Who What Why ?

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

Syrians Return Home as the Terrorists are Pushed Out (Trevin)

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

Botched US Drone Strike Kills 15 Afghan Police (Jimmy)

To those with even a cursory knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament, the so-called Christian Right’s support of Donald Trump, the GOP and their policies must seem as strange as the North American Meat Institute endorsing a vegan diet or Greenpeace applying for a drilling license in Alaska.

Last month, multiple news outlets reported on what appears to be a “reshuffling” in the line of succession under Saudi Arabia’s 81-year-old King Salman, whose powerful nephew was suddenly forced out as crown prince by royal decree

As prior Watergate excerpts from Family of Secrets have shown, there is every reason to distrust the accepted story of this seminal event. In fact, Watergate teaches us to be much more skeptical of what we are told by the establishment — the government, academia, big media. Turns out that self-interest, conformity, and suppression of alarming insight are more common than even the most cynical of us may suspect.

Malcolm Mitchell is the Editor and Publisher of Investment Policy Magazine, which he founded in 1997. He has been writing about Social Security since 2002.  If you’ve ever questioned what happens to your employment taxes, you’ve probably come across answers like the following: The Social Security “Trust Fund” is a fiction; Employment taxes are simply taken by the government and added to the general fund to pay for other federal programs; or You can’t depend on receiving any promised Social Security benefits when you retire.

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

Italy Threatens ‘Nuclear Option’ to Send Migrants North (Jeff C.)

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

US Invaded Iraq and Now Iran Dominates It (Russ)

There is at least one truth in politics: Politicians lie. They misrepresent, twist and spin facts. They try to get away with hiding or obfuscating the truth. When they are caught in a real whopper, however, they usually pay a price — not just at the polls but also because their legacy is tarnished. Just think back to the most famous quotes and moments of some recent presidents.

Today is the French national holiday also known as Bastille Day.I first heard of Bastille Day as a teenager when I heard the song of the same name by the Canadian prog-rock band Rush. Here’s some sample lyrics:But they’re marching to Bastille Day La guillotine will claim her bloody prize Free the dungeons of the innocent

Another attempt at health care reform, this time the GOP’s effort to dismantle Obamacare, seems to be failing in Congress. Our guest this week, Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, the editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News and a Harvard-trained physician, says that maybe it’s time to look beyond Washington for a solution.

Over the years, we have been told, ad nauseum, that Richard Nixon was the ultimate culprit in Watergate. And Watergate has come to represent the ultimate in presidential overreach and perfidy.Yet, no one has been able to explain the real purpose of the burglary with any certainty, or why the burglars committed such rookie errors, leading to their discovery and arrest — and, eventually, to Nixon’s downfall.In fact, it is important to recall that there were two break-ins: a successful one to plant eavesdropping equipment, and a bungled one to remove that equipment.

Earlier this week, The New York Times published a story on how top Trump administration officials have asked Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, and billionaire Stephen Feinberg, who owns military contractor DynCorp, to come up

Wisconsin’s legislature is preparing to vote on a pair of bills that would enact stricter standards for election recounts.

As another mega-budget Hollywood movie about the Boston Marathon bombing nears release,  the mainstream media are finally addressing the many unanswered questions concerning the mastermind of the bombing, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.And yet — four years after the bombing and two years after Tamerlan’s younger brother

What do the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and Environmental Protection Agency have in common? They’ve all faced lawsuits for putting the brakes on Obama-era regulations.Just this week, the attorneys general from 18 states and Washington D.C.

Not since the darkest days of the Cold War has Russia been so front and center in our consciousness. What happened to create this?

The key to understanding the Trump-Russia entanglements requires going back long before the 2016 presidential campaign, and looking at the parade of organized crime figures who passed through Trump Tower — or in some cases, did business with the Trump Organization, and even Trump himself.Many of these shady figures stem from the countries of the former Soviet Union, have ties to the oligarchs and, through them, to the Kremlin itself.

Until recently, the power of state legislatures to hijack elections went unchallenged. Lawmakers abused their privileged duty to design their own voting districts by employing a discriminatory precision that essentially nullified the voices of countless voters and ensured the party in charge could continue to dominate future elections. However, those days may soon be behind us as the Supreme Court prepares to issue its decision in Gill v. Whitford, which could help tame rampant partisan rigging of district maps.

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

Texas Gov, Worried About Liberal Cities, Tries Curtailing Their Power (Russ)

When people complain that President Donald Trump and his administration are threatening the First Amendment, they usually think about assaults on the freedom of the press. Just as troubling, however, is that conservatives on the highest levels of all branches of government are blurring the lines between the state and religion.

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

An Executive Guide to Ransomware (Trevin)

PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence (Trevin)