One of the most notable but mostly uncovered political developments in recent years has been how enthusiastically many Religious Right leaders have embraced Russia’s anti-democratic president, former KGB official Vladimir Putin. It seems even more remarkable that the Republican Party’s presidential nominee has been lavishing praise on Putin even as Russia maneuvers to diminish America’s influence in the world. As president, Putin has consolidated his power through attacks on the independent media, the persecution of political opponents, and restrictions on civil society. He has annexed…
American Jews’ Opinions Toward Israel Shifted As Netanyahu Embraced the GOP
Gradually but inexorably, the nature of the American Jewish attachment to Israel began to change, to become more and more the province of the Orthodox. I do not begrudge the Orthodox their dominance. They didn’t steal Zionism from anyone. To a certain degree, non-Orthodox Jews have abdicated it. Regardless, the net effect is clear. Survey data tells us that Orthodox Jews in this country are twice as likely as Conservative Jews, four times as likely as Reform Jews, and eight times as likely as unaffiliated…
Contrary to Myth, Trump Isn’t Succeeding With Lower-Income White Voters
In 2012, Romney won 62 percent of noncollege-educated white voters. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed that Trump isn’t even winning a clear majority with the group, with just 49 percent backing him. A McClatchy/Marist poll puts him even lower, at 46 percent. This is a reversal from earlier in the summer, when Trump’s support among the group was in the 60s, higher than Romney’s, though not by leaps and bounds. Much of the analysis of Trump’s support was based on the fact that…
What Does the Future Hold for Republicans for Hillary?
Will the old neoconservatives/new neoliberals who support Clinton instead of Trump ever come back to the Republican party after the election? It depends on three unknowns. If Trump loses big, the neoliberals will remind Republican Trumpers that they had warned them about their populist folly. The neoliberals will seek to expunge populists and to rebuild a defeated Republican party in their own image as an improved version of the conservative establishment represented by the likes of Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. They may re-emerge as…
3D Printing Is Coming Soon to a Restaurant Near You
Back in 2013, when NASA was still setting its sights on a human mission to Mars, a team of Texas researchers won a federal grant to build a 3D printer that could pump out customized food in space. The natural first choice for a demo? Pizza, of course. But just after the first version was finished and a second grant was due to arrive, researcher Anjan Contractor and his team at the Systems and Materials Research Corporation in Austin, Texas, received the discouraging news that…
Survey Finds Many Black Religious Leaders Illegally Campaigning for Hillary Clinton
It is illegal for clergy to support or oppose political candidates from the pulpit. Houses of worship can host candidate forums and voter-registration drives; pastors and rabbis and imams can even bend the rules a little to advocate “as individuals” at conventions or other events. But for more than 60 years, religious groups have been forbidden from electioneering. Apparently, a lot of pastors don’t pay attention to this rule. According to a newsurvey from Pew Research Center, roughly 9 percent of people who have attended…
Lying About the Lord: Many People Exaggerate How Often They Attend Religious Services
Atheism and non-belief are growing rapidly in America, however, it is still considered one of the most religious countries in the world. Yet, saying you’re religious and being religious are two separate things and a recent study by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) suggests that many Americans greatly exaggerate how often they attend religious services. PRRI conducted two surveys, structured to be as identical as possible, using similarly sized, nationally representative samplings. 2,002 participants were asked the same questions, one group, via the phone, and another…
DOJ Examination Finds Baltimore Police Routinely Violated Citizens’ Rights
Baltimore police routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents by conducting unlawful stops and using excessive force, according to the findings of a long-anticipated Justice Department probe to be released Wednesday. The practices overwhelmingly affected the city’s black residents in low-income neighborhoods, according to the 163-page report. In often scathing language, the report identified systemic problems and cited detailed examples. The investigators found that “supervisors have issued explicitly discriminatory orders, such as directing a shift to arrest ‘all the black hoodies’ in a neighborhood.” They…
Judge: Glenn Beck Must Reveal Alleged Sources in Libel Suit
A looming First Amendment showdown drew closer Tuesday as a federal judge ordered conservative media host Glenn Beck to identify at least two confidential sources in connection with a defamation lawsuit stemming from Beck’s reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing. The suit was filed by Saudi Arabian student Abdulrahman Alharbi, who was injured at the scene of the deadly bombings. Beck continued to link the Saudi national to the attacks even after U.S. officials said publicly he’d been cleared. U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris…
Facebook Tries to Block Ad Blockers
Digital ads pop up online so frequently and ubiquitously that many people are using software to block them. But if you try to stop ads from showing up on Facebook’s desktop website, you will now be out of luck: The social network has found a way to block the ad blockers. On Tuesday, Facebook flipped a switch on its desktop website that essentially renders all ad blockers — the programs that prevent websites from displaying ads on the page when a user visits the site…
NSA Monitoring Users of Privacy Software Funded by U.S. Government
Use of common Web privacy tools or even mere curiosity about them could get you added to a National Security Agency watch list, according to a new report. The NSA surveillance program called X-Keyscore, first revealed last summer in documents leaked by Edward Snowden, has been found to contain selection rules that potentially add to an NSA watch list anybody who has not only used, but visited online privacy-protection tools such as the Tor Network for anonymous Web browsing and the Linux-based Tails operating system….