Trump is weaving his usual tangled web of lies to give the appearance that Joe Biden and other Democrats did what he is accused of doing — actually, what he has already admitted he did. It’s important to keep those facts straight. Rather than abdicate our ability to do so for ourselves and for our fellow citizens, and thereby also abdicate the obviously correct course of impeachment, maybe we should simply commit ourselves to keeping those facts straight and plainly in the public view. That way, we can win in 2020 and do the right thing now.Continue Reading

Trump has decided that his strategy will be to make “The Squad”—and especially its two Muslim members, Tlaib and Omar—the face of the Democratic party and ride what he expects to be a renewed wave of hate and bigotry to his second term in office. Ultimately, that’s why he pressed Netanyahu on this, and that’s why, despite all these objections, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar will be barred from entering Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupies.Continue Reading

Boris Johnson now faces a conundrum, as this standoff will represent his first real challenge in foreign affairs and he cannot afford to look weak.

But an overly aggressive style that raises tensions is just what his critics have worried Johnson would display as prime minister.

The Tory premier’s vulnerability to Washington’s whims is even keener due to his lack of a majority in parliament, a deficit starker than the one that fell Theresa May.Continue Reading

In the final analysis, even if Trump is voted out or otherwise removed from office, getting to a point where a potentially calamitous war is no longer a daily threat will require a significant leap of faith on the part of the Iranians. And before that can even be wished for, there needs to be courageous leadership in the United States prepared to go farther than Obama did in recognizing that Iran is, for all its faults, a rational actor that needs to be brought into both the international community and the local Gulf community in a sincere way.Continue Reading

Watching American news coverage of the 2019 G20 summit in Osaka last weekend, you could forgive audiences in the United States for thinking there were no Europeans represented. President Donald Trump was mostly seen with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Other than a few random hellos with French President Emmanuel Macron and a brief meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe didn’t seem to get any of the admittedly limited space in the president’s mind, and the networks duly followed suit.Continue Reading