Author: Tom Engelhardt

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

Imagine this: once there were just two of them produced by a single country, the United States. I’m thinking, of course, of the atomic bombs dropped with such devastating effect on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. Now, there are roughly read more

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

Yep, you guessed it! Donald Trump’s solution to the drug crisis in America is to institute a death penalty for drug dealers. Hey, it’s how they do it in China, right, so why not read more

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

Nick Turse’s first piece for TomDispatch focused on, as I put it at the time, “how fully the worlds of toy-making and war-making, of toy companies, video-game outfits, movie studios, and the Pentagon have meshed.” That was in October 2003, only read more

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

Yes, if you’re looking for it, you can find the information on the grim heating up of this planet. Still, remarkably little of it has been headline-making news the way Donald Trump is, almost any day of the week, no matter what he talks about, including his acuity when it comes to whales.

Last June through December read more

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

I was uptown in New York City on September 11, 2001, but I still remember the distant smoke that you could see over the Hudson River. If you had told me then that, thanks to those four hijacked planes and a tiny group of al-Qaeda operatives, my country would launch a 20-plus-year “Global War on Terror” — with two full-scale disastrous invasions of distant lands — and read more

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

It’s bad enough here in the U.S. Yes, unlike Donald Trump (“Drill, drill, drill!“), Joe Biden has attempted to do something read more

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

Not surprisingly, Bernie Sanders was distinctly ahead of his time when it came to Donald Trump. Back in 2016, as Guardian reporter Ed Pilkington reminded read more

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

Here’s a truth (or do I mean a truism?): you’re only young once. I say that, of course, as I head for my 80th year on this planet. But as TomDispatch regular and co-chair of the read more

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

Hey, here’s the good news! Last week, despite a looming congressional budget shutdown, Senate and House leaders actually agreed on the outline of a budget deal that would keep the money flowing. Above read more

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

Here’s one obvious point that isn’t made often enough: American taxpayers are now spending close to a trillion dollars a year on what’s still called “national security,” but should really be called “national insecurity.” Think about it for a moment. read more