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

Only 24% of respondents to a recent Gallup survey (December 5-8) considered themselves Republicans. And yet, GOP politicians consistently made more appearances than Democrats on programs like “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation,” “This Week,” “State of the Union,” and “Fox News Sunday.” Six of the top seven, and 10 of the top 13 guests on these shows were Republicans.   read more

The latest Win/Gallup International’s Annual Global End of Year Survey revealed the United States was most often chosen as the greatest threat to world peace among all nations. Twenty-four percent of respondents chose the U.S., far more than Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%). But the U.S. is viewed as more than just a bully on the world stage. When asked which country they would most like to live in, 9% of respondents picked the U.S.   read more

The George W. Bush administration reportedly knew as early as 2003 that the Uighurs were not a threat to U.S. security. But the administration allegedly kept them at Guantánamo Bay in exchange for China’s cooperation at the United Nations to not interfere with the authorization of force against Iraq in 2003, the Uighurs claimed. “It is especially heartbreaking that when the Uighurs were turned over to U.S. forces following the invasion of Afghanistan, they thought they had been saved.”   read more

When I was 15 years old, I decided to keep a daily journal. I was partly motivated by the fact that my father had started to do so two years earlier and partly by the fact that I regretted not having a record of the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated less than six weeks earlier. Strange as it may seem, I have kept up that diary every day since I was 15. January 1, 2014, will mark the 50th anniversary of my first entry.   read more

These specialists intercept computer shipments ordered by a targeted person and reroute the boxes to secret workshops. There, the packages are opened, and either software or hardware are implanted into the equipment to allow the NSA full access to the system once it’s operational by the target. The packages are then carefully resealed and sent on their way to the unsuspecting customers.   read more

In 2013, the nation expanded by less than a percentage point (0.72%), according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The tepid growth was the lowest since 1937, with even slower expansion still to come. Percentage-wise, the biggest gainer was North Dakota, where a thriving oil and gas industry helped boost the population by 3.14%. It was followed by the District of Columbia (2.06%), Utah (1.61%) Colorado (1.52%) and Texas (1.49%).   read more

1. Judge Sentenced to 28 Years in Prison for “Selling” Kids to Private Prisons 2. Homeland Security Approves Seizure of Cell Phones and Laptops within 100 Miles of Border; Report Remains Secret 3. 9/11 Suspects Can’t Mention being Tortured during Trial Testimony because Their Torture is Classified   read more

Pauley followed his introduction about 9/11 with an endorsement of the government’s position that domestic spying has helped disrupt bomb plots against the New York subways, the New York Stock Exchange and a Danish newspaper. Judge Leon, however, found two weeks ago that the program did not help the government fight terrorism, concluding that “the government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack.”   read more

The oil sheikdom was originally a defendant in the case until 2005, when a federal judge, George B. Daniels, ruled that sovereign immunity protected it from liability for the attacks. That liability could potentially amount to tens of billions of dollars in civil damages. But a Second Circuit three-judge panel ruled this month that Daniels had erred in dismissing Saudi Arabia from the lawsuit.   read more

Two years before Obama was first elected to the White House, there were only 18 full-power TV stations owned by African-Americans. This total represented just 1.3% of all such stations in the country. By the end of his first term in office, those 18 had declined to only five stations. And as of this month, the number has fallen all the way to zero.   read more

The operator of nearly 100 private colleges has more than 200 lawsuits pending against it, including a case brought by California’s attorney general claiming fraudulent marketing practices aimed at recruiting students. Wells Fargo is by far the biggest shareholder in the company, with 11.6 million shares. Corinthian’s second and third largest investors are the investment management firm BlackRock Fund Advisors (4.5 million) and investment adviser Royce & Associates (4 million).   read more

Over one 20-year period (1992-2012), BOP asked the courts to consider motions for early release only two dozen times a year on average, according to a report last year from Human Rights Watch. That’s out of a federal prison population of more than 200,000. The federal prison population has expanded by nearly 800% since 1980. Thousands of these inmates are now seniors, whose care can cost twice as much as non-elderly inmates.   read more

Although the hospice benefit has been around for thirty years, explosive growth in hospice care began around the turn of the century—just as for-profit corporations began to get into the business. Between 2000 and 2012, Medicare payments for hospice care increased fivefold, from $2.9 billion to $15.1 billion annually, even as the share of hospices run for a profit doubled from 30% to 60%, says the The Washington Post. Payments in 2013 are expected to exceed $17 billion.   read more

Missouri, which started drug testing for welfare applicants this year, spent almost $500,000 over eight months to conduct 636 drug tests that identified only 20 people who tested positive out of 32,000 people who applied for assistance, a rate of 0.0625%. Nevertheless, the state of Kansas plans to spend nearly $1 million to implement a program next year. They might want to ask their neighbors in Missouri about that.   read more

Haley tried to justify her call for arrests by pointing to an emergency regulation by the state Budget and Control Board (which Haley chairs) that banned sleeping on Statehouse grounds. But the new rule made no reference to a 6 pm or any other curfew on protesting. Also, it was adopted after the arrests were made.   read more

To cover this expenditure, the town council led, by St. Lawrence, proposed that Ramapo commit to $16.5 million in long-term bonds. This arrangement, though, required voter approval. When the matter appeared on the local ballot, more than 70% of residents rejected it. But St. Lawrence was determined to get his stadium. So he convinced council members to invest in short-term bonds totaling $25 million—a move that didn’t require voters’ support.   read more