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  • The 2024 Election By the Numbers

    Thursday, January 16, 2025
    The majority of voters did not vote for Donald Trump for president; the majority of voters did not vote for Republican candidates for the Senate; and fewer than 51% of voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The Republican Party now controls the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, no matter how that came to be. I believe it is worth bearing in mind that a majority of U.S. citizens did not support the Republican winners.   read more
  • Looting Antiquities Second only to Oil as Source of Income for Islamic State

    Friday, February 13, 2015
    The Islamic State has been looting ancient sites in Syria and Iraq, taking antiquities from Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi heritage sites and selling them on the black market. The thefts have generated enough money that they have become the second most important source of revenue for IS after petroleum sales   read more
  • U.S. Military Budget 4 Times Bigger than China and 8 Times Bigger than Russia

    Friday, February 13, 2015
    Last year, U.S. defense spending registered $581 billion. The next closest spender on the military was China … at $129 billion. Third on the list was Saudi Arabia at $81 million. Russia spent $70 billion on defense in 2014, one-eighth of the U.S. expenditures.   read more
  • Air Force Doctored Statistics about Friendly Fire and Civilian Deaths to Get Rid of A-10 Attack Jet

    Friday, February 13, 2015
    The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) looked at the doctored stats put out by the Air Force as well as other numbers on the A-10’s performance. The numbers the Air Force released indicated the plane, nicknamed the Warthog, had killed more civilians and U.S. troops than any other aircraft in service. But POGO said the ratio of missions flown to number of civilians and soldiers killed showed the Warthog actually had one of the lowest rates of killing people.   read more
  • On a Typical Day, more Americans Spend the Night in Jail than in Detroit

    Friday, February 13, 2015
    The jail population average, which has skyrocketed since 1983 when the number was 224,000, has grown even though violent crime has decreased by nearly 50% during this span and property crime has fallen by 40%. Nearly 75% of those in jail are there for nonviolent traffic, property, drug, or public order offenses.   read more
  • Anti-Obamacare Legal Case is a Lawsuit in Search of Victims

    Thursday, February 12, 2015
    The real force behind the lawsuit is a group of conservative lawyers and think tanks bent on destroying the Affordable Care Act. They include the American Enterprise Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Former CEI chairman Michael Greve has reportedly described Obamacare as a “bastard” that “has to be killed as a matter of political hygiene.” If the four plaintiffs win their case, up to 13 million Americans could lose their health insurance.   read more
  • North Carolina is the Only State with a Government Commission to Investigate Wrongful Convictions

    Thursday, February 12, 2015
    Commission executive director Kendra Montgomery proudly says: “We’re the only state that has a government agency that is neutral to investigate these cases." Operating since 2006, the commission has received 1,642 claims, which led to eight exonerations so far. Montgomery says she is regularly contacted by officials from other states who want to use the North Carolina commission as a model for such an agency in their own states. Lack of funding is usually what prevents that from happening.   read more
  • Guantánamo Hearing Suspended when Defendants Claim Court Translator Previously Worked at CIA Torture Site

    Thursday, February 12, 2015
    Al Shibh told the judge: “The problem is I cannot trust him because he was working at the black site with the CIA." Walid bin Attash was reportedly “visibly shaken” by the sight of Al-Nazer in the courtroom, there to supposedly help the defense team. Defense attorney Cheryl Bormann wondered if his presence was deliberate on the part of the U.S. government, saying it was either “the biggest coincidence ever” or “part of the pattern of the infiltration of defense teams.”   read more
  • Postal Service Audit Blames Increase in Complaints about Rude Employees on Promotion by Seniority; Union Blames Understaffing

    Thursday, February 12, 2015
    The U.S. Postal Service has a problem with “rude” employees manning their customer service windows. Its inspector general said the agency has so many inconsiderate workers that, by driving away unhappy customers, it could lose nearly $300 million in fiscal 2015. The report states that USPS’ negative customer feedback went up 9% from FY 2012 to FY 2013, and that 20% of customers said they were treated “worse than other retailers” at their post office.   read more
  • Twitter Handles Information Requests from 58 National Governments, but 56% are from U.S.

    Thursday, February 12, 2015
    The new report showed governments in general increased their requests by 40% compared to their previous report. “Providing this insight is simply the right thing to do, especially in an age of increasing concerns about government surveillance,” said Twitter's Jeremy Kessel. After the U.S., the government filing the most requests was Turkey, with 356, followed by Japan with 288. Twitter, however, did not comply with any of Turkey’s requests for user data.   read more
  • FBI Zeroes in on Anti-Oil Sands Protesters

    Wednesday, February 11, 2015
    About a dozen protesters in Idaho, Oregon and Washington have received calls from FBI agents saying they are seeking information about the protests. An attorney helping the demonstrators said the bureau appears to be keeping an eye on those opposed to the extraction of the toxic oil and the controversial pipeline project. A member of one protest organization said it was unacceptable what the FBI was doing since all they’re doing is practicing civil disobedience.   read more
  • Texas and Oklahoma Question whether Fracking Disposal Wells Cause Earthquakes

    Wednesday, February 11, 2015
    In 2014, Oklahoma experienced 585 earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher. That’s more than the state had had in the past 35 years combined. Not that leaders in Texas or Oklahoma—who are almost exclusively Republican—want to admit that fracking is behind the quakes. GOP Governor Mary Fallin has refused so far to admit that fracking is the cause. But professor Todd Halihan says there is no question of the relationship between fracking wells and the recent seismic activity in that state.   read more
  • 72% of Americans Feel Money-Related Stress and 31% Say it Adds to Relationship Conflict

    Wednesday, February 11, 2015
    Of the more than 3,000 Americans surveyed, 72% said they felt stress over money at least some of the time during the previous month. Thirty-one percent of respondents admitted that money-related stress was a significant source of conflict in their relationship. Despite benefits gained from Obamacare, healthcare costs continue to be a stressor. Among lower-income Americans, 44% say paying for out-of-pocket health care costs is a very or somewhat significant source of stress.   read more
  • Public-Private Partnership Tries to Save Monarch Butterflies as Population Collapses by 970 Million in 25 Years

    Wednesday, February 11, 2015
    The species, which once numbered in the billions across America, is now down to about 30 million, biologists say. A big reason for the die-off is the disappearance of the milkweed plant, which farmers have destroyed in large numbers while spraying Roundup-ready crops with herbicides. The milkweed is both a food source and a home for the monarch, and without it, the butterflies are struggling to survive. Roundup, a brand of glyphosate sold by Monsanto, is particularly lethal to milkweed.   read more
  • Super Bowl Blamed for Increased Influenza Deaths among Seniors in Participating Cities

    Wednesday, February 11, 2015
    Researchers studied health statistics over a 35-year period and found more flu-related deaths among seniors in counties with teams in the Super Bowl than in counties whose teams weren’t in the game. “Having a local team in the Super Bowl causes an 18% increase in influenza deaths for the population over age 65, with evidence suggesting one mechanism is increased local socialization,” said the study. They also found that things were worse when the game occurred during a flu outbreak.   read more
  • HSBC Helped Dictators and Arms Dealers Launder Ill-Gained Funds

    Tuesday, February 10, 2015
    Secret HSBC documents revealed dealings with associates of traffickers in blood diamonds and associates of such authoritarian rulers as ex-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, former Tunisian president Ben Ali and current Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. Some of HSBC’s clients have previously been linked to al Qaeda. A 2012 U.S. Senate report cited an alleged list of financial benefactors to the terrorist organization. That list had been referred to as the “Golden Chain” by Osama bin Laden.   read more
  • Spreading Oil Worker Strike Biggest in U.S. in 35 Years

    Tuesday, February 10, 2015
    So far, the nationwide strike has impacted 13% of the U.S. oil refining capacity. The local Toledo union said the “strike is NOT about money, this is about addressing safety issues that have been ignored for way too long … 138 workers were killed on the job while extracting, producing, or supporting oil and gas in 2012 … the number was more than double that of 2009.” Workers in the gas and oil industry are said to be six times more likely to die on the job than other American workers.   read more
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