yesterday. Race is still a central component of who our society values or doesn’t value. The DOMA opinion means married same-sex couples will be treated as married under federal law, but the demographics of who marries now is highly skewed by race and…

“President Obama announced his administration’s ‘Climate Action Plan’ for cutting carbon pollution in his second term in the Oval Office at Georgetown University and unfortunately, it’s a full-throttle endorsement of every aspect of fracking and the global shale gas market. “Hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) is the toxic horizontal drilling process via which gas is obtained from…

“The Supreme Court’s decision voiding Section 4 and effectively nullifying Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is most troublesome. The decision argues that the conditions identified in Section 4 that gave rise to Section 5’s protections have changed. That is correct but ignores why much of that change has come about. “Poll taxes, continuous…

“The Supreme Court ruling in Fisher leaves affirmative action intact but makes it clear that designing such programs in a way that passes constitutional muster will become increasingly difficult. The ruling also forecasted — if not invited– a larger challenge to overturn Grutter v. Bollinger altogether. “A common myth around affirmative action is that race…

“President Obama’s trip is likely to focus on trade and investment, but actually U.S. policy toward Africa has been driven by militarism and resource extraction. Instead, the U.S. should bolster Africa’s dramatic economic rise. “From Detroit to Dakar, people are clamoring for jobs. Africa — like the U.S. — needs manufacturing, not militarism. The Obama…

“It is important that everyone who believes in freedom to defend Ecuador from Washington’s threats, which are very likely if the Ecuadorean government grants asylum to Snowden. Other governments around the world – whose citizens’ rights have been violated by NSA surveillance overreach – should stand behind Ecuador if it chooses to grant Snowden asylum,…

“We’re told that military people in Iowa and other bases in the U.S. now have full time jobs with benefits where they learn about the habits of people in Afghanistan and operate drones that target them. But have they really learned about people in Afghanistan? I met people there who lost loved ones from drone…

“President Obama’s nuclear proposals in Berlin are a tired rehash of U.S. nuclear policy, designed to maintain America’s global military superiority in a web of alliances entangling other nations in a U.S. sphere of nuclear weapons and missile ‘offenses’ under the ribs of a leaky nuclear umbrella. Instead of proposing the only new initiative which…