US ELECTIONS AND SUMMER ESCALATION IN UKRAINE

Recent weeks have seen a series of incidents, mainly on the Donbass, suggesting a large-scale escalation of combat operations cannot entirely be ruled out. Ukrainian forces have stepped up bombardments of frontline LPR/DPR positions and of Novorossia cities and towns. There have been a number of efforts by regular UAF forces and by “volunteer battalions” to seize key terrain features …

Glenn Greenwald – Why Did the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation?

s the numerous and obvious ethical conflicts surrounding the Clinton Foundation receive more media scrutiny, the tactic of Clinton-loyal journalists is to highlight the charitable work done by the foundation, and then insinuate — or even outright state — that anyone raising these questions is opposed to its charity. James Carville announced that those who criticize the foundation are “going to hell.” Other Clinton loyalists insinuated …

Paul Craig Roberts – The US: A Dead Nation Walking

I use the writings of Orlov and The Saker as checks on my own conclusions. In his article Orlov concludes that the United States is a dead nation, still walking, but no longer a uni-power. I agree with Orlov that US weapon systems are more focused on profits than on effectiveness and that Russia has superior weapons and a superior …

Arlie Russell Hochschild – Donald Trump in the Bayou – The Tea Party, a Sinkhole in Louisiana, and the Contradictions of American Political Life

Sometimes you have to go a long, long way to discover truths that are distinctly close to home. Over the last five years, I’ve done just that — left my home in iconically liberal Berkeley, California, and traveled to the bayous of Tea Party Louisiana to find another America that, as Donald Trump’s presidential bid has made all too clear, …

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK – Clinton, Trump and the Triumph of Global Capitalism

Roger Ebert once said that a film is as good as its villain. Does this mean that the forthcoming U.S. elections will be good since the “bad guy” (Donald Trump) is almost an ideal villain? Yes, but in a very problematic sense. For the liberal majority, the 2016 elections represent a clear-cut choice: Trump is ridiculous, excessive and vulgar. He …

Natylie Baldwin – The High Cost of American Hubris

Although renowned political scientist John Mearsheimer does not consider himself to be an isolationist – a term which has acquired a negative connotation since WWII – his definition is illuminating as much for clarifying what the term does not mean as for what it does. In America Unhinged, Mearsheimer writes: “Isolationism rests on the assumption that no region of the world outside …

Michael Payne – A U.S. Government Hooked on, Obsessed with, Perpetual War

America has a government that is taking this country in a direction in which the vast majority of its people don’t want to go. It continues to pour massive amounts of the country’s wealth into building and maintaining a vast military empire when, at the same time, critically important domestic needs remain unfunded or underfunded. War is so deeply embedded …

Insight – ALVIN LAW DOES IT ALL – SAUCE THAT’S THE FABRIC OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS – 08.25.16

I typically attempt to write a snappy blurb that’ll make you want to immediately hit the play button though I have completely failed since there’s little I can write that’ll remotely come close to encapsulating the life and conversation I was fortunate to have had today with undaunted Alvin Law.  Listen and you’ll concur!  Tomatoes are beautiful, scrumptious and life …