Michael G. Roskin

Michael G. Roskin retired after teaching political science 36 years at Lycoming College. He was a visiting professor 1991-94 at the U.S. Army War College. The author of books on political science, comparative politics and international relations, he divides his year between Nashville and Midcoast Maine. He is an Informed Comment regular.

National Security State

Classified into Paralysis

Michael G. Roskin

Nashville (Special to Informed Comment) – It looks like Donald Trump gets off the hook for his defiant mishandling of classified documents. If former vice presidents kept documents, how can you single out Trump for prosecution? True, Trump committed far more and more serious breaches, but now others share his sins. How many classified materials […]

Saudi Arabia

Mike Pompeo, seeking White House, runs interference for the Saudis, Trashing murdered Journalist Khashoggi

Michael G. Roskin

Nashville – (Special to Informed Comment) – Mike Pompeo asserts that murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoggi was no mild critic of the Saudi regime but a dangerous radical trying to subvert it. This, I suspect, has been the Saudi line fed to Washington since Kashoggi’s 2018 dismemberment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Trump […]

Corruption

Will Birtherism come back to bite Republicans in the Behind? On top of all his other Lies, is George Santos even a US Citizen?

Michael G. Roskin

Nashville (Special to Informed Comment) – Suspicions grow that not only did new Congressman George Santos (R-NY) fabricate his educational and employment record but that he fabricated a marriage in order to get a permanent residency permit (“green card”). Let us, as the intel people say, “walk the cat backwards” — ask a series of […]

Middle East

Another Russian War? Is Putin done letting Israel hit Iran in Syria?

Michael G. Roskin

(Special to Informed Comment) – Conflict recently flared again in the Levant — in Jerusalem, Lebanon’s south and Gaza. An Israel-Iran war is just waiting to happen. Mideast belligerents act as if they’re annoyed at being bumped out of the headlines by Ukraine’s war. Actually, the two conflict zones are connected. The link: Russian power. […]

Democratic Party

With Barrett on the Court, if Trump is Reelected and goes Full Mussolini, Can he be Stopped?

Michael G. Roskin

Williamsport, PA (Special to Informed Comment) – “A republic, if you can keep it,” Ben Franklin famously described the new Constitution in 1787. Well, can Americans, including the Republicans, keep it, or will they let it slide into authoritarianism? I, like Franklin, am an optimist, but we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that […]