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U.S. Embassy Apologizes After Inviting "Anti-Thaksin Activist"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- After receiving loud and embarrassing complaints,
the U.S. Embassy has tried to defuse its diplomatic blunder by
publicly apologizing a second time for officially identifying a
prominent Thai as an enemy of one of Thailand's most popular former
prime ministers.

"To err is human! I delivered a properly addressed invite to Dr.
Pramote, apologized for our mistake. #HumblePie," tweeted U.S. Embassy
Charge d'Affaires W. Patrick Murphy on June 23.

https://twitter.com/wpatrickmurphy

The American diplomat also posted a photograph of himself -- dressed
in a dark blue suit with a tiny pin displaying a U.S. flag and a Thai
flag -- handing a white envelope to an unsmiling, gray-haired Pramote
Nakornthab, who is a former Thammasat University professor.

Mr. Murphy was trying to fix his gaffe which appeared during the
weekend when the Embassy mailed an invitation card to Dr. Pramote and
addressed the envelope:  "Dr. Pramote Nakornthab, Anti-Thaksin

Would Jeffrey Sterling Be in Prison If He Were White?


Last week CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling went to prison. If he were white, he probably wouldn’t be there.

 

Sterling was one of the CIA’s few African-American case officers, and he became the first to file a racial discrimination lawsuit against the agency. That happened shortly before the CIA fired him in late 2001. The official in Langley who did the firing face-to-face was John Brennan, now the CIA’s director and a close adviser to President Obama.

 

Five months ago, in court, prosecutors kept claiming that Sterling’s pursuit of the racial-bias lawsuit showed a key “motive” for providing classified information to journalist James Risen. The government’s case at the highly problematic trial was built entirely on circumstantial evidence. Lacking anything more, the prosecution hammered on ostensible motives, telling the jury that Sterling’s “anger,” “bitterness” and “selfishness” had caused him to reveal CIA secrets.

 

No Sanctuary - Why Black Churches are Still Under Attack


Like most Americans, I woke up last week to the news of another attack on a Black church. Nine people were shot to death during bible study in Charleston, South Carolina. This time, the alleged shooter is a 21-year-old white male who looks like he wouldn’t harm a fly. 

While the motives for the attacks are still unclear, and under investigation, early reports indicate that this was another hate crime. FBI statistics from 2013 show, of 3,407 single biased hate crime incidents, 66% were motivated by anti-black or African American bias.

Black churches have been under attack for hundreds of years, dating back to slavery. Be it bombings during the civil rights movement, or Black churches being set on fire, the Black church has been under perpetual attack since its inception. Why is a place that is supposed to be a sanctuary constantly under attack by people who want to exercise their racial hatred? How can people be that evil to go to a house of worship to murder and vandalize?

HIs Soul Wrapped in a Confederate Flag

At the bond hearing, grieving loved ones forgave Dylann Roof. This was reported as news, but it was so much more than that. It was the light embracing the darkness.

And white America absorbed this forgiveness through the eyes of the 21-year-old terrorist, who watched the proceedings on a video screen from his jail cell. Whatever he heard and felt is unknown, but beyond him, in the world he believed he was saving, something gave. The solidarity of whiteness — the quiet assumption of white supremacy — shuddered ever so slightly.

The flag, the flag . . .

The fate of this symbolic relic of the slave era is now the big story in the aftermath of Roof’s murder of nine African-Americans. He acted in such clear allegiance to the Confederate flag that politicians everywhere — even Republican presidential candidates — are demanding, or at least acquiescing to, its removal from public and official locations, such as in front of the South Carolina State House.

Not only that, “Walmart and Sears, two of the country’s largest retailers, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from their stores,” CNN reported.

Why Democrats Can’t Win

The way our electoral process now stands, electronic voting machines guarantee a Republican victory in 2016.
   No matter what she does, Hillary Clinton—-or any other Democratic nominee—- cannot be elected without a fundamental change in the basic mechanics of how our votes are cast and counted.
   It is a profoundly disturbing reality that casts a long shadow over all that’s wrong with our electoral system, no matter who one favors for public office.
   Just 15 years after the theft of the 2000 election, the Democrats have finally begun to talk about voter rights and various methods to guarantee public access to the polls.
   But for a non-Republican to win the White House next year, two virtually impossible things must happen: the Democrat must win by absolutely indisputable margins far beyond simple majorities—-10% or more—- in the key states whose electronic tallies will swing the Electoral College.
   Or the nation must find and accept a way to guarantee a reliable vote count immune to electronic manipulation by those who control the voting apparatus in each state, meaning the governors and secretaries of state.

Why the TPP is Worse than Mystery Meat

 Remember the World Trade Organization, which slipped into the shadows after massive Seattle protests in 1999? The same day last week that Congress initially blocked the possibility of fast track approval for the TPP trade agreement, the House voted to overturn rules requiring country-of-origin labeling for meat. Those supporting the vote said they were responding to a World Trade Organization ruling, judging US country-of-origin labeling unfair competition with meat coming from foreign countries like Canada and Mexico, and therefore a violation. They said they had no choice for fear of triggering sanctions or lawsuits from countries exporting meat across our borders.

Public Didn't See Last Two World Wars Coming Either

Books about how World War I started, and to a lesser degree how World War II started, have tended in recent years to explain that these wars didn’t actually come as a surprise, because top government officials saw them coming for years. But these revised histories admit that the general public was pretty much clueless and shocked.

The fact is that anyone in the know or diligently seeking out the facts could see, in rough outline, the danger of World War I or World War II coming years ahead, just as one can see the threats of environmental collapse and World War III approaching now. But the general public lacked a decent understanding prior to the first two world wars and lacks it now on the looming dangers created by environmental destruction and aggressive flirtation with World War III.

What led to the first two world wars and allowed numerous wise observers to warn of them years ahead, even to warn of World War II immediately upon completion of the treaty that ended World War I? A number of factors ought to be obvious but are generally overlooked:

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