US politics

( Tomdispatch.com) – Leave it to liberals to pin their hopes on the oddest things. In particular, they seemed to find post-Trump solace in the strange combination of the two-year-old Mueller investigation and the good judgment of certain Trump appointees, the proverbial “adults in the room.” Remember that crew? It once included Secretary of State […]

Immigration

Second Guatemalan Child dies Christmas Eve in US Border Protection Custody

AFP

By Maggy Donaldson | – Washington, DC | AFP | – An eight-year-old migrant from Guatemala died in US government custody on Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection said, the second child fatality in American detention this month. The boy, who was with his apprehended father, had been transferred to a New Mexico medical center showing […]

Afghanistan

What Trump Ousting of SecDef Mattis Means for Russia, Syria & Afghanistan

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas | – The last adult in the Trump White House playground has gone – and the president is throwing his toys around. James Mattis, as defence secretary, was one of three retired generals in the Trump administration whose hope was to contain an ill-informed, temperamental, and unpredictable president. Now they’re all gone: […]

Immigration

Supreme Court Slaps down Trump Automatic Denial of Asylum to Migrants

AFP

Washington, DC | AFP | – The Supreme Court dealt President Donald Trump’s attempt to crack down on illegal immigration a blow Friday when it rejected a White House bid to implement his asylum ban on Central Americans. The high court declined to overturn a block placed by the San Francisco federal appeals court on […]

Featured

Mattis was no Shining Knight: From backing Yemen War to Whitewashing Khashoggi Murder

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment): Official Washington was horrified at the resignation on Thursday of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who wrote Trump a letter (below) that said “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right […]

Pentagon

The New Role of the US Navy as Brig for the World

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – I grew up in New London, Connecticut, watching many a military ship float by my window. New London was home to the Coast Guard Academy and sat across the river from a U.S. Navy submarine base. Uniformed guardsmen, sailors in training, and sub crews leaving port would regularly wave to my friends […]

BDS

Why Politics in 2019 will have a Lot More Backbone

Tracey L. Rogers

(Otherwords.org) – As Democratic leaders sharpen their challenge to President Trump, movement leaders are stepping up to challenge the party leadership. By Tracey L. Rogers | December 19, 2018 As I reflect on the controversies that plagued the Trump administration throughout 2018, the unforeseen political power plays that shocked our nation, and the party stalemates […]

Donald Trump

What did Flynn Know about Russian ties to Trump and When did he Know it?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Disgraced former National Security Adviser to Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, had his sentencing postponed until March on Tuesday after Judge Emmett Sullivan raked him over the coals for lying to the FBI in the White House and for intimating that he was not really guilty and had been entrapped by […]

Immigration

Little Jakelin’s Death in Border Patrol Site a ‘Systemic Failure’: Congressman

AFP

Washington, United States | AFP | – The US lawmaker who led a delegation to New Mexico Tuesday to look into the death of a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl in US Border Patrol custody blamed the tragedy on glaring systematic failures. Jakelin Caal died last week in hospital in El Paso, Texas, after being arrested with […]