Monday, December 21st, 2015
John B. Alexander, Ph.D, Author - The Huffington Post
Stephan: John Alexander has written one of the most sensible things I have read about ISIS and Islamic terrorism.
It ought to be obvious to everyone that what we are doing in the Islamic world is not working. For nearly 15 years there has been one disaster after another, and whole blocs of the world are now ruled by chaos and death. Imagine instead what two trillion dollars could have done to move the Middle East out of poverty and instability.
Part of dealing with ISIS is understanding what ISIS is. Alexander, a retired special forces colonel, combat veteran, and geostrategist lays out here some of the central issues.
Credit: BBC News
While analysts have recognized a plethora of emerging non-traditional threats to national and international security there has been a consistent effort to portray them as objects. Notably the Global War on Terror brought confusion since the stated objective was to eliminate a means of conducting attacks. In fact, it was elimination of terrorists that was the objective. Using the snake model of counterterrorism, military action focused on elimination of key leadership such as Osama bin Laden. The premise was that decapitation would disrupt or significantly degrade the entire organization. However, it has become apparent that there was no terrorist snake. Rather, lurking treacherously was a virulent Hydra capable of constant regeneration and multiplying.
As the threats are perpetually morphing government agencies are relegated to constantly playing catch-up. Most analysts assume that recognizable structures for their adversaries must exist. Further they tend to anticipate that opposing organizational structure will follow the rules normally associated with Western social order and inherently are hierarchical in nature. After attacks there is a search for the architect that they assume must be present. The reality is […]
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Monday, December 21st, 2015
Rebecca McCray, - Nation of Change
Stephan: The American Gulag is a system of shame. Solitary confinement, grotesque overcrowding, poor medical care, and did I mention the food. Imagine you lived on this, in a cement box 6 by 8 feet. You were there 23 hours a day, it was very noisy, and the lights were bright 24/7. How long would you be sane?
We have five per cent of the world's population, and 25 per cent of its prisoners, overwhelmingly men and women of color, and we treat all of them badly.
Nutraloaf prison food.
Its ingredients vary by state. Some include beans, others add raisins; dehydrated potato flakes occasionally find their way into the dreaded prison dish. But one thing remains constant: No one wants to eat Nutraloaf.
Now, thanks to a raft of reforms made to New York state’s solitary confinement policy as part of a lawsuit settlement, prisons will no longer be serve the bland loaf. Sometimes referred to as “disciplinary loaf,” Nutraloaf is served as a culinary punishment for prisoners who misbehave, according to experts involved in the lawsuit.
“I would taste it and just throw it away,” George Eng told The New York Times. Eng served 36 years for murder and spent time in solitary confinement. “You’d rather be without food than eat that.”
The settlement won Wednesday in Peoples v. Fischer by the New York chapter of the ACLU dictates that the corrections department “will replace the loaf…with a nutritious, calorie-sufficient, and palatable alternative meal composed of regular food items that can be safely delivered to and eaten […]
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Monday, December 21st, 2015
Brendan Fischer, - truthout
Stephan: The problem presented by the Kochs is not just their politics, but that they are evangelical about them. And they have enough money to compromise the integrity of the judicial system to their own benefit. Here's the story.
David Koch speaking at the 2015 Defending the American Dream Summit at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, on August 21, 2015.
Credit: Gage Skidmore
Charles and David Koch have received positive press for backing a bipartisan effort to reform American criminal justice laws, which have helped make the US the world’s biggest jailer and whose burdens have fallen disproportionately on people of color.
But, as the Kochs ride the wave of momentum toward criminal justice reform, it is becoming increasingly clear that part of their agenda would actually make it harder to prosecute corporate violations of environmental and financial laws that protect the public from corporate wrongdoing. The changes would make it harder to hold executives and their employees responsible for violating US laws and would protect their financial interests, at the public’s expense.
Over at least the past five years, the Kochs and Koch-backed groups like the American […]
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Sunday, December 20th, 2015
Heather Boerner , - The Daily Beast
Stephan: This is a cautionary tale about epidemics and pharmaceutical profits. And it poses a question: Is it more important for a few people to make money, or for an epidemic to be stopped? Truvada, the drug that is the focus of this report, costs $1,500 a month cash price in most U.S. drugstores -- $18,000 a year. Many health policies cover much of this if risk can be proven it is true, but it is still expensive and often individuals don't qualify. Given the only 30 per cent of people with HIV have it under control and transmission rates continue to concern, it would seem it was in the social interest to see that as many at-risk people as possible should have comfortable access to this drug, Less than 1% actually do.
Credit: Justin Sullivan
Although a daily pill can prevent HIV infection, very few people actually take it.
About 1.2 million Americans are at high risk for HIV and could benefit from taking the pill, sold under the brand name Truvada, in a strategy that doctors call “pre-exposure prophylaxis,” or PrEP, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Studies in men who have sex with men show that taking PrEP reduces the risk of contracting HIV by 92%. Studies in injection drug users have found that PrEP reduced the risk of infection by more than 70%.
Yet only about 21,000 people – less than 1% of those who could benefit – are taking PrEP, the CDC’s Jonathan Mermin said.
Although the Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada in 2012, one-third of primary care doctors have never heard of PrEP, according to a national survey that has not yet been published.
“We have this sea change in HIV prevention, but it is one of the best-kept secrets in medicine,” said J.D. Davids, managing editor at TheBody.com, an […]
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Sunday, December 20th, 2015
Adam Johnson, Associate Editor - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: I'll be honest. Some days I read stories and think to myself, have we reached a point of ignorance where a democracy just can't exist in substance? This is one of those stories. The GOP has become a racist fear based fantasy cult in which in the best Orwellian doublethink ignorance is knowledge. Agrabah of course does not exist. It is a fantasy country in the Disney movie Aladdin. But 30% of Republicans are prepared to bomb it into submission. So are 19% of Democrats. It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
Agrabah the mythical country in the Disney film Aladdin.
Credit: Disney Studios.
A Public Policy Poll released today asked GOP primary voters, among other things, if they would support bombing Agrabah, the fictional country from the 1993 Disney film Aladdin. Thirty percent said yes while only 13 percent of Republicans oppose bombing a nation that doesn’t exist and therefore could not be a threat to anyone in this dimension let alone the United States. To be fair, 19 percent of Democrats said they would favor bombing Agrabah, Buzzfeed reports.
The candidate with the most supporters who want to bomb Agrabah is Donald Trump, with 41 percent saying they support the assault on the infamous cartoon stronghold.
The question provides a fascinating window into how Islamophobia shapes our foreign policy. That almost a third of Republicans support bombing a Muslim-sounding country that does not, in fact, exist displays the degree to which an across-the-board dislike of Muslims and Arabs informs our current political culture. It is […]
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