War Is A Crime

Early this February, the Republican-controlled Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed new federal budget legislation that increased U.S. military spending by $165 billion over the next two years.  Remarkably, though, a Gallup public opinion poll, conducted only days before, found that only 33 percent of Americans favored increasing U.S. military spending, while 65 percent opposed it, either backing reductions (34 percent) or maintenance of the status quo (31 percent).

What is even more read more

On March 1, 2018, I was very privileged to take part in a discussion of issues of racism, freedom of speech, patriotism, and war at Saint Mary’s Hall, a private high school in San Antonio “Military City USA” Texas.

I was one of five speakers who had been invited to speak about issues we had raised related to take-a-knee protests. The videos are all here, including video of all the read more

By Dave Lindorff

I’m no fan of police states or of dictators, whether in Russia, China, North Korea or under development here in the United States, but let’s at least be honest about what’s behind the news that President Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the man he has been calling “fat” and “Little Rocket Man.”

The corporate media in the US has been lavishing at times grudging praise on read more

UK government to press on with Brexit bill without the consent of the Scottish and Welsh governments – BBC News

UK to table new offer on post-Brexit powers for Scotland and Wales after talks fail – The Guardian

UK ministers accused of trying to ‘bounce’ the Scottish government into Brexit deal – The Scotsman

Scottland alternative Brexit Bill clears first stage at Holyrood – HeraldScotland

Scottish PM Nicola Sturgeon warns against ‘extreme Brexit now being pursued by the Prime Minister [May]’, favors the EU customs union and the single market – Daily Mail Online

Labour says ‘inevitable’ U.K. will stay in an EU customs union – Bloomberg

Jeremy Corbyn could become prime minister if Conservatives fail to achieve ‘workable Brexit’, warns Tory minister – The Independent

No Brexit deal until next year, U.K. officials say privately – Bloomberg

Brexit ‘will make Britain poorer over 15 years under all possible scenarios’, UK Government’s impact report finds – London Evening Standard

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

Here’s a thoroughly humdrum figure from the post-9/11 world: this February an estimated 1,294 people were killed in Iraq and another 266 wounded, including ISIS militants, numerous civilians, Iraqi security forces, Kurds, and Turks.  Few of them died in major combat, just read more

By Dave Lindorff

            A salute to the kids of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida!

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            After experiencing a terrifying attack on their school by a tragically unhinged former student armed with an assault-style rifle who killed 14 of their classmates and three teachers and seriously injured another 14, they didn’t retreat into fear and victimhood. Instead read more

Trump to sign tariffs on Thursday but some countries could escape them – The New York Times

Trump blames trade deficit on past US presidents, “From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars”  – New York Post

Trump eyes another trade crackdown, a separate action related to China’s intellectual property practices could be unveiled soon – POLITICO

Trade war: Trump threatens to slap 25% tariff on European cars – usatoday.com

VIDEO: Trump’s remarks on the trade deficit, ‘When we’re down by $30 billion, $40 billion, $60 billion, $100 billion, the trade war hurts them; it doesn’t hurt us’  – CNN

More than 100 GOP House lawmakers sign letter objecting to Trump’s steel, aluminum tariffs – WSJ

Text of the House Republicans’ letter to the White House objecting to President Donald Trump’s tariffs – WSJ

Schumer: Trump must back down from ‘sweeping’ tariffs – TheHill

Trump finds some friends on tariffs: Red-state Democrats – POLITICO

U.S. Chamber of Commerce head warns of ‘increasing prospects of a trade war’, says tariffs would ‘directly harm American manufacturers, provoke widespread retaliation from our trading partners’ – washingtonexaminer.com

Gary Cohn says he will resign as Trump’s top economic adviser – The New York Times

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

In the wake of the Parkland massacre, in a land whose citizens own an estimated 265 million guns, half of them in the hands of just 3% of the population, and with mass shootings (four or more people) taking place, on read more

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

The warnings were stunning. Just six weeks before Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three teachers at his former high school in Parkland, Florida, a woman acquainted with him told the FBI tip line “I know he’s going to explode” and expressed her fear that he might go to a school and begin “shooting read more

Sarah Williams Goldhagen is a contributing editor at Architectural Record and served as the Architecture Critic of The New Republic from 2005-2013. Her articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The American Prospect, and Art In America, and she has contributed scholarly essays to many publications, including Assemblage, The Harvard Design Magazine, and The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Goldhagen’s new book read more