John Kerry’s last hurrah: With the Syrian cease-fire, the secretary of state takes a parting swipe at Russophobia
The cease-fire ends his successful skirmish with the Pentagon, but the war will grind on long after Kerry is gone Secretary of State John Kerry now gives us another “cessation of hostilities” agreement — a not-quite-cease-fire — as signed with…
War in the media age: Hysteria over Trump’s supposed Russian ties made headlines, but the “story” is remarkably flimsy
A case study in how a co-opted press manufactures foreign policy consent From one week to the next, I note with mounting anxiety the media’s habit of using innuendo, loaded suggestion, assemblages of proximate facts, implication short of assertion and omission…
About those “experts”: Take a close look at the foreign policy insiders denouncing Trump
The possibility of a true outsider upending Washington’s unspoken consensus has thrown elites into hysteria This latest open letter from 50 Republican “national security experts,” wherein Donald Trump is denounced as “dangerous” among many other things, is simply too much. One does…
Clinton, Gen. Allen and alarmist declarations: The media must call out leaders for their dangerous fictions
A couple of remarkable things got said on television last Sunday morning. Both seemed to have slipped into the record without much comment. Let us keep the record straight, then — the never-ending task when you have a corporatized press…
Shades of the Cold War: How the DNC fabricated a Russian hacker conspiracy to deflect blame for its email scandal
Now wait a minute, all you upper-case “D” Democrats. A flood light suddenly shines on your party apparatus, revealing its grossly corrupt machinations to fix the primary process and sink the Sanders campaign, and within a day you are on…
Corporate media’s Turkey spin: “Attempted coup” bears the marks of an authoritarian power grab orchestrated by Erdoğan
Last week’s events in Turkey leave astute observers with more questions than answers Recip Tayyip Erdoğan has to be the most exotic political figure to come down the pike in who can say how long. “Tinpot” is too good a…
The West escalates with Russia: Make no mistake, a second Cold War is now official NATO policy
NATO’s aggressive posture towards Russia sets a dangerous course for Obama’s successor There have been 22 NATO summits since the first convened in Paris 59 years ago. If you study the chronology, they are more frequent during those times the…
Journal Entry #15
GALÁPAGOS—I can tell you a few facts about these nowhere-else-on-earth islands, but it would be impossible adequately to describe the experience of wandering for a week among them. Providing one pays attention, one leaves at the end of a time…
The two Obamas: An assessment of our capable, but captive president
Obama’s obscuring of the truth about his drone program tarnishes otherwise strong legacy on human rights Not long ago I had the president of our great country down as a conundrum or an enigma or a Hamlet or a hypocrite—or…
Don’t blame Brits for the Brexit: The EU strayed from its roots in post-war unity to become a neoliberal technocracy
There is no understanding the Brexit vote without understanding the ideals and purpose the EU discarded Countless thoughts tumble forward as news of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union sinks in. Among the larger of these is one that…
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