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Supreme Court Rules Overwhelmingly To Strike Down ‘Disparagement Clause’ Used To Bar Offensive Trademarks

Supreme Court Rules Overwhelmingly To Strike Down ‘Disparagement Clause’ Used To Bar Offensive Trademarks

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a major victory for free speech on Monday in striking down a provision of the Lanham Act that barred registration for “disparaging” trademarks. The decision came in Matal v. Tam, a case that we have been following. I have previously written about my disagreement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision to rescind federal trademark protections for the Redskins as a racially disparaging name. As predicted, the ruling answered the question raised in...

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Self-Defense Is No Defense for US Acts of War in Syria

Self-Defense Is No Defense for US Acts of War in Syria

The shooting down of a Syrian fighter jet by US forces this week comes on the back of several aggressive actions by American military on the ground. Taken together the US actions mark an alarming escalation of intervention in the Syrian war – to the point where the Americans can be said to be now openly at war against Syria.The American military actions also come despite repeated warnings from Russia against such unilateral deployment of force. Following the shoot-down of the Syrian SU-22...

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Trump Turns Back the Clock With Cold War Cuba U-Turn

Trump Turns Back the Clock With Cold War Cuba U-Turn

Nostalgia seems to be very popular in Washington. While the neocons and Democratic Party hard-liners have succeeded in bringing back the Cold War with Russia, it looks like President Trump is determined to take us back to a replay of the Bay of Pigs! In Miami on Friday, the president announced that he was slamming the door on one of President Obama’s few foreign policy successes: easing 50 years of US sanctions on Cuba. The nostalgia was so strong at Trump’s Friday speech that he even...

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Hodgkinson’s Disease: Politics and Paranoia in the Age of Trump

Hodgkinson’s Disease: Politics and Paranoia in the Age of Trump

James T. Hodgkinson, the would-be assassin of Republican congressmen, wasn’t a radical. If you look at his published output – a series of letters to his local newspaper in Belleville, Illinois, as well as the majority of his Internet postings – it’s mostly about matters nearly every progressive cares about: taxes (the rich don’t pay enough), healthcare (the government must provide), income inequality (it’s all a Republican plot). All in all, a pretty unremarkable worldview that any partisan...

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The ICC Should be on Trial not Saif Gaddafi

The ICC Should be on Trial not Saif Gaddafi

Saif Gaddafi at a press conference last week.The International Criminal Court has demanded that Libya hand over former leader Muamar Gaddafi's son Saif after his release by an armed militia last week, but it is the Court, not Saif, which should be on trial.One word tells you all you need to know about the ICC, and that’s ISIS: These terrorists have perpetuated the most appalling crimes in Libya, not least the ritual execution -- filmed and uploaded onto its website -- of Egyptian Coptic...

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It’s the Russia, Stupid

It’s the Russia, Stupid

It’s another week in Washington and another horror show. This time it was Attorney General Jeff Sessions being grilled by Senators on whether, when, and how he might have met with certain Russians, or any Russian, or someone who might actually know a Russian. In addition to fishing for any inconsistency that could be used to support an accusation of obstruction of justice or perjury – the usual sleazy methodology of politically motivated investigations here – the transparent aim was to further...

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Derangement And Danger On The Potomac

Derangement And Danger On The Potomac

The horrific shooting spree on the practice field of the GOP's congressional baseball team happened early yesterday morning, but it was hardly the end of Wednesday's madness on the Potomac. As it happened, the former was apparently another random eruption by of one of America's sicko lone wolves -- a wretch in the same league as South Carolina church killer, Dylann Roof. Notwithstanding that the latter had littered the nether regions of the internet with racist rantings while the former was...

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Trump Administration Following in Obama Administration’s Footsteps on Marijuana

Trump Administration Following in Obama Administration’s Footsteps on Marijuana

Last month, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to oppose Congress again including in Department of Justice appropriations legislation a provision intended to stop, through a restriction on the use of appropriated money, the US government from arresting and prosecuting people for actions that comply with state medical marijuana laws, even if those actions violate US drug laws. Some people are reacting to Sessions’ letter, which was...

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The War In Afghanistan Is A Racket

The War In Afghanistan Is A Racket

The United States will again escalate the war in Afghanistan.Sixteen years ago the US invaded the country and decided to eliminate the ruling Taliban for something that was planned elsewhere by a different group. Since the invasion, the US tried to defeat the Taliban. It has lost that fight. As soon as it leaves Afghanistan the Taliban will be back in power. But no one is willing to pull the plug on the nonsensical military approach.The Taliban are part of Afghanistan and a significant segment...

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New Russia Sanctions: The Deep State Unifies Congress

When it comes to bad foreign policy, the House and Senate are completely bipartisan. Yesterday's 97-2 Senate vote for more Russia sanctions was a perfect case in point. What justifies yet more sanctions on Russia? Violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine, meddling in the US election, and conducting war in Syria. But if this is the measure, shouldn't the Senate sanction the US government as well? After all, the US is violating Syria's territorial integrity with its illegal base, it has...

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Tyranny Over There but Not Over Here

Tyranny Over There but Not Over Here

One of the fascinating aspects of tyranny is that people can recognize it when it happens in other countries but are blind about it when it happens at home. The American people, especially the US mainstream press, are a perfect demonstration of this phenomenon.Consider the following article from last Sunday’s New York Times: “Dilemma for Uber and Rival: Egypt’s Demand for Data on Their Riders.” It details a request by the military dictatorship that governs Egypt that Uber provide government...

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The Saudi War Against Qatar

The Saudi War Against Qatar

What in the name of Allah is going on with the spat between Qatar, on one side, and the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates, and most of the rest of the Arab states on the other? Accusations that Qatar is the fulcrum of “terrorism” in the region, emanating from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi – the twin epicenters of Islamic extremism on earth – seemed to have been broadcast from Bizarro World. And the incident that sparked the controversy — in which much of the Arab world, led by the Saudis, blockaded tiny...

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Lynching Free Speech: The Intolerant State of America

Lynching Free Speech: The Intolerant State of America

My hometown of Charlottesville, Va., has become the latest poster child in a heated war of words—and actions—over racism, “sanitizing history,” extremism (both right and left), political correctness, hate speech, partisan politics, and a growing fear that violent words will end in violent actions.In Charlottesville, as in so many parts of the country right now, the conflict is over how to reconcile the nation’s checkered past, particularly as it relates to slavery, with the present need to...

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Global Peace Index: Where Do We Rank…And Why?

The new world ranking of peaceful and non-peaceful countries is out, and the results present the best case imaginable against US interventionism overseas. Of the ten least peaceful countries, nine of them have been on the receiving end of US destabilization, "regime change," or "liberation" efforts over the past decade or so. While US interventions are sold to the public as in our national security interest or to promote humanitarianism, the interventions all have one thing in common: they...

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Liars Lying About Nearly Everything

Liars Lying About Nearly Everything

The United States has been using lies to go to war since 1846, when Americans who believed in manifest destiny sought to expand to the Pacific Ocean at the expense of Mexico, acquiring by force of arms California and what were to become the southwestern states. In 1898 the US picked up the pieces of a dying Spanish Empire in a war that was driven by American imperialists and the yellow dog reporting of the Hearst Newspaper chain. And then came World War 1, World War 2, and Korea, all avoidable...

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Understanding the Cost of War: Moral Injury

Understanding the Cost of War: Moral Injury

“My guilt will never go away,” former Marine Matthew Hoh explained to me. “There is a significant portion of me that doesn’t believe it should be allowed to go away, that this pain is fair.” If America accepts the idea of fighting endless wars, it will have to accept something else as well: that the costs of war are similarly endless. I’m thinking about the trillions of dollars, the million or more “enemy” dead (including civilians of every imaginable sort), the tens of thousands of American...

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