Donald Trump

( Tomdispatch.com) – Covid-19, an ongoing global human tragedy, may have at least one silver lining. It has led millions of people to question America’s most malignant policies at home and abroad. Regarding Washington’s war policies abroad, there’s been speculation that the coronavirus might, in the end, put a dent in such conflicts, if not […]

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 […]

Afghanistan

On Memorial Day: How the US Lost its “Battle of Aqaba” to the Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On July 6, 1917, Auda Abu Tayy led his Howeitat tribesmen in a successful attack on the Ottoman port of Aqaba in what is now Jordan but was then the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs of the Hejaz or Western Arabia and the Transjordan had allied with the British to revolt […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Little Big Horn: In the War on the Coronavirus, we Needed an Eisenhower; We got Custer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – If Trump were actually a commander-in-chief in the war on Covid-19 instead of playing one on TV, he’d be less like General Dwight D. Eisenhower than like General George Armstrong Custer. Eisenhower defeated the military forces of the Third Reich on May 8, 1945, having already dispatched those of 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 […]

Christianity

Top 4 Reasons Trump is playing to Evangelicals by Demanding Church Reopening at cost of Mass Infection

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump on Friday attempted to declare church services “essential” and called for their reopening, threatening to overrule governors who begged to differ. Although he paid lip service to synagogues and mosques, he was obviously mainly interested in supporting his evangelical base. Trump has never been exactly what you would call […]

Donald Trump

If Trump had Closed Down U.S. 2 weeks Earlier, 50,000 Lives would have been Saved

The Conversation

By Joshua Aizenman | – If cities across the U.S. had moved just one week faster to shut down restaurants and businesses and order residents to stay home, they could have avoided over 35,000 coronavirus deaths by early May, new research suggests. If they had moved two weeks earlier, more than 50,000 people who died […]

Corruption

Congress’ Relief Package was for Small Business, but pro-Trump Millionaires Grabbed up the Lion’s Share

Jim Hightower

( Otherwords.org ) – Thanks to a specially carved loophole, one multi-millionaire claimed 339 times more than the average small business received. By Jim Hightower | May 20, 2020 Monty Bennett was just another faceless right-wing millionaire on the long list of high-dollar donors to Donald Trump — until he suddenly surfaced in April as […]

Central Intelligence Agency

Coronavirus and Intelligence: Trump is Getting up Conflict with China the way Bush did with Iraq

Bob Dreyfuss

By Bob Dreyfuss | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – There’s a meme that appears now and then on Facebook and other social media: “Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.” That’s funny. What’s not is […]