(Tomdispatch.com) – Worlds end. Every day. We all die sooner or later. When you get to my age, it’s a subject that can’t help but be on your mind. What’s unusual is this: it’s not just increasingly ancient folks like me who should be thinking such thoughts anymore. After all, worlds of a far larger […]
Trumpism as the Invasion of the Attention-Snatchers, & Other Invasions
(Tomdispatch.com ) – He crossed the border without permission or, as far as I could tell, documentation of any sort. I’m speaking about Donald Trump’s uninvited, unasked-for invasion of my personal space. He’s there daily, often hourly, whether I like it or not, and I don’t have a Department of Homeland Security to separate him […]
2084? Is Trump the one who Takes us into the Age of Big Brother?
(Tomdispatch.com) – I, Winston Smith… I mean, Tom Engelhardt… have not just been reading a dystopian novel, but, it seems, living one — and I suspect I’ve been living one all my life. Yes, I recently reread George Orwell’s classic 1949 novel, 1984. In it, Winston Smith, a secret opponent of the totalitarian world of […]
Racist Billionaires, Patriotic Socialists, Climate Emergency and the Fate of America
( Tomdispatch.com ) – As I turn 75, there’s no simpler way to put it than this: I’m an old man on a new planet — and, in case it isn’t instantly obvious, that’s not good news on either score. I still have a memory of being a camp counselor in upstate New York more […]
Iranian Aggression? Or American? Even Great US News Outlets can’t Escape Jingoism
Tomdispatch.com) – Headlined “U.S. Seeks Other Ways to Stop Iran Shy of War,” the article was tucked away on page A9 of a recent New York Times. Still, it caught my attention. Here’s the first paragraph: “American intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to counter Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf, […]
If Donald Trump is the Symptom, Then What is the Disease?
(Tomdispatch.com) – Don’t try to deny it! The political temperature of this country is rising fast. Call it Trump change or Trump warming, if you want, but grasp one thing: increasingly, you’re in a different land and, whatever happens to Donald Trump, the results down the line are likely to be ever less pretty. Trump […]
Chickens Came home to Roost: US meddled in Foreign Elections for Decades
(Tomdispatch.com) – In this country, reactions to the Mueller report have been all-American beyond belief. Let’s face it, when it comes to election meddling, it’s been me, me, me, 24/7 here. Yes, in some fashion some set of Russians meddled in the last election campaign, whether it was, as Jared Kushner improbably claimed, “a couple […]
Not just Notre Dame: With Global Heating, Arsonists have set the whole World on Fire
We are, of course, talking about nothing short of the ultimate crime, but on any given day of our lives, you’d hardly notice that it was underway
One Hell of a Hangover: All the American Wars We haven’t remembered Fighting that are Still going On
More than two years into the era of Donald TrumpAmerican air strikes in… yep, Somalia, are precipitously on the rise