Tomgram: Todd Miller, Without Trump, the Border Is Still a Profitable Battlefield

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

For most Americans these days, our southern border with Mexico means just one thing: a political battlefield of the first order, Republicans versus Democrats, Us versus Them. After all, immigration — the nightmare of them invading us — has been a winner for the Trumpist Republican Party for years now. I’m sure you remember the Donald’s “ read more

Best of TomDispatch: Engelhardt, A Message in a Bottle from My Mother

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Let me offer a piece of advice to anyone whose parents are still alive: don’t wait. Think about the questions you want to ask them when it comes to themselves, their lives, their past, and then do it! Not tomorrow, not next week, but today.

I didn’t and I suspect I was pretty typical in that. Honestly, what did I care then about my parents’ lives or their past? All I wanted read more

Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, Investing in the Pentagon, Not Our Children

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

The United States is a war state of the strangest sort. Your taxes go to war — in this century, losing wars — in ever more extravagant amounts. There’s simply no end to it. In fact, it’s safe to say that investing yet greater sums in the military-industrial complex is about the only subject read more