Heavy Infighting Reported Among ISIS in Tal Afar; 17 Killed in Iraq
Playing Nuclear ‘Chicken’ With Our Lives
What kind of civilization have we developed when two mentally unstable national leaders, in an escalating confrontation with each other, threaten one another – and the world – with nuclear war? That question arises as a potentially violent showdown emerges...
Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’ Wouldn’t Be the First for North Korea
Leave it to Donald Trump to threaten to rain “fire and fury” on the North Korean people the same week the world observed the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. government’s vindictive atomic bombings of Japanese civilians. In case anyone missed the...
Terrorism for Profit
Donald Trump stands cluelessly at the edge of history, exemplifying everything wrong with the past, oh, 10,000 years or so. The necessity for fundamental change in humanity’s global organization is not only profound, but urgent. Trump’s latest outburst about North...
The Fall of Benjamin Netanyahu
The vultures are circling. They can see the wounded man on the ground, and are waiting for his end. So are the human carnivores – the politicians. They sing his praises, swear to defend him with all their heart – but in their heads they are already...
Militias Won’t Participate in Tal Afar Liberation; 21 Killed in Iraq
What Are We To Believe?
The Washington Post has published a story claiming that the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un has succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead small enough to fit onto an intercontinental ballistic missile. It’s another “leak” coming from an intelligence community...
Counting Coups
Originally posted at TomDispatch. You may have sensed it for a while. A significant group of American voters certainly did, since they elected a declinist president in 2016. Still, here’s the news of the month: the Pentagon has finally acknowledged it, too, as...
Is the American Empire Worth the Price?
"When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight," Samuel Johnson observed, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." And the prospect of a future where Kim Jong Un can put a nuclear weapon on a U.S. city is going to cause this nation to reassess...


