Venezuela and the Most Blatant Coup in History

There was a time, not long ago, when the U.S. had the social etiquette to conduct its coups clandestinely. That is important because it means they recognized that it is wrong. Coups were carried out by the CIA, and we often only found out years later. Now, they are...

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NATO Is a Menace, Not a Benefit, to America

Since its creation in 1949, NATO has been the keystone of U.S. foreign policy in Europe.  Indeed, the alliance has been the most important feature of Washington’s overall strategy of global primacy.  America’s political and policy elites have embraced two key...

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Trump Ukraine Plan AOA (Alive on Arrival)

Despite widespread rejection and ridicule in Western media of Donald Trump’s peace proposal on Ukraine being “dead on arrival” in Moscow, there was Trump’s envoy and his son-in-law discussing the “dead” document for five hours until midnight on Tuesday with Russian...

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Murder for Christmas?

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a meme of Franklin the Turtle, the amiable child's cartoon character, in a helicopter using a military weapon to kill people in a small boat below him, and captioned it "For your Christmas wish list," it understandably...

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Behind Diplomatic Crisis, Japan’s Economic Slide

On October 21, Sanae Takaichi, the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was voted in as the 104th prime minister of Japan; the first woman selected for the nation’s highest post. Barely a month later, in her first parliamentary address, Takaichi,...

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A Thermonuclear Hair Trigger

From TomDispatch: Once in the previous century, I actually visited the city of Hiroshima. I was an editor at Pantheon Books and had published a translation of a Japanese volume, Unforgettable Fire: Pictures Drawn by Atomic Bomb Survivors. In it, years later, a few...

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Trump Commands Venezuela’s Heavens Closed

US President Trump ordered the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela “closed in its entirety” on November 29. Yet the US has as much legal and moral authority to shutter the skies over Venezuela as the Venezuelans have to close the putting greens at Mar-a-Lago....

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When Populists Unite, the Neocon Horseshoe Closes

The American public watched in shock and awe as the democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and the right-wing populist President Donald Trump had a “chummy” visit in the White House. Some have cited this bewildering bond as an example of...

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