Author: Tom Engelhardt

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

Once upon a time, in another era, maybe even another universe, the head of a university refused to call on the police, the National Guard, or even federal troops in the face of student and other protests. Instead, he opened the doors of his school to the demonstrators.

I’m thinking of Kingman Brewster, who was the president of Yale University on May 1, 1970, as read more

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

Despite the lack of televised coverage of Donald Trump in court, the trial of the century — or do I mean of the month, week, day, minute, or second? — has caught our attention. And yes, a crucial witness is indeed likely read more

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

I live reasonably close to Columbia University. Over the years, on my daily walks, I’ve often wandered through the gates of its striking campus on 116th Street, crossing from Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue, passing students, admiring the enormous Low Library and the scene generally. About noon on a recent day (but before students there occupied Hamilton Hall and were read more

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

Let me say that, in some strange way, I’m awed. A little background here: I grew up in New York City and, while still quite young, became a “birder.” Watching birds in the 1950s was not an activity a teenage boy was eager to advertise, and yet, however quietly, with my best friend (and his uncle’s borrowed binoculars), I did it in what remains a spectacular spot for read more

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

You can hardly miss the news about climate change anymore, or perhaps what I mean is that you (yes, you!) can hardly miss feeling its effects. It’s been startling, to say the least. It doesn’t matter whether it was the month (the last 10 read more

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

Don’t for a second think that any of it was torture! Those acts committed on prisoners captured in the Global War on Terror and held at CIA “black sites” around the world included read more

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

What is it about Iranian generals when it comes to the U.S. and Israel? While president, Donald Trump (who once implicitly suggested that, were his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton to win the read more

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

Old Man World Leftovers of the American Century By Tom Engelhardt

Let one old man deal with two others.

I turn 80 in July, which makes me just over a year-and-a-half younger than Joe Biden and almost two years older than Donald Trump. And, honestly, I know my limits. Yes, I still walk — no small thing — six miles a day. And I work constantly. But I’m also aware that, on my second walk of the day and then as night approaches, I feel significantly read more

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

As TomDispatch regular John Feffer suggests today, Donald Trump has a distinct affinity for the kinds of gang leaders we’ve been hearing about in read more

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

Sometimes it seems as if it just never sinks in. I mean, it shouldn’t be that complicated anymore. It’s hardly news that 2023 was a year of unnerving heat globally — the hottest “by far” since records read more