Donald Trump’s order to declassify cherry-picked classified documents, including the 2015 secret court order that authorized U.S. intelligence surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, will enable Russian and other Eastern European and Eurasian organized crime syndicates to understand how they are targeted by the FBI, National Security Agency, and the CIA. Continue reading
On every anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is cycled through various talking head “news” formats to recount the events of the fateful day seventeen years ago. Giuliani’s veracity about the events of 9/11 had plenty of doubters just after the attacks. However, given Giuliani’s declaration on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on August 19, 2018 that “truth isn’t truth,” Giuliani’s lies about both the Trump administration and 9/11 should be considered holistically as coming from a corrupt liar. Continue reading
It is truly amazing how many individuals who stood opposed to George W. Bush’s wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan now blindly follow the patently neocon foreign policy of Donald Trump. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump constantly castigated candidates like Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and others for their support for neocon regime change in other countries. Continue reading
Political scientists would argue that the rigors of running for political office coupled with the glaring microscope of press attention would normally weed out any candidate suffering from mental illness. Whether political leaders gain office democratically or from unconstitutional means, the degree of mental illness among the top leadership of nations around the world in recent history has been remarkably high. Continue reading
When the nation’s founders selected what is now the District of Columbia to serve as the capital of the United States, engineers and architects were faced with the task of building a capital city on what was essentially a swamp. Donald Trump and his cronies and grifters have done their damnedest to turn Washington back into a swamp, one inhabited by slimy and scaly denizens eager to cash in on government access and control. Continue reading
As Washington was still reeling from the contents of Bob Woodward’s new exposé of the inner workings of the Trump administration, a current senior-level official of that administration penned an anonymous op-ed column in The New York Times revealing an unprecedented “resistance” movement within the White House. The movement has, according to the anonymous source, managed to circumvent several of Donald Trump’s anti-constitutional decisions and desires. The opinion piece, titled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” was only published by the “paper-of-record” under an anonymous by-line because the author is a high-ranking official of the Trump White House. Continue reading
While WMR has been a frequent critic of the often pusillanimous Bob Woodward of Watergate infamy, his new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” does paint a picture of the Trump White House that comes as no surprise to those who have tracked Mr. Trump’s business methods and political chicanery. Woodward, who enjoyed special access to previous administrations, always delivering puff piece descriptions of them in his past “chronicles” of politics on the Potomac, does land several body blows on Trump. Continue reading
Before Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court, was a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, White House staff secretary for George W. Bush, and a member of the Bush-Cheney 2000 legal team in the 2000 Florida presidential vote recount, he was a member of Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s investigation team looking into the July 1993 suicide of Bill Clinton’s deputy White House counsel, Vince Foster. Kavanaugh also helped draft the Starr Report, which recommended the impeachment of Clinton. Continue reading
Regional international organizations formed to keep the peace are loathe to adjusting borders, even if such changes maintain the peace. For example, when Kosovo President Hashim Thaci recently proposed “a correction” of its border with Serbia, active and retired diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic warned against the idea. Their reasoning is flawed. Continue reading
Donald Trump’s foreign policy, like much of his domestic policy, is a throwback to the worst right-wing excesses of the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan administrations. Mr. Trump, who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War for “bone spurs,” praised that nation’s government during a visit by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Washington in May 2017. Trump repeated those warm words for Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, during a visit to Hanoi in November 2017. However, given the fact that Vietnam recently imprisoned 12 individuals, including two US citizens, who were fighting with a guerilla movement that seeks to restore the US-backed “Republic of Vietnam” (South Vietnam), Trump’s foreign policy could be ripped from the history pages covering 1969 to 1971. Continue reading
Officially, three grand juries have been hearing testimony from witnesses in the Justice Department’s investigation of criminal activities by Trump Organizations and Trump campaign officials. These have included the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and federal courts in Manhattan, Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Virginia. Continue reading
Donald Trump’s scandal-plagued administration was, like that of Richard Nixon’s, buffeted by the political winds of August. Continue reading
Donald Trump has demonstrated his disdain for international agreements and treaties by either pulling the United States out of them or violating their basic requirements by his malign actions. Trump’s first renunciation of an international agreement was his June 2017 pullout from the Paris Climate Accord. The United States achieved the distinction of being the only nation in the world to denounce the agreement, which had been agreed to by all the world’s nations, including such non-members of the United Nations as the Holy See, the Faroe Islands, Aruba, Curacao, and Somaliland. Continue reading
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, convicted in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on eight criminal counts, including bank and tax fraud, was the chief promoter of Vice President Mike Pence while Trump was deciding on a running mate. Pence’s brother, Ed Pence, is a retired executive with engine manufacturer Cummins, Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana. During Ed Pence’s 36 years with the firm, he was promoted to vice president in charge of strategic initiatives. Ed Pence retired in December 2017. Ed Pence was largely responsible for developing a close relationship between Cummins and Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, based in the Russian autonomous Republic of Tatarstan. Continue reading
Donald Trump has emaciated environmental regulations instituted by administrations from that of Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Trump has also targeted federal social safety net programs initiated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and refined by Harry S Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Trump’s attack on public education negates strides made by Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Harrison, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Trump’s exploitation of federal parks, nature reserves, and lands for oil exploration, fracking, and mining unravels the conservation efforts instituted, primarily, by Theodore Roosevelt, but supplemented by the actions of Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Wilson, FDR, JFK, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Continue reading
Democratic candidates up and down the ballot in this year’s mid-term election campaign are discovering the added bonus of Republican endorsements to add to favorable polling numbers. The candidates for governor of Florida will be decided on August 28, however, former Democratic U.S. Representative Gwen Graham, the daughter of former governor and senator Bob Graham, is leading in polls. Continue reading
The institution of Donald Trump’s scattershot tariff policies are having a negative effect on consumer prices at the supermarket even as the White House paints a rosy picture of the nation’s economy. Although Trump promised American workers wage increases arising from his giveaway tax breaks for billionaires, few laborers have seen any increase in their take-home pay. This has resulted in a mild form of “stagflation,” which occurs in an economy suffering from inflation with no commensurate increase in wages. Because unemployment is low, the traditional definition of stagflation—inflation with high unemployment—does not fit the current economic environment. Instead, some economists are calling inflation with low-paying jobs with low unemployment “slumpflation.” Continue reading
The white nationalist immigration policy established by Donald Trump’s policy adviser, Stephen Miller, and his former U.S. Senate boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is putting in jeopardy a number of governments-in-exile and political leaders receiving asylum in the United States. Since World War II, the United States has been one of the few countries in the world that extended a welcome to governments overthrown in coups and military invasions. However, under the Trump administration’s policy of reviewing the status of permanent resident immigrants in the United States, the welcome mat may soon be pulled out from under a number of exiled governments and their leaders. Continue reading
The federal arrest and indictment for insider stock trading of Representative Chris Collins (R-NY), the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president, had a familiar air about it. Indicted along with Collins were his son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’s fiancee. Continue reading
There is little doubt that Donald Trump despises California. California’s environmental regulations have become national and international standards. Trump, who is guided only by revenge in his decision-making process, has California in his gun sights. Continue reading
As a result of pressure exerted on Donald Trump by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the U.S. to withdraw from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, and the European Union on international controls over Iran’s nuclear program and the appointment of neo-con war hawk John Bolton as U.S. national security adviser, the Trump administration has imposed a set of new economic sanctions on Iran. Continue reading
Across Africa, outside nations are vying for influence as the economic and military power of the United States decreases on the continent. Post-colonial spheres of influence established over newly-independent African states are no longer relevant. Replacing paternalistic former colonial overseers like France, Britain, and the United States are China, Russia, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in what resembles the most frenetic “scramble for Africa” since the Congress of Berlin concluded in 1885. Continue reading
Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and lobbyist for eastern European oligarchs and Third World dictators, could not have a better judge in his federal trial in Alexandria, Virginia than Thomas Selby (“T.S.”) Ellis. Manafort has been charged with tax and bank fraud by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. The charges are not related to Mueller’s probe of the Trump campaign for criminal conspiracy related to foreign involvement in the 2016 election. Continue reading
Few, if any, of the current crop of pro-Donald Trump boot lickers in the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives likely remember one of their predecessors, Representative Charles Sandman of New Jersey. Mr. Sandman remains largely a footnote in the history books for being one of Richard Nixon’s few defenders on the House Judiciary Committee. Continue reading
The British House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sports recently released an interim report on “Disinformation and ‘Fake News.’” In a conclusion that does not surprise those who have been investigating “election engineering” in U.S. national and state elections over some two decades, the report states that “a small group of individuals and businesses had been influencing elections across different jurisdictions in recent years.” Continue reading
Donald Trump’s “horse whisperer,” Steve Bannon, has traveled the speaking circuit throughout Europe, pushing for an alliance of far-right wing parties he calls “The Movement.” The idea for a “Fascist International” is nothing new. Central Intelligence Agency archives contain multiple references to a resurgent Nazi dream, cultivated in the rubble of World War II, to create a “European Reich” stretching from “Dublin to Vladivostok.” This Fourth Reich, unlike the Third Reich, was to be a corporate-controlled supranational entity. Continue reading
As Donald Trump’s legal problems grow, seemingly by the hour, other world leaders with whom his Trump Organization has conducted business may suffer the legal and political consequences of being identified with Trump and vice versa. One of those leaders, former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli, is currently in prison in Panama and awaiting trial for illegal wiretapping of his opponents and public corruption while president from 2009 to 2014. Continue reading
No one has been more critical of the policies of former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan when he was in charge at Langley than I. And this editor’s criticisms of former National Security Agency and CIA director Michael Hayden became very well known to him and his top aides at both agencies. Ditto with Susan Rice when she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under Barack Obama. Continue reading
Former Donald Trump White House strategist and 2016 campaign chairman Stephen Bannon has been active in Europe trying to stir up far-right political agitation. His latest move has been to announce the creation of an international organization of the far-right in Brussels, known simply as “The Movement.” It is not known where Bannon is getting the funds to start The Movement. In the past, Bannon has received generous subsidies from the billionaire father-daughter team of Robert and Rebekah Mercer. The duo funded Bannon’s former media enterprise, Breitbart News. Continue reading
Fascists love strong central government control. On the other hand, local autonomy represents good governance, something that is anathema to fascists. Today, around the world, local governments at the municipal, provincial, and regional levels are finding themselves under siege by central governments exercising what can only be described as fascist grabs for unitary executive power. Continue reading
While mourning continues over the shooting deaths of five members of the staff of the Annapolis Journal Gazette, including four journalists, by a deranged pro-Donald Trump and neo-confederate-supporting madman, Trump doubled-down on his incendiary comments about the press, again referring to the media as the “real enemy of the people.” Trump also continues to bash the Democratic Party, claiming it has a “death wish.” Continue reading
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Sleeper Senate race in Nebraska could benefit Democrats
Posted on September 19, 2018 by Wayne Madsen
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed his fear that the Senate is in play in this year’s mid-term elections. Although Democrats are defending 10 Senate seats in states that Donald Trump won, a combination of events, including a conviction and cooperation deal with Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; the sleaze factor surrounding Trump and members of his administration; and farmers and livestock growers devastated by retaliatory moves by other countries on Trump’s tariffs, has put an unlikely state in play for the Democrats: Nebraska. Continue reading →