The Elephant in the Room: Russia’s Role in the Demonstrations
The Elephant in the Room: Russia’s Role in the Demonstations One of the great unknowns is the extent to which Russia may have stoked racial…
Rex Tillerson
50 Years Ago: The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and its enduring significance
See “August 20, 1968 — “Dubček, Svoboda!” The Trenchant Observer, August 10, 2010. 50 years ago, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded…
Americans Are Lost in the Weeds, and Google Doesn’t Help
Continuing Google Censorship Google continues to censor The Trenchant Observer, not displaying search results on hot topics such as the Christopher Steele Dossier. In fact,…
International Law? U.S. maintains 2,000 troops in Syria without legal justification
See Gardiner Harris, “Tillerson Says U.S. Troops to Stay in Syria Beyond Battle With ISIS,” New York Times, January 17, 2018. “Donald Trump and international…
Trump’s implementation of Putin’s goals
With the day-to-day revelations about President Donald Trump and his and his associates’ contacts with Russians and their potential conspiracy to intervene in the 2016 U.S. elections, it is easy to lose sight of how pro-Russian U.S. foreign policy under Trump has become, and the ways in which Trump is implementing policies which further Vladimir Putin’s and Russia’s goals.
Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: Will Trump look the other way?
President Donald Trump is traveling to Saudi Arabia on May 20, 2017, on the first leg of his first foreign trip as president. What will…
Donald Trump and international law
Some of Donald Trump’s cabinet-level officials have invoked international law in criticizing the actions of other states. To her credit, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N….
High crimes and misdemeanors: Flynn, Comey, and Russians in the Oval Office
After Comey’s firing, it was learned that subpoenas have been issued to Michael Flynn to produce all papers and records related to his contacts and business dealings with the Russians.
Flynn has apparently commited acts which might constitute serious crimes. If prosecuted and convicted, he could spend many years in prison. His earlier efforts to gain immunity in exchange for his testimony before Congressional committees failed.
Flynn’s testimony could be explosive. It may be the key to blowing open the conspiracy involving collusion with the Russians, if there is one. If he talks, he could bring the whole Trump charade on Russia crashing down.
Hopefully he is under very good security protection.
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Russia’s “Trump card”
Putin’s “Trump card” is already paying off. While the focus in he U.S. media has been on whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians intervening in the U.S. election, less attention has been paid to the reasons for Trump’s pro-Russian positions and failure to criticize Putin.
The strongest hypothesis for this behavior is that Trump has been compromised by the Russians. This will remain the strongest hypothesis until an alternative, more persuasive explanation is presented.
Trump’s support for Marine Le Pen shames America; America turns away from human rights
Donald Trump has offered a tacit endorsement of Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, describing the far-right leader as the “strongest” candidate in…
Has Tillerson shown his cards? Exxon Mobil moves to dismantle Russian sanctions (revised April 21, 2017)
Revised April 21, 2017 Two of the things Rex Tillerson said in his Senate confirmation hearings appear to have been either extremely misleading or simply…
After Tillerson’s trip to Moscow, will Trump lift sanctions against Russia, or ever criticize Putin?
Rex Tillerson met Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin for two hours, in addition to his over three hours of meetings with foreign minister Sergey…
Homework for Rex Tillerson before traveling to Moscow
As he prepares to travel to Moscow to meet with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov (and possibly with Vladimir Putin, whether publicly or in secret), U.S….
Pro-Russian President Donald Trump directs Secretary of State to skip NATO summit, travel to Moscow instead
News that Rex Tillerson would skip an upcoming NATO foreign ministers meeting and travel instead to Moscow is the kind of news that produces a…
The level-of-analysis problem in assessing and reacting to Trump’s assault on American democracy
The outlines and methods of President Donald Trump’s asault on the institutions of American democracy and their underling traditions and values are now clear.
First, he has conducted an all-out assault on the very concept of the truth.
Third, Trump not only lies about everything all of the time, but also engages in defamation of the leading news media in the United States on a daily basis, having labeled them “the opposition party” and “the enemy of the people.”
We face a dramatic situation.
We have a president who lies about everything all of the time.
We have a presdient and administration which reject the concept of accountability, dismissing criticism will lies and charges of “fake news”. The president openly defies the requirements of the Enmoluments Clause of the constitution…
We have a president who is under strong suspicion of colluding with the Russians in their intervention into the November 2016 elections in the United States, who has not criticized Putin or Russia directly in any significant way…
Given Trump’s ongoing assaults on the pillars of American democracy, and the values which underlie them, Democrats, Independents and Republicans need to start thinking, with great urgency, about how Trump and Bannon can be removed from office–at an early date.
President Trump’s speech to Congress and his proposed 37% cut in the State Department’s budget
Developing President Donald J. Trump gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, February 28, 2017. He has also presented his…
Leading U.S. newspapers miss story: White House press secretary says Russia must return the Crimea (Updated February 16, 2017)
Updated February 17, 2017 Leading U.S. Newspapers Miss the Biggest Story on the Ukraine in More than a Year There is a lot going on…
Seven days in December: Seven days left to stop Trump, before the Electoral College vote on December 19
Developing The Electoral College vote to elect the next president of the U.S. will be held on December 19, 2016. That means there are seven…