International Crisis Group the Islamic State, Boko Haram declares allegiance, and what this could mean.
Boko Haram is the latest of about a dozen terror groups to claim allegiance to ISIS, and a pattern is beginning to emerge in how ISIS treats such relationships. It’s very different from the al Qaeda model.
Al Qeada once sought to create the protocol for franchising a jihadi movement. But that group sought to create furtive links with groups and demanded strict adherence to its brand of jihadism.
ISIS, on the other hand, appears more flexible. Groups like Boko Haram and Libya’s Islamic Youth Shura Council, which pledged allegiance to ISIS on June 22, have been allowed to embrace tactics and brand in ways that allows them to flesh out their vision for a province within an ISIS-led caliphate.
The Daily Beast: ISIS’ Plan to Take Its Caliphate Worldwide, March 10, 2015
The full DOJ report on racism in the police department of Ferguson.
One should understand that the Justice Department did not simply find indirect evidence of unintentionally racist practices which harm black people, but "discriminatory intent”—that is to say willful racism aimed to generate cash. Justice in Ferguson is not a matter of "racism without racists," but racism with racists so secure, so proud, so brazen that they used their government emails to flaunt it.
The Atlantic: The Gangsters of Ferguson, March 5, 2015It will take a while to truly ascertain how much Hillary Clinton's campaign will be effect by the reveal that she used a personal e-mail account while she was Secretary of State.
A profile of WikiLeaks editor Sarah Harrison in Vogue.
Energy power as a foreign policy tool.
Pop Culture:
LRB on Kim Gordon's memoir Girl in a Band.
Pitchfork with some notes from people who've now had a chance to see Sleater-Kinney play live for the first time.
