Tag: USA Politics,

Mitch McConnell • Photo by Gage Skidmore As Republicans attempt to revive a bill to overturn Obamacare, we look at the radical right’s attempt to reshape the role of the federal government—from healthcare to education to housing. We speak with Duke University historian Nancy MacLean, author of the new book,

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to formally withdraw from the Paris Agreement, he has put an end to months of apparent indecision. This withdrawal does not dissolve the agreement, which still includes nearly every country on the planet, but it is hard to imagine how an already weak agreement

The liberal San Francisco Bay Area city of Berkeley has become the prime target for violent far-right individuals and organizations emboldened by the reign of Donald Trump. Their latest provocation on April 15 shows the physical threat that the far right represents as it gains confidence–and underlines the urgent need

The Trump kleptocrats are political arsonists. They are carting cans of gasoline into government agencies and Congress to burn down any structure or program that promotes the common good and impedes corporate profit. They ineptly have set themselves on fire over Obamacare, but this misstep will do little to halt

Photo by Gage Skidmore On Wednesday, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman addressed an open letter to a group of generals, deep state operatives and a corporate executive in President Trump’s cabinet, effectively calling on them to organize a palace coup. The recipients of Friedman’s letter, code-named “Calling On a

Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann President Trump responded to evidence-lite accusations from Democrats about his ties to Russia with his own air-filled allegations about President Obama wiretapping Trump Tower, as Robert Parry shakes his head. The intensifying hysteria over Russia has pushed Official Washington over the edge into outright madness. On

Photo by Mike Maguire This interview took place at the University of Arizona, before a public audience, on February 2, 2017. I thank Marvin Waterstone for arranging the event, and Professor Chomsky, who approved this transcript for publication. The interview is presented in full, with only very slight editing for

Photo by Gage Skidmore The Flynn fiasco is not about national security advisor Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador. It’s much deeper than that. It’s about Russia. It’s about Putin. It’s about the explosive rise of China and the world’s biggest free trade zone that will eventually stretch from

Photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo Trump folds under totalizing corporate media and war-state pressures today.  The resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn decapitates his presidency’s peace initiative with Russia after years of campaigning for it. General Flynn is not another Trump slob. He is the most advanced military intelligence

Image from YourNewsWire.com While many in power recklessly escalate tensions with Russia, there is very little discussion of the geo-political significance of this aggression and the dangerous consequences people could suffer as a result. The establishment’s anti-Russian sentiment goes beyond allegations of election hacking, with the leading US intelligence officials

Photo by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff President Trump says much that is untrue, but he draws some of Official Washington’s greatest opprobrium when he speaks the truth, such as noting that senior U.S. officials have done a lot of killing, writes Robert Parry. Gaining acceptance in Official

Photo by Alisdare Hickson Points of Departure Listening to Donald Trump’s inaugural speech on January 20th led me to muse about what it might mean to live in a pre-fascist state. After reflecting on key passages and conversations with friends, I came to the view that all the elements were

Photo by Seth Anderson Thomas Frank is the founder of The Baffler magazine, author of What’s the Matter With Kansas? and Listen Liberal, and past columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s Magazine. He delivered the 2017 annual Phyllis Clarke Memorial Lecture, on Donald Trump’s election and what it

Image from Public Domain During his inaugural speech, President Trump clearly and forcefully outlined the strategic political-economic policies he will pursue over the next four years. Anti-Trump journalists, editorialists, academics and experts, who appear in the Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have repeatedly

Photo by Caleb Smith Harsh realities have long mocked United States “elites’” ritual description of their nation state as a benevolent beacon and agent of freedom, democracy, and justice at home and abroad. The mythology doesn’t square with stark disparities and oppressions inflicted by the nation’s unelected and interrelated dictatorships

Photo by Ms. Phoenix Mexico is dependent on the United States, as it is dependent on the global economy more generally. Neoliberal development scholars led them down the “global value chain” route, with upscalings and downscalings, with no real plan for actual, endogenous development. Because Mexican academics, business leaders, and

Illustration by DonkeyHotey The United States stands at the endpoint of a long series of attacks on democracy, and the choices faced by the American public today point to the divide between those who are committed to democracy and those who are not. Debates over whether Donald Trump was a

James Clapper at the LBJ Presidential Library, 2016 • Photo by Jay Godwin Just as the first casualty of war is said to be the truth, the first casualty of the New Cold War is irony. Our most prominent journalists seem to have missed the Orwellian irony of Senator John

Photo by DVIDSHUB The immensity of the tragedy of Iraq – the cause of great destabilization in West Asia and North Africa – has been utterly forgotten. It is easy to forget that the prime mover here is not Eastern culture or human nature, but a war driven by Washington,

Illustration by DonkeyHotey Even for a failed gambling czar, Donald Trump has been surprisingly quick to show his hand as he sets the course of his forthcoming presidency. With a reactionary fervor, he is bursting backwards into the future. He has accomplished this feat through the first wave of nominations