US politics

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – In the days leading up to the Nevada Democratic caucus media frequently referred to the “powerful” 60,000 member Culinary Workers Union. In the last quarter century instances when the words powerful and union would be used in the same sentence are all too infrequent. Nonetheless, this union […]

Congress

The Age of Trump and Pseudo America: Phonying Up our Key Institutions

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com) – The impeachment of the president of the United States! Surely such a mega-historic event would reverberate for weeks or months, leaving in its wake no end of consequences, large and small. Wouldn’t it? Shouldn’t it? Truth to tell, the word historic does get tossed around rather loosely these days. Just about anything […]

Bernie Sanders

Why the Russian Petro-state is actually terrified of a Bernie Sanders Presidency: The Green New Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused by Western intelligence agencies of seeking to interfere in the 2020 US elections in favor of Donald Trump on the right and in favor of Bernie Sanders on the left. But guess what, Russia doesn’t actually want Bernie to win. At all. Moscow […]

Afghanistan

Can the US-Taliban Truce Hold, Bringing Peace to Afghanistan after 40 Years of War?

The Conversation

By Elizabeth B. Hessami | – If a seven-day truce between the United States and the Taliban holds until Feb. 28, 2020, Afghanistan’s decades-long conflict may finally end. A peace deal could be signed as soon as Feb. 29, according to the State Department. The draft accord follows months of stop-and-go negotiations between the United […]

Bernie Sanders

Russia wants Trump reelected, and may be Making a Bet that Bernie Sanders can’t Defeat Him (They’re Wrong)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Julia Arciga at The Daily Beast writes that the Bernie Sanders campaign is convinced that notorious far right wing internet troll Richard Grenell, whom Trump wants to make acting Director of National Intelligence, is the source of the leak that Russia is backing the Sanders campaign. At the same time, […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s New Spy Chief Used to Work for a Foreign Politician the U.S. Accused of Corruption

ProPublica

By Isaac Arnsdorf | – (ProPublica) – Richard Grenell did not disclose payments for advocacy work on behalf of a Moldovan politician whom the U.S. later accused of corruption. His own office’s policy says that could leave him vulnerable to blackmail. President Donald Trump’s new acting intelligence director, Richard Grenell, used to do consulting work […]

Elizabeth Warren

Nondisclosure and secrecy laws protect Bloomberg – not the women who sued him

The Conversation

By Elizabeth C. Tippett | – Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a lot of flak at the Feb. 19 Democratic debate for his refusal to release employees who sued his company from nondisclosure agreements. He admitted to having a “few nondisclosure agreements,” after Sen. Elizabeth Warren challenged him over the […]

Pentagon

Retired US Officers are all in on Forever Wars: Where are the Smedley Butlers of Today?

Danny Sjursen

(Tomdispatch.com) – There once lived an odd little man — five feet nine inches tall and barely 140 pounds sopping wet — who rocked the lecture circuit and the nation itself. For all but a few activist insiders and scholars, U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler is now lost to history. Yet more […]

Bernie Sanders

Can the Democrats’ Foreign Policy Visions clean up Trump’s Global Mess?

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Democratic candidates offer a wide range of foreign policy views. These won’t decide the election, but they could have a huge post-Trump impact. The next presidential election will not likely hinge on foreign policy. Americans will go to the polls in November to express their fervent support, or disgust, […]