After over two weeks in theaters, Disney’s live-action Cinderella is going strong. A true-blue rendition of a 65-year-old cartoon has reaped a follow-through to make modern rivals jealous. Its second week nearly upstaged The Divergent Series: Insurgent’s first. For many, Cinderella director Kenneth Branagh’s shift from filming unabridged Shakespeare to churning out blockbusters embodies Hollywood’s squandering of creative talent. Jacobin’s…

On March 23rd a Wall Street Journal piece appeared, alleging that an Obama administration official  accused Israeli intelligence of spying on close door nuclear talks between the US and Iran and leaking the details to congress. The claim was denied by both Israel and top ranking US Legislators. This comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin…

This election cycle’s crop of uninspiring presidential hopefuls, now including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, must be a relief to those favoring mass disillusionment with electoral politics. No candidate, Rand Paul included, represents a convincing alternative to the status quo. Contrast this with the current president, whose appeals to “hope” and “change” convinced many Americans of…

A story over at Estado de S. Paulo (“Brasil que se vire com arenas vazias, diz FIFA. ‘O problema é de vocês’”, Estadão Esportes, March 21) notes that FIFA isn’t at all interested in Brazil anymore, and that the useless stadiums the 2014 World Cup left us are not their problem and should be dealt…

Voltairine de Cleyre, the 19th and 20th century anarchist without adjectives, stated in her essay, “Anarchism and American Traditions” that, “…the nature of government is to become a thing apart, an institution existing for its own sake, preying upon the people, and teaching whatever will tend to keep it secure in its seat.” If the…

Ongoing Brazilian Federal Police investigations of construction companies involved in the billion-dollar Petrobras bribery scandal have predictably ruffled some feathers. Naturally, many who worry about the investigations wear white collars. However, according to the president of the Unified Workers Central (CUT) Vagner Freitas, if we put the suits behind bars, the biggest losers will be……

After the large scale protests throughout Brazil last Sunday, politicians, bureaucrats and the pro-government media are hurrying to talk about “political reform” as an answer to popular dissatisfaction — as opposed to the “coup-supporting” opposition who longs for president Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. Marcelo Zero, for instance, preaches the party line and states that “those who…

The website Antiwar.com (whose name is self-explanatory) announced March 18 that Google Adsense had suspended its account — a major source of the revenue it needs to stay online — for publishing new photos of torture and abuse from the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq (Eric Garris, “Google Disables All Ads on Antiwar.com,” March…

The Huffington Post‘s Ryan J. Reilly reported last week that two officers were shot during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri. The gathering in question was spurred by news of Thomas Jackson’s resignation as police chief. Jackson quit after the Justice Department released a report revealing racial biases, revenue-driven policies and the criminalization of Ferguson citizens writ large…

The recent release of the documentary Citizenfour has refocused media attention on Edward Snowden, who last week restated his willingness to return to the U.S. to face the music if permitted a fair and impartial trial. Of course, this isn’t something he will receive; the state has repeatedly claimed that Snowden has egregiously wounded national…

March 16 marks an important date for those who cherish peace and harmony between human beings: Open Borders Day. The website openborders.info, founded by Vipul Naik, is in its third year of existence (it began March 16, 2012). It aims at opening up the conversation around immigration and freedom of movement across political borders. Its…

Imagine the following scenario: You’re driving along one fine evening, pretty thoroughly drunk, and ram your car through police tape and into a barricade.  Suppose further that the barricade you’ve smashed into is in front of the White House. For good measure, let’s add that the police tape you broke was marking off an active crime scene…

With marijuana legalization efforts finding success in scattered parts of the United States, Rhode Island stands as a potential trailblazer. A new attempt at legalization put forth by its state legislature looms as a modest victory in 2015 for proponents of liberty and sane drug policy. Modest, because unfortunately the state would still maintain a…

On March 10th a jury in Los Angeles ordered songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to pay $7.3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye. The jury found that Williams and Thicke’s hit song, “Blurred Lines”, infringed on the copyright of Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up.” While Thicke and Williams have previously…

I normally associate terms like “treason” and “sedition” with right-wing know-nothings like the American Legion. So it’s eye-rollingly painful, in cases like the letter to Iran from Tom Cotton and 47 other Republican senators, to hear self-described progressives seize on those terms. By way of background, the Congressional GOP recently invited ultra-hawkish and ultra-racist Israeli…

Sao Paulo is one of the great cities of the world. Located in southeastern Brazil, this sprawling metropolis is the most populous city in the country — second in all of the Americas. The state of Sao Paulo is the wealthiest in Brazil and uses its power to influence the nation’s trade, commerce, finance and foreign relations….

As expected, reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Washington DC Congressional address broke pretty much  along party lines, both in Israel and the United States.  Those already susceptible to Netanyahu’s war fever heard a compelling, irrefutable case against any nuclear deal with Iran.  Those familiar with Netanyahu’s “boy who cried wolf” routine weren’t persuaded. In Israel, Netanyahu’s expected election numbers…

In a backstage interview at Real Time with Bill Maher, science educator and entertainer Bill Nye expressed a change of mind on genetically engineered food. Formerly concerned about the environmental impacts of transgenic species Nye now says: “I went to Monsanto and I spent a lot of time with the scientists there, and I have…

Cody Wilson, a founder of Defense Distributed, is a name too often connected with the failures of corporate and government bureaucracy. For those not in the know Defense Distributed is a Texas non-profit that defends the so-called constitutional right to bear arms.  But once again this supposed “guarantee” will be abridged by another corporation. This…

In a February 22 interview, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore discussed his reasons for nixing issuance of same-sex marriage licenses by probate judges in the state. “You’re taking any definition of a family away,” said Moore. He also expressed fear that bisexuals might “marry two persons, one of the same sex and one of the opposite…