Maggie Astor at The New York Times devotes an article to the egregious lies US politicians share with their constituents, not through social media, but through massive email campaigns. They escape notice in the public debate about fake news because they are private communications. But they achieve...
It is way beyond time to wonder how Donald Trump, most of his close associates and some members of his immediate family are still breathing the heady air of freedom from criminal indictment. America and the world have watched one of the world’s preeminent grifters lie, cheat and steal in plain...
In 988, Prince Vladimir was undecided about which of the three great monotheistic religions to bring to his Russian realm. He sent envoys to the lands of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The envoys returned with stories of the three faiths. According to legend, Vladimir rejected Judaism and...
When she was President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the UN just before being promoted to secretary of state, Madeleine Albright famously shared her understanding of how the US commitment to Woodrow Wilson’s motto of keeping the world safe for democracy could play out in real time. In a 1996...
Democracy seems to be in the eye of the beholder. There are not many places where a country's leadership stands up and shouts to the world that the country is a repressive dictatorship in which the rights of man are routinely trampled for the benefit of the few. Will Joe Manchin Remain a...
A 2014 study published by Princeton University sought to determine how political decisions were made in the United States. The study's conclusion called into question the legitimacy of calling the current political system a democracy. It had effectively evolved into a functioning...
The legacy press continues its endless campaign to promote the belief that Russia is waging a never-ending battle against US diplomats and spies thanks to the secret weapon that provokes the dreaded “Havana syndrome.” Two Washington Post journalists, John Wagner and Miriam Berger, have...
It has been a full week since we last reported on the Cold War psychodrama known as the Havana syndrome. But the news keeps coming, and though we are no wiser as to its physical causes or whodunnit, the media and the US government are not about to let it go. As we suggested last week, an...
The disappointed hope for a reckoning after the financial meltdown of 2008-09 that taught the world the meaning of “too big to fail” demonstrated the truth of its corollary: “too big to jail.” Sending rich people — and especially powerful rich people — to jail has always been a...
In the US media landscape, conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson has become the single most popular voice disseminating political opinion on American cable television. His personal opinions often deviate from even the distorted norms of Fox News, an outlet that has always functioned as...
Arizona’s Maricopa County is ground zero in the continuing debate over election integrity in the United States. The so-called audit of the 2.1 million votes cast in that county in last year’s presidential election — by the almost comically inept firm Cyber Ninjas — was supposed to arrive...
The Daily Devil’s Dictionary appears today in its final August weekly edition containing multiple items taken from a variety of contexts. The daily format returns next Monday. The Fading Horizon of US Middle East Politics US foreign policy has always sought effective metaphors intended to...
It is turning out to be strange summer in California. The entire West Coast has been experiencing unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires, a sure sign that climate change is taking its toll on our planet. California is also in the midst of political turmoil, fueled by partisan hatred against its...
Now that the internationalists and their kindred neoconservatives have had their moment in the sun and reestablished America’s “greatness” on the world stage, it is time to get back to the domestic challenge of trying to bring the reality of America into closer proximity to President Joe...
