Author: Tom Engelhardt

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

Here’s a strange thing to even begin to grasp. In all these years, at least in Washington, the heartland of American power, it hasn’t been understood, not even faintly. In — yes! — all these years, including significant parts of the last century and this one, this country has continually poured read more

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Until last Sunday, the 2024 election wasn’t just a campaign between a distinctly old man making uncalled-for mistakes and his opponent. It was between two distinctly old men, both making uncalled-for errors, and of the two, the one making the most disastrous errors read more

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The Decline and Fall of Presidential America Are We Now Living in a Defeat Culture? By Tom Engelhardt

It’s not a happenstance or some sad mistake that, barring a surprise, Americans will go to the polls in November to vote for one of two distinctly ancient men, now 77 and 81, both of whom have clearly exhibited read more

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From Gaza to the West Bank to the Israeli-Lebanese borderlands, it’s been a genuine nightmare. The devastation in Gaza remains surreal and almost impossible to take in. Housing, hospitals, read more

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For obvious reasons, the devastation of Gaza has gotten so much of the attention recently, but life, post-October 7th, has also been a nightmare on the West Bank. Among other things, the grotesquely right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, as the Associated Press reported recently, read more

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Think about it. Next time around, Donald Trump would essentially be able to do anything. Anything. As long, of course, as he’s president of these increasingly (dis-)United States. And for that version of reality, he can thank the Supreme Court, the very one he empowered with those three court selections of his. In its most recent presidential decision, that court read more

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For just a moment imagine Clarence Thomas — yes, Clarence T! — as the president of the United States. It’s a mad thought, right? Or is it? One thing is clear: the present Trumpian Supreme Court — and no, The Donald didn’t appoint Clarence Thomas, but he might as well have along with the three (in)justices he did put there — is taking read more

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Consider it strangely (in)appropriate that, among the things Donald Trump and Joe Biden hardly discussed (including climate change) at their debate, they did face off over… yes, Afghanistan! read more

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In his years in power, Joe Biden and his top foreign policy officials have come up with a distinctly more aggressive and militarized approach to a rising China and, in particular, its claims to areas of the South China Sea or the island of Taiwan. As an old Cold Warrior who lived through the era of “containing” Soviet power, the president has taken a strikingly similar read more

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

Though I was never in the U.S. military, my life experience has been American wars, wars, wars, and more wars. I was born during World War II. I was in grade school when the Korean War took place. I still have a faint memory of a photo of a gleaming American soldier’s face from that unsettled conflict. (It might have been on the cover of LIFE magazine.) I was a protesting read more