William Rivers Pitt | Iraq, Two Bullets and the Long Arc of History
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: One hundred years ago, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. The archduke was struck by two bullets and died within minutes. Those two bullets in Sarajevo unleashed 100 years of carnage. Some facile lies from a few US politicians may well have unleashed another 100 years of the same.
Dahr Jamail: What’s Happening in Iraq Is the Legacy of the US Invasion and Occupation
Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola, Dispatches From the Underclass: In this interview, Dahr Jamail explains that there is more to Iraq’s current woes than the US media is letting on – from US-designed sectarianism to the US-trained death squads used during the occupation.
Listen to the Interview and Read the Transcript
Noam Chomsky | Whose Security? How Washington Protects Itself and the Corporate Sector
Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch: There is a “standard version,” common to government pronouncements and public discourse, holding that the prime commitment of governments is to ensure security, and that the primary concern of the US since 1945 was the Russian threat. But one obvious question to ask is: What happened when the Russian threat disappeared in 1989?
In Banking World, Fraud Is an Epidemic
Beatrice Edwards, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: Faced with systemic fraud in the financial and non-financial institutions that it regulates, the Treasury Department will discourage the Justice Department from prosecuting banks. If cases of corruption and fraud had been marginal or isolated, they could have been addressed and corrected, but this was not an isolated occurrence.
Charles Derber, Truthout: Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century could ignite a new political conversation on the intertwining of caste and class, creating new kinds of movements against today‘s inheritance-based “Gilded Age.”
The Giant Methane Monster Lurking
The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program: There’s something lurking deep under the frozen Arctic Ocean, and if it gets released, it could spell disaster for our planet. That something is methane. Methane is one of the strongest of the natural greenhouse gases, about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Cutting Off Sex Work Advertising Sites Disrupts Communities, Not Trafficking
Alana Massey, Truthout: Shutting down advertising sites used by sex workers silences peer-to-peer harm reduction channels that help sex workers in the absence of formal services and does little to address trafficking.
Gustavo Esteva With Brad Evans | Violence and Hope in Chiapas: Pedagogies by the Globally Oppressed
Brad Evans, Truthout: The Zapatista “struggle is our struggle, everywhere, in every city, in every country of the world. We are in a very difficult moment, in a terrible moment of humankind, but there is hope,” says Mexican activist Gustavo Esteva.
Watch the Video and Read the Article
Will Supremes Apply Cell Phone Privacy to Metadata Collection?
Marjorie Cohn, JURIST: If the court is consistent in its analysis, it will determine that the collection by the government of all of our electronic records implicates the same privacy concerns as the inspection of the data on our cell phones. It remains to be seen if and when the metadata collection issue will come before the court.
In today‘s On the News segment: The Supreme Court virtually eliminates the president’s power to make recess appointments; more Americans think that being stuck in poverty is not simply the result of “character flaws”; California lawmakers want to get money out of politics; and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
Mexico Rape Victims Face Prison Time for Self-Defense
Daniela Pastrana, Inter Press Service: “I just want all this to be over,” laments Yakiri Rubí Rubio, a young Mexican woman facing trial for killing the man who raped her in December 2013. The 21-year-old Rubio lives in the bustling neighborhood of Tepito, one of the most dangerous areas of Mexico City.
Jill Richardson, OtherWords: Researchers now credit Brazil with reducing its carbon emissions more than any other country by cutting the rate of Amazon deforestation by an impressive 70 percent. But how valid is that praise? After all, is it really fair to consider not cutting down big swathes of rainforest as a positive action?
BuzzFlash
Gutless: SEC Can Require Corporations to Disclose Big Political Contributions, but Won’t
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: The SEC, Supreme Court, White House and Congress support a secret society of campaign funding for businesses with the big bucks. It’s legalized bribery – and those who are paying off our elected officials for tacit favors are protected from public scrutiny.
Why the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby Decision Is the New Bush v. Gore
Read the Article at Mother Jones
Sixty-Five Million Left Out of July 4th Celebration
Brian Richter’sChasing Water: Smarter Solutions for the Coming Water Scarcity
US Sends 300 More Troops, Drones, Helicopters to Iraq
Georgia “Guns Everywhere” Bill Takes Effect
Christian Right Secession Fantasy: Spooky Neo-Confederate Talk Grows Louder at the Fringes
After Hobby Lobby, These 82 Corporations Could Drop Birth Control Coverage
Spirit In Action 