As Obama said he would not take sides in the dispute between the CIA and the Senate, he actually took the CIA's side in a very subtle way.

Most Latin American governments have applied policies to reduce inequality, and extreme poverty across the region has been cut in half.

Right-wing politicians claim that the state anti-poverty programs can't work — because they know these methods can work, and aim to convince us not to employ them.

Studies find that maternal exposure to pesticides correlates with brain damage and reduced intelligence for children.

The US system of pesticide regulation allows agribusiness to run rings around the EPA in using toxic pesticides. If it changes practices every decade, it can always say, "The evidence is only about old our practices."

The Australian government wants to require arts activities to accept sponsorship from any business whatsoever, effectively banning rejection of sponsorship for ethical reasons.

This is in line with the plutocratist program of crushing all effective avenues for criticism of the crimes of businesses.

I wonder what will happen if a festival accepts sponsorship from a toxic mining company but says it will print on its brochures, "We are very sorry that the government requires us to accept sponsorship from Killer Coal Corporation." Presumably Killer Coal Corporation will withdraw the sponsorship. So will the government order the festival not to criticize the company, as well as ordering it to accept the money?

The UN Human Rights Council gave the US a stern lecture.

If enough of us repeat it, maybe we can make the US government stop committing so many crimes.

The US claims that human rights don't apply to what it does to people outside US borders.