The U.S. Constitution can reasonably be seen as a massive tax and mercantilist trade-promotion program. However, there’s a third leg to this stool. It was a national-security program as well – almost a proto-PATRIOT Act. Indeed, these three elements formed an integrated project: it gave the new central government independent power to raise revenue by …
Continue reading “The Constitution and the Standing Army”
Knowing even a little of James Comey’s post 9/11 background, it becomes rather hard to believe the FBI Director is sincerely leveling with the American public in his latest quest to compel Apple (and other encrypted communication companies) to create a mechanism for government access, that he is solely motivated by his desire to “look …
Continue reading “Behind FBI’s Data-Access Fight with Apple”
There is a familiar aphorism that says “violence begets violence”; from the origin of one destructive act stems more and different forms of brutality, provoking an unremitting cycle of suffering. The phrase is rooted in biblical scripture – the Gospel of Matthew, to be more specific – but has seen contemporary adoption by renowned humanists …
Continue reading “War, Human Rights and the Politics of Personalism”
Hillary Clinton has spent much of her presidential campaign running away from her responsibility for the United States’ disastrous 2011 intervention in Libya. The February 19 release of more emails from her private server may make it harder for her to do so. In an email with the subject “bravo!” sent on March 19, 2011–the …
Continue reading “‘Bravo!’ Email Appears To Show Clinton’s Friend Congratulating Her on Bombing of Libya”
Dozens of people were left sickened by a rocket attack in Iraq. The suspect cause was chlorine gas added to the bombs.
It is no secret that Saudi Arabia, along with its Gulf and Western allies, has played a direct role in fueling the fires of grinding sectarian conflict that has kept Syria burning for the past five years. It is also no secret that Russian intervention has radically altered the kingdom’s “regime change” calculus in effect …
Continue reading “Newly-Translated WikiLeaks Saudi Cable: Overthrow the Syrian Regime, but Play Nice with Russia”
Originally posted at TomDispatch. It may be hard to believe now, but in 1970 the protest song “War,” sung by Edwin Starr, hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That was at the height of the Vietnam antiwar movement and the song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, became something of a …
Continue reading “War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing”
The Syria “cessation of hostilities” agreement seems all the stranger as huge unanswered questions regarding signatories, partners, monitoring, reporting, adjudication, and enforcement are raised. It seems more and more like something cobbled together without much thought as to how it might work in practice. Indeed, the people who are paid to explain to us how …
Continue reading “The Incredible Shrinking Syrian ‘Ceasefire’”
I woke up at 3:30 this morning,, and leapt out of bed – or, rather, off the couch, where I’d dozed off a few hours earlier – and went immediately to my computer. After checking the news to see if World War III had started yet, I wondered if I should try to get more …
Continue reading “An Appeal to My Readers”
At least 56 people were killed across Iraq, many of them in the Falluja area.
