PND Commentary

"At yesterday’s Senate hearing the CEO of Apple said they follow the law when they 'defer' billions and billions of dollars in taxes they owe by keeping profits 'out of the country.' He’s talking about the 'Subpart F' corporate tax loophole that practically forces companies to move jobs and factories and profit centers out of the country. ('Double Irish' to those in the know. 'Double Irish With A Dutch Sandwich' to those who know too much.) So let’s change that law and make these companies pay the taxes they already owe." (05/22/13)

"As the death toll of Syria's two-year-old civil war reaches the 80,000 mark, the U.S. has upped the ante by announcing that it will provide $123 million in 'non-lethal' assistance to the Free Syrian Army, including body armor, night-vision goggles and communications equipment. In addition, partly in response to new, non-definitive reports of the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against small numbers of insurgents, administration officials are reportedly thinking of dispatching heavy weapons to the rebels and establishing 'no fly' safe zones, as in Libya." (05/22/13)

"It’s rare for environmental organizations to lead outside spending in an election. Even the largest don't have that much cash to burn. But in last month's Senate primary in Massachusetts, no other interest group spent more. 350.org Action Fund, the young political arm of the climate campaign group 350.org, picked this as its first race and dropped just over $50,000 during the primary. Hedge-funder Tom Steyer's NextGen Committee spent more than $500,000, according to the Federal Election Commission -- almost half of which went to the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). The LCV contributed a fair bit of its own money on the race, too, with its total spending ringing in around $850,000." (05/22/13)

"Suddenly, the price of speaking one’s mind has gotten very high. You may agree on every issue save one; dare to share your independent or dissident view -- and you might shut down the conversation or lose all your friends. Since this kind of censorship and self-censorship has been going on for some time, people who want to stay out of trouble write under pseudonyms, smile carefully at meetings and dinner parties, but do not say what they really think, there is too much at stake. I call this the crisis of individualism and the destruction of independent thinking. It is the death knell of free thought, free speech, critical inquiry, and Western civilization (at its best) as we have known it." (05/22/13)

"Iraq is edging closer to all-out sectarian war between Sunni and Shia Muslims as a series of car bombings and shootings killed at least 90 people and left many others injured." (05/22/13)

"Most of the international debate about Syria policy focuses on how to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power. Options for NATO states and key Arab League partners include everything from enlisting Russia’s help in a diplomatic approach, with a conference now envisioned for early June, to arming the rebels to perhaps even supporting them with limited amounts of airpower. Removing Assad, however, would no more end the Syrian conflict than overthrowing Saddam Hussein in 2003 brought stability to Iraq. The United States must create a more integrated overall strategy." (05/22/13)

"As the news of the latest turns in Iran’s presidential election develops ... it’s useful to remember that Iran’s election is about Iran, not the United States. President Obama, who’d like to restart talks with Iran over its nuclear program after the election on June 14, may also need to talk to Iran about the civil war in Syria and about Afghanistan, too, where a renewed fighting season has boosted the Taliban’s fortunes. But, as always, Obama will have to deal with the Iran that exists in the real world, not the Iran he’d wish for." (05/22/13)

"Freedom of conscience is one of the most fundamental human freedoms. This freedom is not merely about one’s ability to choose to believe or not believe in religion or a particular philosophy. In a democracy, freedom of conscience is about the ability to be critical of government and corporations, and to be free from the chilling fear that being critical will subject you to government surveillance. Freedom of conscience is not fully realized in isolation. Without the ability to share one’s thoughts, to speak out about injustice, or to join with others in peaceably assembling to petition for redress of grievances, this core freedom is not truly free. Americans should be able to exercise these most sacred rights in free society without worry of being monitored by the government." (05/21/13)

"Attorney General Eric Holder is President Obama’s worst appointment. Holder started out with baggage -- the Clinton pardons of Marc Rich and unrepentant Puerto Rican terrorists. With the media leak investigations, he is carrying more baggage. And Holder’s load is likely to become heavier. Nonetheless, the president told reporters last week, Holder has Obama’s full support." (05/21/13)

"The Center for American Progress, Washington’s leading liberal think tank, has been a big backer of the Energy Department’s $25 billion loan guarantee program for renewable energy projects. CAP has specifically praised First Solar, a firm that received $3.73 billion under the program, and its Antelope Valley project in California. Last year, when First Solar was taking a beating from congressional Republicans and in the press over job layoffs and alleged political cronyism, CAP’s Richard Caperton praised Antelope Valley in his testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, saying it headed up his list of 'innovative projects' receiving loan guarantees." [editor's note: Good of him to target CAP, instead of similar (conservative) behaviors; hypocrisy abounds ... in all team-colors! - SAT] (05/21/13)

"For over a week, Republicans have refused to focus on anything but so-called scandal. And, it turns out, that’s exactly the way they want it. On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, sent a letter to GOP leaders, and told them to avoid working on any legislation that could take the focus off of the Obama Administration. ... In other words, they want Republicans to use the media’s scandal obsession to keep the focus off of in-fighting within the Party, and to avoid getting any real work done." [editor's note: The fact that the behavior of the empire under Obombya has indeed been (repeatedly) "scandalous" apparently isn't supposed to matter? - SAT] (05/21/13)

"The person providing moral leadership in the wake of the horrific Boston Marathon bombings is not a faith leader, but a funeral home director. Killed in a shootout with police after he and his younger brother allegedly set off the two bombs, Tamerlan Tsarnaev laid, unburied for six days, in the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worchester, MA. He reveals that dead men do tell tales." (05/21/13)

"We are witnessing the slow death of public opinion in this country. It’s being displaced by party opinion. These days, more and more Americans are inclined to judge issues from a partisan viewpoint. ... Elections today are less and less about persuasion and more and more about mobilization: You rally your supporters in order to beat back your opponents. ... Republicans today are all fired up over the controversies involving the Internal Revenue Service, the State Department and the Justice Department. They see Watergate." (05/21/13)

"Cannabis Culture contributor Ellen Komp assembles the evidence that Jay Gatsby ... was a weed dealer. 'Remember, Gatsby is set in the 20s, when pot was still legal and sold in pharmacies, as cigarettes or tinctures. ... Gatsby is said to own a chain of drug stores at which anything, including bootleg liquor, can be bought. ... one of Gatsby’s associates, Meyer Wolfsfheim, is modeled on Arnold Rothstein, the first international drug smuggler and gambler who famously fixed the 1919 World Series.'" (05/20/13)

"OurFuture.org’s Roger Hickey and Richard Eskow explain during their appearance Sunday on 'Pivot Point with Maya Rockeymoore' what it will take for progressives to win the fight against conservative austerity economic policies that are holding down the economy and preventing the job growth that we need." (05/20/13)

"When I set out to investigate the appeal of Transition, a sustainability movement that has spread to 1,105 towns in 43 countries over the past eight years, I started with what I thought was a basic question: What are ‘Transition Towns’ transitioning to? 'Resilience,' I was told. 'What does that mean?' I asked, thinking vaguely of steel. 'The ability to absorb shocks to a system!' was the reply. Well, yes, but ... ?" (05/20/13)

"In 2008, I was one of the young feminist whippersnappers who voted for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries -- or as many of my older counterparts called me at the time, a traitor. I didn’t believe there was (as Jen Moseley, my then-colleague at Feministing, put it) a 'vagina litmus test.' I wanted to vote for the most feminist candidate, regardless of gender. Next time around, though, I’m voting for a woman. Not because I believe that the female Democratic candidate (and I think we all have a good idea who that will be) is guaranteed to be the most feminist, but because I’m just too fed up to do anything else. I’ve made a full transition from youthful idealism to jaded orneriness, and my vote will be just as angry as I am." [editor's note: It will be interesting to revist this in 3 more years, when the Demopubs put up the usual pair of "peckerheads" - SAT] (05/18/13)

"In March 1995, I visited the sacred burial ground of Americans’ rights and liberties -- the Supreme Court. Working on an article for Playboy, I went to watch lawyers argue a case of great principle and tawdry details. Sharlene Wilson was a repeat offender and former government snitch who had been nailed for two sales of marijuana totaling $105. The state of Arkansas -- which could not afford to pave many of its own roads -- planned to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars incarcerating Wilson for the next 30 years." (05/20/13)

"If U.S. companies like Nike reduce their footprint in Bangladesh and abandon factories there out of fear of bad publicity, 'hundreds of thousands of garment workers could lose their jobs and be thrust into worse alternatives.' Well, yeah -- true as far as it goes. When a mugger says 'your money or your life,' I’m better off handing over the money and staying alive -- but it’s the guy with the gun who artificially set the range of alternatives." (05/20/13)

"What a drag it’s been these past few weeks to watch the military brass -- those kings of accountability, at least when it comes to other people’s behavior -- huffing and bluffing and outright lying about what they knew and when they knew it. First we had to endure the sight of them gaping over the news that the sexual-violence crisis they’ve done nothing to squelch since the assault of 83 women and seven men at the Tailhook Air Force convention in 1991 has worsened. Now those same Pentagon officials are shocked, simply shocked, by the military’s spiking suicide rates, despite the fact that those numbers, which have been rising steadily for the past 12 years, come from their own reporting system." (05/20/13)

"A string of leaders and senior emissaries, seeking to prevent further escalation of the Syria crisis, has headed to Moscow recently to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. First, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, then British Prime Minister David Cameron, next Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and now, most recently, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon These leaders see Russia as the key to resolving the Syria quandary. But to get Russia to cooperate on any stabilization plan, the United States and its allies will have to take into account Russia’s significant interests in the Mediterranean region." (05/20/13)

"The very idea of 'global leadership' is a fiction: no one country can be said to 'lead' anything in a global context. It is a meaningless concept. Each and every country has its own unique interests, which depend on its location, its size, its history, and a number of other factors peculiar to itself. And while a strong country can bully a number of weaker states, and subordinate their interests to its own, there are limitations to this approach -- and isn’t that the lesson of the last decade or so?" (0520/13)

"For weeks, I’ve been writing that the movement to increase the minimum wage [is] near you. Next week, however, that movement will arrive in my own back yard. Low-wage workers organized by Good Jobs Nation are coming to Washington, DC to rally for living wages, on Tuesday, May 21st, at 12:00pm, at Columbus Circle, in front of Union Station. But this protest isn’t targeting fast food restaurants ... or retail shops. On Tuesday, low-wage workers will take their demands to the biggest low-wage job creator in the country -- the one funded by taxpayers like you and me: the federal government." (05/17/13)

"In the wake of one of the worst abuses of government power in recent history, many are rushing to frame the Internal Revenue Service scandal as simply an attack on conservative activists. That view risks creating a partisan political football and misses a fundamentally scarier abuse that exceeds the scandals of Watergate or any other prior government abuse. The IRS has admitted that since May 2010 it targeted grassroots-conservative organizations that had applied for tax-exempt status, unfairly subjecting them to rigorous scrutiny due to their political leanings." (05/17/13)