Trump Administration

For the past 42 years, Yellowstone grizzly bears have been protected under the Endangered Species Act. But now the U.S. Department of the Interior, citing a rebound in the bear’s population, says it will end these protections and make the states responsible for tracking the animals’ numbers again. [1]
The agency says the rule, announced on 22 June 2017, will take effect 30 days after it is published.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement:

Pushed by Israel and Saudi Arabia, President Trump is edging toward war with Iran, possibly beginning with “mission creep” in Syria, a reversal of Trump’s campaign rhetoric objecting to military adventures, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R.…Read more →

A few weeks ago, at the end of April, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acted to put Nikki Haley, the US’s out of control UN ambassador, in her place, telling her through his officials that she should clear any comments she intends to make on contentious issues with the State Department before she makes them.

Exclusive: A founding Russia-gate myth is that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies agreed that Russia hacked into and distributed Democratic emails, a falsehood that The New York Times has belatedly retracted, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry (Updated on July…Read more →

A new presentation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with a Donald Trump figure as Caesar bruised the fragile feelings of right-wing commentators who missed the play’s historic value and message, says Michael Winship. By Michael Winship Over in New York’s Central…Read more →

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, not seen, in his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, June 7, 2017. (Debbie Hill/AP)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the direction of the Trump administration, will revoke a rule that gives the agency broad authority over regulating the pollution of tributaries and wetlands that flow into the country’s largest rivers. [1]
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told Congress on June 27, 2017, that the agency would “provide clarity” by “withdrawing” the rule, and follow standards set in 2008. Pruitt had previously said he would recuse himself from working on litigation to the rule.
Said Pruitt:

“What we have to deal with here is a communist society [which] is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it comes.” —Karl Marx, “Critique of the Gotha Programme”
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will cast votes on 30 July to determine its fate as President and United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) leader Nicolás Maduro continues to battle neoliberal opposition party Popular Will (VP), who has received Washington’s blessings.

Modern America’s obsession with self and success has killed off what once was an honorable American archetype, the Common Man, who was the nation’s backbone for generations, writes Michael Brenner. By Michael Brenner America’s Common Man exists no more –…Read more →

The bloody history of Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1980s – how the U.S. “victory” over the Soviets morphed into decades of chaos – is a cautionary tale for today’s Syria, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R.…Read more →