US politics

By Caroline Sten Hartnett | – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on May 15 that the number of births in the U.S. is down 2% – “the lowest number of births in 32 years.” These reports were met with surprise and alarm. USA Today, for example, led with the headline “A lot […]

China

China to Iran’s Rescue? Trump might successfully anger Beijing or Tehran, but not Both

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said at a news conference on Saturday that China opposes US unilateral sanctions on Iran and appreciates Iran’s continued commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, despite the breach of it by the Trump administration. This, […]

Donald Trump

Dems must Step Up: Trumpism requires Impeachment and Confrontation

John Buell

This past spring my alma mater—- Amherst College– attracted attention for a question that is likely to emerge on many private college campuses. Should former attorney general Jeff Sessions or other alt-right advocates be allowed to speak at the college? Though such questions are often portrayed as a First Amendment issue, Amherst, a private college, […]

Donald Trump

Pace Pompeo: What if the US is “Sowing Chaos” in Mideast & Iran is a Status Quo Power?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told NBC that Iran is an active threat to US interests and “sowing chaos” in the Middle East. It strikes me that exactly the opposite is true. The Islamic Republic of Iran has in recent years, despite its heritage in the 1979 revolution, acted as […]

Constitution

Before Trump invoked Executive Privilege he Should have Remembered Nixon

The Conversation

By Ken Hughes | – Like Donald Trump, Richard Nixon tried to stonewall congressional investigations into crimes allegedly committed in the White House. “Why, we’ll just let it go to the (Supreme) Court. Fight it like hell,” Nixon said. But the stone wall crumbled under pressure from the public, Congress and the courts, and its […]

Pentagon

Boondoggle, Inc.: Making Sense of the $1.25 Trillion National Security State Budget

William D. Hartung

By William D. Hartung and Mandy Smithberger | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In its latest budget request, the Trump administration is asking for a near-record $750 billion for the Pentagon and related defense activities, an astonishing figure by any measure. If passed by Congress, it will, in fact, be one of the largest military […]

Donald Trump

300 Former Prosecutors: Multiple Felony Counts of Obstruction against Trump in Mueller Report

contributors

STATEMENT BY FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTORS (Medium.com) – We are former federal prosecutors. We served under both Republican and Democratic administrations at different levels of the federal system: as line attorneys, supervisors, special prosecutors, United States Attorneys, and senior officials at the Department of Justice. The offices in which we served were small, medium, and large; […]

Foreign Policy

Trump’s Backward Foreign Policy: Seeing China as a threat but ignoring Russian Interference

Mel Gurtov

By Mel Gurtov | – (Informed Comment) – There is a dangerous confusion in US national security policy when evaluating relations with Russia and China. The Trump administration has made China the main US enemy when it is Russia that has attacked the US electoral system, a barely disguised Russian force has carved out a […]

Bernie Sanders

Biden vs. Bernie—a Foreign Policy Faceoff

Reese Erlich

Supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden praise him as a man with extensive foreign policy experience. He’s living proof, however, that extensive doesn’t necessarily mean good. Biden reflects the mindset of the previous generation of mainstream Democratic leaders who are out of touch with the anti-interventionist sentiments of most Americans. “We don’t like his […]