“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…

“When the Associated Press first broke the story about the extent of the NYPD spying program in 2011 and 2012, it was roundly denounced as religious and racial profiling, with some mayors and university presidents in the northeast even calling the practice ‘un-American.’ Yet, little has been done to dismantle this program. The lawsuit brought…

“A decade ago, this same powerful agency [GCHQ, with NSA] launched a spy operation against representatives of six members of the UN Security Council in an attempt to convince those members to vote in favor of a U.S.-UK resolution legitimizing the invasion of Iraq. “It doesn’t take rocket science to determine just how personal information…

“An appeal to end all violence and for Syrians to be left alone from outside interference was made by all those we met during our visit to Syria. … During our visit we went to refugee camps, affected communities, met religious leaders, combatants, government representatives, opposition delegations and many others, perpetrators and victims, in Lebanon…

“Much of the coverage of the NSA spying scandal has underplayed crucial context: The capacity of the government to engage in constant surreptitious monitoring of all civilians has been greatly enhanced by the commercialization of the Internet. Moreover, the commercialized Internet, far from producing competition, has generated the greatest wave of monopoly in the history…

“‘Our’ rebels are losing the war in Syria, in spite of billions of dollars and huge arms transfers from the Saudis and Qatar, aided by the Turks, the U.S. and the Europeans. So now the White House warriors are about to send U.S. arms too. But the shifting tide of the conflict is not about…