Author: Norman Solomon
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Spin Shift on Bernie: The Escalating Media Assault
By Norman Solomon For a long time, as he campaigned for president, a wide spectrum of establishment media insisted that Bernie Sanders couldn’t win. Now they’re sounding the alarm that he might. And, just in case you haven’t gotten the media message yet — Sanders is “angry,” kind of like Donald Trump. Elite media often…
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Obama’s Speech, Translated into Candor
By Norman Solomon Here is a condensed version of President Obama's speech from the Oval Office on Sunday night, unofficially translated into plain English: I kind of realize we can’t kill our way out of this conflict with ISIL, but in the short term hopefully we can kill our way out of the danger of…
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The Digital Dog Ate Our Civil-Liberties Homework: “It’s Just the Way It Is”
By Norman Solomon Of all the excuses ladled out for the Obama administration's shredding of the Fourth Amendment while assaulting press freedom and prosecuting “national security” whistleblowers, none is more pernicious than the claim that technology is responsible. At first glance, the explanation might seem to make sense. After all, the capacities of digital tech…
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America’s post-9/11 Cassandras are still ignored
By Norman Solomon Fourteen years later, the horrors of 9/11 continue with deadly ripple effects. American militarism has become the dominant position of U.S. foreign policy, while other options remain banished to the sidelines. Yet from the outset of the “war on terrorism,” some Americans spoke out against a militarized response to the terrible events…
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The Unending Persecution of Chelsea Manning
By Norman Solomon The U.S. government is trying to destroy Chelsea Manning. Five years after the arrest of Manning, an Army private, for providing classified information to WikiLeaks, the government’s cruelty is taking another turn — part George Orwell, part Lewis Carroll. But Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning did not fall down the rabbit hole. She’s…