Our coverage of Barrett Brown

Was Sirhan Hypnotically Programmed to Assassinate RFK?

Shane O’Sullivan is the author of the book Who Killed Bobby? and the director of the documentary RFK Must Die.

Fifty years ago, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. His convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, remains in prison in San Diego and claims to have no memory of the crime.

Robert Kennedy Jr. visited Sirhan for three hours last December and, on the basis of new audio evidence of a second View article …

Better Building Codes Could Mitigate Climate Disasters

This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.

On the day Ruby Reid lost her home in Talent, OR, to the Almeda Fire in 2020, she got no official warning to evacuate — only her instinct told her she should.

“It was a really hot, windy, horrible day, and it was raining ash,” Reid remembered. “I’d already been packing up my stuff.”

The mini-farm that had fueled the growth of a small business she started with her fiancé ended up View article …

Marvin Bush, Dorothy Bush, Neil Bush, Columba Bush, Jeb Bush, Laura Bush, George W. Bush, Barbara Bush, George H.W. Bush Sr., Dorothy Walker Bush

The Bush Family Stories You Won’t See Tonight on CNN

CNN is certainly aggressive in questioning the myths fathered by President Donald Trump.

But how does it stack up in the truth-telling department when it comes to former presidents? To determine that, you can watch its new series, The Bush Years: Family, Duty, Power, to air tonight — and then come see a small selection of what we have unearthed.

We expect you will be startled by the contrast between the public, the private, and the very private lives of this family.

For an inkling into how hard-hitting the CNN series will be, here’s a recent headline from them:

George HW View article …

Moore v. Harper: The Far Right’s Will — and Way? — to Power

There is nothing more hazardous to a democracy’s health than the belief, devoutly held by members of a faction or political tribe, that they are entitled and destined to rule.

Once this attitude takes root, one can see politics begin to work backwards from that premise — procedural corners are cut, necessary doctrines are ginned up, disinformation is spewed, and eventually, if all else fails, force and violence are brought to bear.

The American far right — whether manifest in dominionism, white supremacy, Christian nationalism, or the messianic MAGA cult that formed around Donald Trump View article …

Wisdom of the Ancients

The plethora of floor-length, ruffled, high-necked dresses in stores this past winter heralded a shift back to pioneer days in fashion. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the country is reverting to pioneer days in women’s health and bodily autonomy, with the help of Laura Ingalls Wilder — I mean Amy Coney Barrett.

If this feels like a kind of betrayal, that’s because it is. Justice Barrett, along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, declared during their confirmation hearings that they would commit View article …

It’s the Free Speech, Stupid

When we say “democracy” is under threat in America, what is really being threatened? Often missing in the debate about “democracy threatened” is a simple but powerful notion: The best way to get at the truth is through a clash of ideas, driven by free and unfettered speech.

In this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast, we talk with professor Corey Brettschneider. He is an expert on the US constitution, editor of the Penguin Liberty series, and a professor of constitutional law and politics at Brown University.

Brettschneider argues that View article …

Russ Baker Talks Journalism, Bush Clan and Deep Politics

Russ Baker joins comedian Tim Dillon to talk about the (sad) state of journalism, the importance of independent news sources like WhoWhatWhy and his book Family of Secrets.

In this wide-ranging interview Russ is certain to open some eyes about the way the country really works and provides lots of examples from the past 60 years in which an event initially seemed to be one thing (and was covered by the media in that way) only to turn out to be something different altogether.

View article …

US Firms Target Legal Dissidents Abroad

In the era of Edward Snowden, new revelations about government snooping may fall on deaf ears. “Of course the NSA is watching/listening/recording” goes a common refrain among the exposé-weary. But while the intrusive surveillance of the NSA and its British doppelganger, GCHQ, has been extensively documented, far less attention has been directed to private companies that hawk spyware, complete with sophisticated data-laundering features, to interested governments.

Now The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, a non-profit research organization that won View article …

NY Gov Signs Novel Law That Limits Cryptomining — For Now

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NY Gov Signs Novel Law That Limits Cryptomining — For Now (Maria)

The author writes, “New York is taking a first-in-the-nation step to tap the brakes on the spread of cryptocurrency mining, under legislation that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Tuesday. The View article …

How to Start — and Stop — a Second Civil War

They thought that by “completely destroying Baltimore” — shooting up five power substations to black out the city — they’d so upset white people in America that Trump’s racist base would rise up, begin the second Civil War, and start slaughtering Black people, Hispanics, and Jews.

Instead, Sarah Clendaniel, 27, and Brandon Russell, 34, a co-founder of the white supremacist neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, are in federal custody awaiting arraignment.

This is what then-Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) was worried about when he

Flunking the Test of Character

The body cam video of the Milwaukee police officer who initially confronted Sterling Brown is difficult to watch. But you should. The full video is 30 minutes long but you’ll get the picture right away. It’s the story of a small man who abuses the power he is entrusted with. And the same thing is playing out across the country on a daily basis in different forms.

There is no doubt that Brown did something wrong. He parked across two handicapped spots outside a Walgreens. However, as the View article …

Spray-Painting the Resistance

LVIV, Ukraine — In an old tram station in Lviv, graffiti artists work in a fog of paint. They are turning SUVs into military vehicles, destined for the frontlines of Ukraine.

The artists don’t want me to reveal where we are; they are, after all, part of an ongoing military operation.

I met two of the graffiti artists, Sasha Pryimak and Nikita Oseredko, at a pub near the tram station, which is their workshop and a collection site for donations in Lviv. They were dressed in black, smears of paint covering Pryimak’s hoodie. Oseredko wore View article …

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