The unlikely rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump has focused public attention on an issue that hasn’t gotten much attention since the Civil War era – international trade. One of the biggest controversies in nineteenth century American politics was tariffs – with...
ISIS Executes Girls in Mosul; 143 Killed in Iraq
Hillary’s Secret Weapon
Last weekend, Hillary Clinton dispatched her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to offer a defense of her alleged espionage. The espionage allegations against her are that in order to escape public and Obama administration scrutiny, she had all of her emails as...
Escalating US Air Strikes Kill Hundreds of Civilians in Mosul
USA Today revealed on April 19th that U.S. air forces have been operating under looser rules of engagement in Iraq and Syria since last fall. The war commander, Lt. Gen. McFarland, now orders air strikes that are expected to kill up to 10 civilians without prior...
The Pentagon Shouldn’t Get To Absolve Itself for Bombing a Hospital
The Pentagon just made it official: No war crime was committed when a US plane attacked the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan last year, killing 42 patients and health workers and injuring many more. At least, that’s the conclusion of its...
Fighting South of Falluja; 162 Killed in Iraq
Terrorism: From the Irish Dynamite War to the Islamic State
Bombs explode in a subway. The victims are everyday people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. What follows is outrage: track down the perpetrators. The people who set off the bombs are monsters and inhuman fanatics, thunder the authorities. But the...
It Can’t Happen Here, Can It?
Originally posted at TomDispatch. Every now and then, I teach a class to young would-be journalists and one of the first things I talk about is why I consider writing an act of generosity. As they are usually just beginning to stretch their writerly wings, their task,...
What Is the US Military Doing in the Baltics?
Get ready for the new cold war, which will no doubt turn hot if Hillary Clinton gets into the White House: NATO has just announced it is “considering” the addition of 4,000 more troops to be stationed in Poland and the Baltic states, i.e. right on Russia’s western...
Why Activists Today Should Still Care About the 40-Year-Old Church Committee Report
Today, if you go on Twitter, you can find the NSA tweeting about its commitment to recycling, or the CIA joking about still not knowing the whereabouts of Tupac. Why are these once-sinister and little-known spy agencies so eager to put on a friendly face for us? The...


