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(2 comments) SHARE Friday, November 30, 2018 Iran: A Rumor of War
If the media learned anything from the disasters in Central Asia and the Middle East, it is not apparent when it comes to its reporting on Iran. Most Americans think that country is run by mad mullahs who hate the U.S. and is -- in the words of President Donald Trump -- a "terrorist nation." Americans don't hold that image of Iran by accident, but because that is the way the country is represented in the media.
(11 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 27, 2017 Nuclear Breakthrough Endangers the World
At a time of growing tensions between nuclear powers--Russia and NATO in Europe, and the U.S., North Korea and China in Asia--Washington has quietly upgraded its nuclear weapons arsenal to create, according to three leading American scientists, "exactly what one would expect"
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 8, 2017 Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and U.S. Foreign Policy
The view that American institutions and its organization of capital are superior is a dangerous delusion and increasingly unacceptable -- and unenforceable -- in a multi-polar world. The tragedy is how widespread and deep these sentiments are. The world is not envious of that shining "city on a hill," indeed, with Trump in the White House "aghast" would probably be a better sentiment than envy.
SHARE Thursday, February 2, 2017 Blundering Into a War With China
When President Trump says he wants to make America great again, what he really means is that he wants to go back to that post-World War II period when the U.S. dominated much of the globe with a combination of economic strength and military power. But that era is gone, and dreams of a unipolar world run by Washington are a hallucination.
SHARE Friday, December 23, 2016 Conn Hallinan's 2016 "Are You Serious?" Awards
Each year Conn Hallinan gives awards to individuals, companies, and governments that make reading the news a daily adventure. Here are the awards for 2016.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, October 10, 2016 Spain's Turmoil and Europe's Crisis
The right in Spain may have a government, but it is not one supported by the majority of the country's people. Nor will its programs address Spain's unemployment rate -- at 20 percent, the second highest in Europe behind Greece -- or the country's crisis in health care, education and housing.
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, October 3, 2016 A Dangerous Diplomatic Proposal
Whoever wins in November will face a world in which Washington can't call all the shots. As Middle East expert Patrick Cockburn points out, "The U.S. remains a superpower, but is no longer as powerful as it once was." While it can overthrow regimes it doesn't like, "It can't replace what has been destroyed."
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 18, 2016 Dangerous Seas: China and The U.S.
Behind the bellicose behavior on China and U.S. sides is underlying insecurity, a dangerous condition when two nuclear-armed powers are at loggerheads. From Beijing's perspective, Washington is trying to "contain" China by ringing it with American allies, much as the U.S. did to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Given recent moves in the region, it is hard to argue with Beijing's conclusion.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 21, 2016 The Big Boom: Nukes and NATO
After disappearing from the radar for several decades, nukes are back, and the decision to modernize the U.S. arsenal will almost certainly kick off a nuclear arms race with Russia and China. Russia is already replacing its current ICBM force with the more powerful and long range "Sarmat" ICBM, and China is loading its ICBM with multiple warheads.
SHARE Monday, March 7, 2016 Socialists Rain On Spain
If the Socialists have no success in forming a government, there will be new elections, probably in late June. Polls show the outcome of such a vote would be similar to the last election, but Spanish polls are notoriously inaccurate. In the last election they predicted Ciudadanos would eclipse Podemos. The opposite was the case.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 24, 2015 Spain Says "No" to Austerity
Besides delivering a decisive "no" to austerity, Spaniards also turned out the two-party system that has dominated Spain since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. For 40 years the PP and Socialists Workers Party (PSOE) have taken turns running the country, racking up a track record of corruption and malfeasance.
SHARE Monday, November 30, 2015 Portugal: The Left Takes Charge
Portugal is charting a somewhat different path than Syriza. Instead of head-on confrontation, the left is trying to maneuver while strengthening its base by improving people's lives. Disagreements will eventually surface -- hardly an unhealthy thing -- but the Portuguese alliance has decided to kick that can down the road.