[....] Steven L. Hall, a former C.I.A. head of Russian operations, said it was “very tempting and certainly reasonable” to connect the arrests to the American intelligence findings. But he added a cautionary note: “The rule of law doesn’t apply in Russia, and they manipulate the law to do whatever they want to do. So what they call treason may not be what we call treason.”[....]
Jan. 26- 3 reporters from Politico @ the GOP confab in Phillie round up a lot of quotes from whoever they could get to talk some reasonable sense to them instead of spin. Where more than one respondent basically just straight out says: we admire that businessmen like Trump like to act fast, but that's not what we do in Congress and besides we already got our own shit to work on.
Rightwing commentators on the foreign policy implications of the president’s inaugural address, his likely line on the culture wars and even his mental health
....In contrast to their weakness at the state and federal levels, Democrats dominate cities, especially large ones. Democratic mayors -- most of them quite liberal -- control city halls in 22 of America’s 25 largest cities. As the only remaining stronghold of progressive political power in the country, they will be called upon by left-leaning interest groups to pursue policies that are now complete nonstarters in Washington and most state capitols...
[....] This year’s report, released on Wednesday morning, has a striking finding: The United States has, for the first time, been rated as a “flawed” rather than “full” democracy.
Wright is definitely someone with the connections to know of insiders' displeasure. And she does include some new quotes. Of course, she's just another vile dishonest lying member of the media .
New York Times compilation on one very long page, definitely worth spending a page view if you're not a subscriber. After just a day in, can't think of a less popular president in my lifetime.
The culture wars continued: Avijit Roy, whose Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog championed liberal secular writing in the Muslim-majority nation, attacked along with his wife in Dhaka...Roy, said to be around 40, is the second Bangladeshi blogger to have been murdered in two years and the fourth writer to have been attacked since 2004. Hardline Islamist groups have long demanded the public execution of atheist bloggers and sought new laws to combat writing critical of Islam....
The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.
Sounds promising. Posting this here in honor of (or cursing?) ex-blogger Articleman (the "A" of Daglog) who got me addicted to the show's characters and plot.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the main judicial body of the United Nations, today rejected claims made by Croatia and Serbia accusing each other of committing genocide during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, a decision that is “without appeal” and binding....
The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voiced alarm today over the reported destruction of thousands of books in museums, libraries and universities across Mosul – the northern Iraq city currently controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).....
By Edwin Kindzeka Moki and Michelle Faul, Associated Press, Feb. 6, 2015
YAOUNDE, Cameroon--Nigerian Islamic extremists on the run from a massive, three-nation offensive took revenge Thursday on civilians in neighboring Cameroon, shooting and burning scores to death and razing mosques and churches....more than 500 wounded people are trapped in the town of Fotokol where fighting began Wednesday and continued Thursday. They said Boko Haram fighters are using civilians as shields....
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram's electric-shock studies showed that people will obey even the most abhorrent of orders. But recently, researchers have begin to question his conclusions—and offer some of their own.
By Angelina Jolie (special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), New York Times guest op-ed, Jan. 27/29 2015
KHANKE, Iraq — I HAVE visited Iraq five times since 2007, and I have seen nothing like the suffering I’m witnessing now. I came to visit the camps and informal settlements where displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees are desperately seeking shelter from the fighting that has convulsed their region [....]
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