US Foreign Policy

(48hills.org) – One of Germany’s largest dailies ran the headline “This killer cop set America ablaze,” with a photo of the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd. Protests in the United States, the article reported, looked like “scenes out of a civil war.” Bettina Gaus, political correspondent for the Berlin daily Die Tagezeitung, tells […]

China

Trump’s ‘Uncreative Destruction’ of the U.S.-China Relationship

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Economists like to think of the wreckage caused by stock market downturns, widespread bankruptcies, and corporate downsizing as “creative destruction.” As it destroys the old and the dysfunctional, the capitalist system continually spurs innovation, much as a forest fire prepares the ground for new growth. Or so the […]

Constitution

DOJ is Dropping charges against Trump Buddy Flynn even though he was a Turkish Agent while at NSC

Reese Erlich

(48hills.org) – Trump’s Justice Department wants to drop all charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn despite his having admitted to being guilty. Twice. The judge in his case has so far refused to knuckle under and is investigating whether Flynn’s conviction should stand. In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI […]

Donald Trump

Trump and Biden on the Middle East

Reese Erlich

( 48hills.org) – We all know that President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has been a disaster. But is Joe Biden’s any better? Trump promised to stop America’s endless wars but has stationed some 80,000 troops in the Middle East. He pulled out of the Iran nuclear accord, and imposed harsh sanctions and even sent drones […]

China

Trump trots out Blaming China for his own Pitiful Covid-19 Failures

Reese Erlich

The Republican Party is trying to shift blame for President Donald Trump’s disastrous coronavirus policies onto China. Chinese communists, Republican leaders claim, hid the pandemic from the public, allowing it to spread worldwide. Trump has even given credence to the conspiracy theory that China intentionally developed the virus in order to kill Americans. Scapegoating China […]

Donald Trump

Trump failed to vanquish Coronavirus with Hot Air, now wants to “shoot down” tiny Iranian Skiffs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The diarist and attorney James Boswell recorded that the writer Samuel Johnson remarked on the evening of April 7, 1775 that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” He wasn’t condemning a healthy love of country but the manipulation of public opinion for narrow sectional purposes. Johnson might observe […]

China

Will the Middle East be the Epicenter of the Looming US – China Cold War?

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | @Nasimbythedocks | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Calls for China to be held to account for the spread of the coronavirus Covid-19 have the potential to push Washington and Beijing into a new Cold War. If this happens, the Middle East will find itself at the centre of events […]

Pentagon

Empire and Blowback: Remembering Chalmers Johnson’s Critique of American Imperialism

Richard Drake

( Responsible Statecraft) – It has been nearly ten years since Chalmers Johnson died, and twice that long since the publication of “Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire.” That Johnson’s condemnation of American imperialism originated in a conservative political and philosophical tradition makes him a somewhat unusual figure. Such viewpoints more characteristically come […]

Donald Trump

With 53,000 Covid-19 Cases, Iran Can’t get Needed Medical Supplies: Trump Admin must Ease Sanctions

Human Rights Watch

(Washington DC) – Broad US-imposed economic sanctions are negatively affecting the Iranian government’s ability to adequately respond to the mounting health consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The US should take immediate action to ease US sanctions and expand licensing of sanctions-exempt items to ensure Iran’s access to essential humanitarian resources during the pandemic. According […]