The statistics are in. One anti-racist protester, Heather Heyer, 32, is dead. One member of the International Socialist Organization is injured, as are two members of the Democratic Socialists of America. And so are at least a dozen more. (More…)
United States
One occasionally hears it said that just when you think something is foolproof they come out with a better quality of fool. Alarming as it is, this is one of those principles so universally admitted that one hardly thinks that any gentleman (or gentlewoman) would deny it. (More…)
This has been one of the more unfortunate weeks of late for the Trump Administration. For a regime that has been shambling from disaster to crisis, that’s really saying something. (More…)
Although the past actions of the Department of Defense regarding this are presently uncertain, I am concerned with the possibility that the DoD could have withheld information concerning the exposure of US military personnel to nerve agents during their service in the Persian Gulf War. (More…)
The sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid once wrote, “The budget is the skeleton of the state stripped of all misleading ideologies.” His fellow Austrian, the noted economist Joseph Schumpeter, was so fond of repeating this line that many people thought it was his. (More…)
The big news these days is the firing of FBI director James Comey. The announcement last week took everyone (including Comey himself) by surprise. Cue the hot takes from every talking head across the media spectrum. (More…)
Paul Manafort, chairman of Trump’s election campaign, was paid millions of dollars through secret bank accounts in Cyprus to promote policies favorable to Russia. (More…)
In April, US President Donald Trump launched what is estimated to be the country’s 8,000th military strike against Syria. What makes this strike a game changer was that unlike previous strikes, which focused on Islamists, this one targeted the government, in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack that left dozens of civilians dead. (More…)
On the strength of Thursday’s news, we can reasonably assume that one of two things has happened. One possibility is that Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, decided to stage a piece of low-grade political theater in the hopes of somehow getting the Republicans ahead of a news cycle. (More…)
Perhaps the most difficult thing about trying to cope with the current state of politics in the United States is its utter ridiculousness. The ways of American politics have seldom been rejigged in such a revolutionary way, as is currently the case. (More…)
“Is it me or are a lot of people struggling with depression and insomnia right now?” When a friend in the United Kingdom posted this question a while back, most commenters focused on the winter weather there. I didn’t have that excuse. It’s almost always sunny in the Arizona desert. But that isn’t helping me this year, I responded, because “Trump creates his own weather.” (More…)
For the last couple of days, the Mexican government been playing host to the redoubtable duo of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security chief John Kelly. They have been, it will come as no surprise, trying to pour oil on the turbulent waters of the current relationship between the United States and Mexico. (More…)