1

Melvin A. Goodman – The Reality of Robert Gates

Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who served both Bush administrations as well as the Obama administration, has produced his third self-aggrandizing memoir. His most recent effort, A Passion for Leadership, is in the form of lessons learned, but there is no acknowledgement of any flaw or stumble, let alone mistake. Gates writes, “A leader, or those who …

1

Tom Engelhardt – Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Here’s my twenty-first-century rule of thumb about this country: if you have to say it over and over, it probably ain’t so. Which is why I’d think twice every time we’re told how “exceptional” or “indispensable” the United States is. For someone like me who can still remember a moment when Americans assumed that was so, but no sitting president, …

1

For many species, noise pollution can be deadly

Some reef-dwelling fish are twice as likely to get gobbled up by predators in the presence of a noisy motorboat, according to a study released Friday. The research, published in Nature Communications, adds to a growing body of evidence that noise pollution — on land and in the water — is a serious menace for wildlife. Many mammals, birds and …

1

Does Language Influence How You See The World?

The language you are introduced to affects the structure of your brain, influences how you see the world and who you are. But what if you speak two languages? Can learning a language rewire your brain? As our species evolved parts of our brain expanded, resulting in more computing power for language. It’s what makes us hard-wired for communication. What …

1

Martin Shkreli Is Just One of Many Pharma A-Holes

They throw lavish boat parties while marking up life-saving medication 5,000 percent. Nancy Retzlaff is not Martin Shkreli. She won’t inspire hundreds of news articles nor will she become the subject of any Internet memes. She won’t threaten Ghostface Killah and it seems unlikely that she will ever flirt with a minor on a YouTube livestream. But the chief commercial officer for Turing Pharma …

1

ELIZA A. WEBB – Hillary Clinton’s Populist Charade

At the 5th Democratic debate Thursday night, Hillary Clinton repeatedly attempted to cloak herself in the cape of a populist hero, claiming she has stood up, time and time again, for those Americans “left behind and left out.” In her own words: “[I’ve got a] record of having fought for racial justice, having fought for kids rights, having fought the …

1

Robert Reich – Why We Must Try

Instead of “Yes we can,” many Democrats have adopted a new slogan this election year: “We shouldn’t even try.” We shouldn’t try for single-payer system, they say. We’ll be lucky if we prevent Republicans from repealing Obamacare. We shouldn’t try for a $15 an hour minimum wage. The best we can do is $12 an hour. We shouldn’t try to …

1

John Michael Greer – Whatever Happened to Peak Oil?

A few months from now, this blog will complete its tenth year of more-or-less-weekly publication. In words the Grateful Dead made famous, it’s been a long strange trip:  much longer and stranger than I had any reason to expect, certainly, when I typed up that first essay and got it posted on what was still, to me, the alien landscape of …

1

Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman – New Hampshire: The Birthplace of Electronic Election Theft

s the New Hampshire primary lurches toward the finish line, the reality of electronic election theft looms over the vote count. The actual computer voting machines were introduced on a grand scale in New Hampshire’s 1988 primary. The godfather was George H.W. Bush, then the vice president. As former boss of the CIA, Bush was thoroughly familiar with the methods …

1

Act Now, Urges Study, or Planet Faces 10,000+ Years of Climate Doom

“The next few decades offer a brief window of opportunity to minimize large-scale and potentially catastrophic climate change that will extend longer than the entire history of human civilization thus far.” The actions that policymakers take in the next couple of years will have “profound impacts on global climate, ecosystems and human societies” for the next 10,000 years and beyond, …