The National Security State
While David Cameron has just been speaking hypothetically about shutting down social networks to stop riots, BART turned off cell phone coverage at San Francisco Civic Center station. Didn’t Egypt fine Hosni Mubarak for this kind of censorship?
Slate reports that Andres Breivik may have put a code in his manifesto, with GPS coordinates of locations across Europe.
The AP has profiles of many of the men who died in the helicopter downing over the weekend.
As Paul Pillar summarizes, at the same time as almost 1/6 of Congress goes to Israel on a junket, Israel continues to encourage illegal settlements, forcing the US to waste political capital on preventing Palestinians from getting justice via other means, like statehood. Meanwhile, Antiwar notes that AIPAC’s funding has gotten really fishy, presumably in response to the Steve Rosen defamation lawsuit against it.
In a “Six Questions” with Scott Horton, Harold Bloom draws parallels between the Presidents Bush and late Roman emperors and calls Obama a “pseudo-Aurelius” for the way he has continued W’s policies.
The Vice President of the Maersk Line limited thinks bad policies passed by Congress are worse than pirates. Of course, there’s a significant underlying bias here that says that shipping companies should not have to pay the external costs, so take what is otherwise a very intriguing essay with that grain of salt.
Our Dying Economy
Finally, someone in Congress has pointed out that one way to minimize chances of hacked circuits and chips is to make them in the United States.
The SEC is investigating the S&P’s downgrade.Not competently, I’m guessing.
I talked about how insane it is that people who produce (manufacture or farm) get such a small chunk of the money we spend on their products. This Grist article talks about how Farmers Markets support jobs.
64% of Americans don’t have enough cash to handle a $1000 emergency expense. Give stats on net worth, this should not be a surprise to anyone. Still bad news, but not a surprise.
Justice and Injustice
The Cash for Kids judge got sentenced to 28 years. Heck, I wouldn’t have minded if his sentence were longer.
On the same day Multiple Choice Mitt reminded us all that corporations are people, Exxon filed to have the full Circuit review an opinion holding that corporations, like individuals, could be held liable for torture and other human rights violations.