The Pentagon gives military weapons even to thug departments that the US government considers likely to violate people's rights. It is a mistake to suppose that the other thug departments won't do this. Hardly any of them should get military weapons.

The existence of a SWAT team impels rules to use it frequently, and that use puts people's lives in danger. The US needs 20 SWAT teams in cities distributed around the country; more than that is an avoidable risk.

The French government, under the Socialist Party, plans to make France "more competitive". That's the code word for "surrender to the plutocrats."

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund pledged to divest from fossil fuel.

In addition to punishing fossil fuel companies' stock price — which could be cancelled out if other investors buy in — the divestment movement can concentrate plutocratic lobbying power in favor of decarbonization. Plutocratic lobbying power is an injustice, and to restore democracy we must get rid of it, but in the mean time setting some of it against global heating is a step forward.

After Scotland almost voted to exit the UK, will that be enough to convert the timid Labour Party into something ready to fix what is wrong?

A thug tased a teenage driver, apparently because the car's electric window on the passenger side did not open. Dragged out of the car, the driver's head seems to have hit the ground, causing a grave brain injury.

This is unremarkable in the US, but this teenager was not a mere citizen. He was the son of another thug. So shit is hitting the fan.

I hope that kid gets justice, but it won't be a lot of justice if it applies only when the victim is the child of a thug.