Author: Tom Engelhardt

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

If you were sleeping in 2010 when the Supreme Court — you know, the perfectly reasonable one that didn’t yet have Brett Kavanaugh on it — made political spending a form of free speech with its Citizens United case, you may not yet know that American politics is increasingly a possession read more

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

One genuine joy in my life is spending time with my grandson. He’s six, like TomDispatch regular Frida Berrigan’s son Seamus, and he reminds me constantly of just how remarkable — how clever, quick, quirky, inquisitive, and ready read more

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

In July 1999, Chalmers Johnson began the prologue to Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire this way: “Instead of demobilizing after the Cold War, the United States imprudently committed itself to maintaining a global empire. This book is an account of the resentments read more

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

In the Heart of a Dying Empire
The Adolts in the Room (and No, That Is Not a Typo!)
By Tom Engelhardt

When you think about it, Earth is a relatively modest-sized planet — about 25,000 miles in circumference at the Equator, with a total surface area of 197 million square miles, almost three-quarters of which read more

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

Like many in my generation, undoubtedly including Donald Trump, I went into space early (and I’m not even counting all those hours in my early teens I spent reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy or H.G. Wells’s War read more

It’s been quite a time for, in the phrase of the moment (which TomDispatch regular John Feffer wields particularly effectively today), “the adults in the room.” We’re talking, of course, about the very Washington insiders whom a “senior administration official” in an anonymous op-ed read more

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

Don’t say that Donald Trump isn’t consistent! No one was ever more so when it came to avoiding the truth! On lies and falsehoods of every sort, he’s the greatest! Outstanding! Fantastic! Tremendous! Amazing! Give him credit! He’s never wavered! Not for a moment! Not since he read more

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

It was the rarest of graphics in the American news media: a CNN map in which recent Saudi air strikes in Yemen were represented by little yellow explosions.  Below them were the number of civilians killed (“97,” “155,” “unknown casualties”) and, below those, read more

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

There’s a clear pattern to Donald Trump’s life. Put simply: he gets away with it. Yes, sometimes (but not usually) he has to pay a penalty, but generally he has a knack for leaving others holding the bag. He’s stiffed untold read more

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

Honestly, what is it about Fridays, the Trump administration, and the Palestinians? Each of the last three Fridays, “at the direction read more