Foreign Policy

By Ronald Stockton | (Informed Comment) | – – Former CIA head and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently said that if President Elect Trump refuses intelligence briefings and something bad happens, he would be responsible. These are ominous words. I just finished Panetta’s memoir, Worthy Fights. Two things stood out. First, that much of […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Pentagon Hunger Games: The Generals “haven’t done the job.”

contributors

By Andrew J. Bacevich | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – President-elect Donald Trump’s message for the nation’s senior military leadership is ambiguously unambiguous. Here is he on 60 Minutes just days after winning the election. Trump: “We have some great generals. We have great generals.” Lesley Stahl: “You said you knew more than the generals […]

Foreign Policy

In a Multipolar World, the US can no Longer Intervene at Will

contributors

By Dilip Hiro | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – In the strangest election year in recent American history — one in which the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson couldn’t even conjure up the name of a foreign leader he “admired” while Donald Trump remained intent on building his “fat, beautiful wall” and “taking” Iraq oil […]

Democratic Party

“Little Trump” Pence: Bomb Syria, confront Russia, smear refugees; & smoking doesn’t cause Cancer

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump running mate Mike Pence continued the unreality of this election season in Tuesday’s debate by denying many things that are true and asserting many things that are not true. For example there was this exchange: “KAINE: [Trump said that] More nations should get nuclear weapons. […]

Domestic Terrorism

Dear Generation Z: So sorry for bequeathing to you terrorism hysteria and all those Wars

contributors

By Peter Van Buren | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – I recently sent my last kid off for her senior year of college. There are rituals to such moments, and because dad-confessions are not among them, I just carried boxes and kept quiet. But what I really wanted to say to her — rather than […]

Foreign Policy

A new American Century or a Century of Wars and Refugees?

Juan Cole

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Vladimir Putin recently manned up and admitted it. The United States remains the planet’s sole superpower, as it has been since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. “America,” the Russian president said, “is a great power. Today, probably, the only superpower. We accept that.” Think […]

Bill of Rights

Trump’s response to Orlando massacre proves just how dangerous he is

contributors

By Adam Quinn | (The Conversation) | – – Those who’ve been wondering when Donald Trump would switch from the wild bombast of his primary campaign to the sober mode traditionally demanded by a general election now have their answer: never. The dreadful gun massacre at the Pulse club in Orlando, Florida on June 12 […]

Featured

Obama: Hating on Muslim-Americans makes you an ally of ISIL, & Unamerican

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama is clearly concerned about the direction of the country and the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim hate speech, especially in the context of impossible-to-prevent lone wolf attacks like that at Orlando. He launched his fiercest attack yet on Donald Trump and warned of a repeat of […]

Domestic Terrorism

Omar Mateen and Rightwing Homophobia: Hate Crime or Domestic Terrorism?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – US law enforcement is at least initially categorizing the horrific Orlando shootings as “domestic terrorism.” I don’t think it probably was terrorism in any useful sense of the term. I used to know what domestic terrorism was, before the term became politicized in the past decade. […]