For all his campaign bluster against the two cities New York has become, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio isn't exactly shying away from some of the people who helped make it that way. This morning, the mayor-elect announced that Alicia Glen will serve as Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, a newly created position that will aim to make housing more affordable, as well create living-wage jobs for New Yorkers.
Gaza was recently hit by a severe winter storm, and it lacks the electricity, water, and sewage infrastructure to deal with the crisis. Here, FYI, is report in Ma’an, a Palestinian news agency, describing the disastrous effects of this storm. Among other things, the report explains how electricity, fuel shortages, and a break down of the sewage system have limited the capacity to drain the flooded areas with cold sewage-laden water.
IMHO, Snowden needs to experience being the object of an “extraordinary rendition” and then be warehoused incommunicado at either GTMO or one of the Supermax facilities. Too bad that appears tactically infeasible at the moment.
Phi Beta Iota: Barton Gellman is an extraordinary individual (and former clandestine case officer whom we know and admire). He has written an article that is deeply nuanced and merits reading several times. His complete offering is below the line. Do not fail to read the last line.
Copyright Monopoly: Over the Yule holidays, I’ll be running a series of reminders of some of the most useful talkbacks. We open with one of the more common ones: copyright industry lawyers tend to insist that violation of the copyright monopoly is “stealing”. But in the judicial field, lawyers always go by what the courts say, and the US Supreme Court says it isn’t.
The American Gulag is a national shame. When I was growing up we used to judge the Soviet Union as evil in part because of its gulag. Ours is bigger, more pervasive and worse. Here is the latest on this trend. And once again, of course, it is all about placing profit first above humanity. It is America's besetting sin.
Another chapter of our past opens. It is fascinating to me that virtually everything I learned at school and university about early man has subsequently been overturned, and shown to be wrong. I consider this to be a good thing, and another example of why science and facts are important.
This is a very interesting development in science but, I fear, not good news because it may slow the transition out of carbon energy which is essential if we are to deal with climate change.
The evidence of what climate change is going to do to the people and other beings of the Earth continues to build up. And the story just gets worse and worse. Here is the latest scientific report.
Special comment: For reasons that are not clear, many of the governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have been destabilized a year or so after the catastrophe of the Arab Spring uprisings. Countries in stress include Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, South Sudan and Somalia. These readily come to mind, but there are others, no doubt.
Sub-Saharan African has not experienced this extent of violent internal unrest since 1960.
Intelligence services and their activities present unique challenges for democracies all over the world: on the one hand, these services serve a key role in national security and foreign policy and provide decision-makers with crucial information and assessments, while on the other hand, clandestine intelligence means and methods as well as the wide investigative…
The 20th Annual Conference of the IIHA will take place in Tutzing, Germany, in cooperation the the “Akademie für Politische Bildung”. Please reserve the date in your calender! We are expecting a very lively and interesting conference and hope to see you there. More details will be posted here soon.
