Month: January 2017

A helicopter crashed after what is believed to be a malfunction.

Many top Democrats are stoking a political firestorm. We keep hearing that Russia attacked democracy by hacking into Democratic officials’ emails and undermining Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Instead of candidly assessing key factors such as longtime fealty to Wall Street that made it impossible for her to ride a populist wave, the party line has increasingly … Continue reading “Democratic Party Line Could Torch Civil Liberties… and Maybe Help Blow Up the World”

What explains the behavior of nations on the world stage? There is no science to guide us, no psychology of nation-states to elucidate the secrets of the national Ego, Super-Ego, and Id. Oh, there are theories galore: the realists, the structuralists, the Marxists, and more. Yet these are thin gruel these days, when all claims … Continue reading “The Abolition of Foreign Policy”

Occasionally a New York Times writer like Mark Landler will be permitted to step up to the plate and write a sensible article about President “No Guts Obama” and how he caved in to folks whom he lacked the political courage to cross. Landler’s Jan. 1 article shows, among other things, how Obama’s bowing to … Continue reading “Obama’s Deadly Afghan Acquiescence”

A fortunate journalist was freed after a week in captivity.

In retaliation for the hacking of John Podesta and the DNC, Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and ordered closure of their country houses on Long Island and Maryland’s Eastern shore. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that 35 U.S. diplomats would be expelled. But Vladimir Putin stepped in, declined to retaliate at all, and invited … Continue reading “Can Trump and Putin Avert Cold War II?”

As the US mainstream media obsessed last week about Russia’s supposed “hacking” of the US elections and President Obama’s final round of Russia sanctions in response, something very important was taking place under the media radar. As a result of a meeting between foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, and Turkey last month, a ceasefire in … Continue reading “Washington Frozen Out of Syria Peace Plan”

Bombers struck several locations in Baghdad and Sadr City. Meanwhile, British soldier has died in a non-combat event.

At least 52,369 people were killed in Iraq during 2016. This estimate includes Daesh militants.

“It wouldn’t be a bad opening for a Tom Clancy novel about the Cold War” – that’s how the Los Angeles Times described the sequence of events leading up to the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats (“spies”) and the latest face-off between Washington and Moscow. Indeed the whole episode of has about it a fictional … Continue reading “Is Trump About to Debunk the Media’s ‘Putin-gate’ Conspiracy Theory?”