The Senate hearings on the Supreme Court justice nomination have caused an extraordinary stir in the US. The contender for the post, lawyer Amy Coney Barrett – she was nominated by President Donald Trump – is being vilified in the press and on social media, every tiny little detail of […]
Month: October 2020
Indonesia Spells Out Terms Of Engagement With US
On the eve of the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s arrival in Jakarta on October 28, the senior editor of the leading Indonesian daily Jakarta Post Kornelius Purba wrote a taunting op-ed dwelling on what the heavyweight from Washington hoped to achieve in his mission at this late hour […]
Is A ‘Great Social/Civilizational Reset’ Upon Us?
The simmering tensions between France’s extreme secularist system and Islamic society’s vehement condemnation of that Western government’s support for what they regard as blasphemous depictions of the Prophet Muhammad increase the likelihood that a “Great Social/Civliizational Reset” — which shouldn’t be wrongly equated with the so-called “Clash of Civilizations” scenario […]
Begging Outrage: British Journalists For Assange
Even that title strikes an odd note. It should not. The Fourth Estate, historically reputed as the chamber of journalists and publishers keeping an eye on elected officials, received a blast of oxygen with the arrival of WikiLeaks. This was daring, rich stuff: scientific journalism in the trenches, news gathering […]
Biden’s Attempt To Unite Democrat & Republican Foreign Policy Hawks Is Intriguing
Biden’s description of Russia as “the biggest threat to America” and China as its “biggest competitor” is an intriguing attempt to unite the anti-Russian and anti-Chinese factions of America’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) even if it’s ultimately insincere (to say nothing of being unsuccessful in the […]
Google Meets The Sherman Act
“Ambition is the subtlest Beast of the Intellectual and Moral Field,” wrote John Adams to his son, John Quincy Adams, in January, 1794. “It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner.” Father Adams was thinking of Thomas Jefferson in penning these words, that sly devil of a man […]
If There’s No Sign Of Interference, It Must Be Fabricated
The RAND Corporation is setting new records in bias and partiality. The political planners from America are well aware of the need for the timely release of specific information. Good timing is necessary both to influence public opinion and for them to formulate their own strategies, including engaging partners and […]
How Yugoslavia Was Wiped Out From The Map (I)
It passed exactly 30 years since the first post-WWII “democratic and multiparty” elections in all six Yugoslav republics in 1990. Next year, however, not only that this country did not exist anymore but the Yugoslavs have been faced with a civil war as a result of the post-Cold War “democratization […]
Covid: A Curfew For What?
The French were stunned to learn that their government considers a public order measure, a curfew, to be effective in preventing an epidemic. Everyone, having understood that no virus breaks according to schedules set by decree, and given the many previous mistakes, asks the question: who is angry about a curfew for what?
Cultivated Lunacy, Nuclear Deterrence And Banning The Nuke
Is international relations a field for cautious minds, marked by permanent setbacks, or terrain where the bold are encouraged to seize the day? In terms of dealing with the existential and even unimaginable horror that is nuclear war, the bold have certainly stolen a march. The signature of Honduras was […]
The Endgame In Belarus Is In View
After a lull of the past 3-4 weekends, the anti-government protests in Minsk, Belarus, roared back to life today. This comes in the wake of three things. One, there are some incipient signs that Moscow feels frustrated with the Belarus strongman President Alexander Lukashenko for retracting on the assurances he […]
Impunity And Carefree Violence: Australia’s Special Forces In Afghanistan
In 2016, Australian Major General Jeff Sengelman approached the then chief of the Australian army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell with a nagging worry. The concern lay in allegations that Australian special forces had committed various war crimes in Afghanistan. Sengelman was then special forces commander; Campbell was chief of the […]
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