Ivan Eland – NATO as an ‘Entangling Alliance’

With populism running wild in Europe and in the United States — the Brexit and American presidential candidate Donald Trump questioning U.S. alliances being just two obvious examples — suddenly people are asking the big questions about the future of Western institutions that should have been asked after the Cold War ended. Both the Brexit and Donald Trump seem to …

Vandana Shiva – Biodiversity, GMOs, Gene Drives and the Militarized Mind

A recent report from the National Academy of Science of The United States, titled “Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values,” warns: “One possible goal of release of a gene-drive modified organism is to cause the extinction of the target species or a drastic reduction in its abundance.” Gene Drives have been called …

Yves Smith – Brexit Empty Threats: The UK’s Fantasy of Becoming a Big Tax Haven

One noteworthy feature of Brexit coverage is British commentators and even worse, officials, reassuring themselves and their audiences that the EU’s firm insistence that the UK will not be able to cherry-pick will melt when they understand that the UK has real bargaining leverage. Based on the arguments I have seen so far, the Eurocrats aren’t at any risk of …

Imperial NATO: Before and After Brexit

In his first public response to the Brexit vote that has shaken Europe and much of the world, President Obama sought to reassure Americans and others. He urged us not to give into hysteria and stressed that NATO did not disappear with Brexit. The Trans-Atlantic alliance, he reminded the world, endures.1 In the face of what may be the slow motion …

Danny Haiphong – The Obama Legacy Part 2: Economic Policy Wall Street Could Count On

“Obama Administration’s economic policies were always meant to stabilize and enrich Wall Street at the expense of the working class and poor.” The 2008 economic crisis sent Washington into a frantic search for a way to forestall popular rebellion. It found the perfect Presidential candidate in Barack Obama. With millions of Wall Street dollars at his disposal to bankroll a masterful marketing …

Former US drone technicians speak out against programme in Brussels

Two whistleblowers on the US drone programme have joined campaigners in Brussels ahead of a European parliament hearing on the use of armed drones. Former military technicians Cian Westmoreland and Lisa Ling both worked on the high-tech infrastructure on which the drones flying in Afghanistan rely. They have now come forward as critics of the US drone programme. At an …

George Monbiot – Roots in the Rubble

Let’s sack the electorate and appoint a new one: this is the demand made by MPs, lawyersand the four million people who have signed the petition calling for a second referendum. It’s a cry of pain, and therefore understandable, but it’s also bad politics and bad democracy. Reduced to its essence, it amounts to graduates telling non-graduates “we reject your democratic choice”. Were …

Report Shows How War Profiteers Are Now Refugee Profiteers, Too

As Europe comes to terms with a Brexit vote fueled in large part by anti-immigrant hate-mongering, a new report exposes how war profiteers are influencing EU policy to make money from unending Middle East conflicts as well as the wave of refugees created by that same instability and violence. The report (pdf), Border Wars: The Arms Dealers Profiting from Europe’s Refugee Tragedy, released jointly …

Britain is plunging towards an economic nightmare, and it isn’t just because of Brexit.

On Monday morning, Markit released its latest set of data on the state of the UK’s construction sector, and to say things didn’t look good would be an understatement. The sector slipped into contraction for the first time since April 2013, hitting just 46.o, a shock fall from an already poor base last month, and the biggest single month fall since …

JILL STEIN – It’s Time for a Second American Revolution

On July 4, politicians declare their love for the American Revolution and democracy, while doing their best to oppose both at home and abroad. The 2016 Presidential election provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to win independence from the rule of the 1%. The two 1% nominees – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – are the two most disliked politicians in US …