US politics

New York (Tomdispatch.com) – Class of 2018, I’ve always been told that a joke’s a good way to launch any talk. It’s a matter of breaking the ice, though on your graduation day, with the temperature soaring into the upper eighties, that may not be the perfect image. Still, you know what I mean: an […]

Guns

Schoolboy’s Angst over School Shootings chokes up Sarah Sanders, who offers a “Commission” (Video)

contributors

“The White House press secretary appeared to become emotional when answering an elementary school reporter’s question about the danger facing children in schools. Following a spate of school shootings in the US, Donald Trump this month gave his backing to the National Rifle Association.” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders chokes up at child’s question […]

Featured

Was the Roseanne Story really more Important than Puerto Rico’s 5,740 Death Toll?

Juan Cole

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that that likely range for deaths caused by Hurricane Maria was between 1,506 and 9,889, with 5,740 as the most likely number. Puerto Rico suffered with electricity outages for months, with millions of Americans living in the dark, in a way that would have […]

National Security State

Terrorizing ourselves Silly: Surreal Pentagon Nightmares underpin $700 bn Budget

Nick Turse

New York ( Tomdispatch.com) – For almost 20 years, U.S. drone warfare was largely one-sided. Unlike Afghans and Yemenis, Iraqis and Somalis, Americans never had to worry about lethal robots hovering overhead and raining down missiles. Until, that is, one appeared in the skies above Florida. But that’s a story for later. For now, let’s […]

Donald Trump

Should Trump Have the Discretion to Murder at Will? His Drones Are at It

Rebecca Gordon

San Francisco (Tomdispatch.com) – They are like the camel’s nose, lifting a corner of the tent. Don’t be fooled, though. It won’t take long until the whole animal is sitting inside, sipping your tea and eating your sweets. In countries around the world — in the Middle East, Asia Minor, Central Asia, Africa, even the […]

Government surveillance

Israeli Gov’t directly involved in Cyberbullying, Stalking of our US Students: MESA

Judith E. Tucker

Tucson, Az. (Middle East Studies Association of North America [MESA]) – May 23, 2018 Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan gerdan@knesset.gov.il sar@mops.gov.il Dear Minister Erdan: We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to express our dismay that the Israeli government has been […]

Donald Trump

Will biggest victim of Trump Golden Shower Diplomacy be global Rule of Law?

Alfred W. McCoy

Madison, Wi. ( Tomdispatch.com) Month by month, tweet by tweet, the events of the past two years have made it clearer than ever that Washington’s once-formidable global might is indeed fading. As the American empire unravels with previously unimagined speed, there are many across this country’s political spectrum who will not mourn its passing. Both […]

Constitution

In growing Constitutional Crisis, Trump attacks CIA, FBI over Investigations

Paul Handley

Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump attacked the probe into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia as a “political hit job” on Monday, as a part of a mounting White House effort to paint the probe as politically motivated. In the latest salvo from Trump’s administration and his Republican Party, the president assailed former […]

Donald Trump

How Pompeo’s “Severest Sanctions” on Iran will Backfire

Juan Cole

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech on new sanctions on Iran lays out a wide range of Iranian behavior he would like to change, and specified harsh US financial sanctions as his instrument. Pompeo, a Kansas oil man backed by the Koch brothers, is just a former congressman and a virulent Christian fundamentalist with white […]