Militarization

By David Vine | (Tomdispatch.com) | – First, they tried to shoot the dogs. Next, they tried to poison them with strychnine. When both failed as efficient killing methods, British government agents and U.S. Navy personnel used raw meat to lure the pets into a sealed shed. Locking them inside, they gassed the howling animals […]

Democratic Party

Bernie Sanders On How We Should Pay For War

contributors

By John Iadarola | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “John Iadarola (Think Tank) discusses Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders’ recent policy announcement regarding war spending. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to require Congress to pay for any spending in the Pentagon’s war fund. “Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, is offering […]

Barack Obama

Modest Increase in Iraq Training Mission shows Obama still Uninterested & Maybe he’s Right

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – The Obama administration got itself some headlines on Wednesday morning by pledging to send a few hundred more military trainers to Iraq and to create a new base in al-Anbar Province. But there is less to this announcement than meets the eye. The US has some 3000 […]

Bill of Rights

Fighting for Privacy, Two Years After Snowden

contributors

By Richard Esguerra | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – Two years ago today, Glenn Greenwald published in the Guardian a single document confirming a key piece of the NSA’s surveillance program, a document that fundamentally transformed EFF’s long-running battle for an end to unchecked government surveillance. To recap briefly, the document was a secret […]

Democracy

Surprise! Corporate Media declining to report on Big Money in Politics

contributors

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – “Now more than ever before Americans deserve to know about the need for campaign finance reform,’ advocacy groups declare” As the U.S. heads into the 2016 election cycle, where spending by candidates and outside groups is poised to approach $10 billion, groups dedicated to campaign […]

Drone Warfare

The True Cost of America’s Ongoing Wars: Sebastian Junger, Spencer Ackerman et al.

contributors

Michael Moynihan, “The Business of Life” | VICE News Video | — “The AUMF (The “Authorization of the Use of Military Force”) was a bill passed in the immediate wake of 9/11 and authorized the President of the United States to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those who had aided the terrorists responsible […]

Iran

The “Bomb Iran!” Lobby Gears Up for 2016

contributors

By Sina Toossi | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – “A tight-knit group of neocon dead-enders is pushing Iran to the forefront of the GOP's foreign policy agenda.” In a recent TV ad, a van snakes its way through an American city. As the driver fiddles with the radio dial, dire warnings about the […]

African-Americans

Going for Broke in Ponzi Scheme America

contributors

Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – [Note to TomDispatch Readers: I’ve long had a weakness for commencement addresses, or at least for what they might be rather than what they usually are, which is why, I suppose, I’ve written them relatively regularly myself. Since no actual college or graduating class has ever asked me to give […]

Foreign Policy

Hawks think the US alone can Still Garrison the Planet: How’s that Working Out?

contributors

By Michael T. Klare | (Tomdispatch.com) | – Take a look around the world and it’s hard not to conclude that the United States is a superpower in decline. Whether in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East, aspiring powers are flexing their muscles, ignoring Washington’s dictates, or actively combating them. Russia refuses to curtail its support for […]