The Senate special report on torture by the CIA under the Bush Administration reveals such horrors as rectal feeding, murder, threatening children and lying to Congress, Meanwhile, conservatives are angry – that these facts are being made public.
Too Fit Not to Acquit
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A New York grand jury declined to indict a police officer for the fatal chokehold that killed Eric Garner in Staten Island in part because obesity contributed to his death. You’re on notice, fatties: if you’re not fit, they will acquit â the police who kill you.
But the President is a Black Man
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A New York City grand jury decided not to indict a NYPD officer despite videotape that clearly shows Eric Garner, an African-American father of six about to be arrested for selling untaxed loose cigarettes, being strangled to death by the cops. Takeaway: symbolic changes like an African-American president won’t change the system itself.
The System Works
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In both the cases of the police officer who shot unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the one who strangled Eric Garner to death in Staten Island, New York, grand juries and prosecutors bent over backward to consider evidence that they might be guilty. What if the system treated blacks suspected of killing white cops with the same deference?
Fun with Dangerous Drones
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The Federal Aviation Administration reports a surge in the number of near-midair collisions between small privately-owned drones and commercial planes and other aircraft. Disaster is inevitable, but maybe this development could lead to something positive.
Hey White People! Here’s How You Can Feel Like a Black Person Confronted by a White Cop
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Polls show that white Americans don’t empathize with black kids who get shot by white cops, or with blacks who complain about abuse by police. Here’s a handy exercise clueless whites can use to walk a few seconds in black people’s shoes.
Four Hours of Sleep is Enough
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The Obama Administration told a UN committee investigating torture by the US and its adherence to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) that it wants to guarantee future US torture victims no more than four hours of sleep.
Warmonger Fired by Bigger Warmonger
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Obama has fired his secretary of defense, a veteran and Republican, for not being militarily aggressive enough. How much the system has changed…wasn’t Obama the guy who ran in 2008 against “stupid wars”?
Ship of Fools
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Writing in the New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin notes the difference between the way boards compensate their CEOs and ordinary workers. CEOs get more pay than they request because they think the best CEOs get paid the most. But they don’t have the same idea about the rest of us.
Two More Years
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Two years before leaving office, President Obama is offering approximately 5 million illegal immigrants temporary legal status. But what happens if they come out of the shadows, and then the political climate changes due, for example, to a nativist Republican presidential administration?
