Impeach the Government: Rogue Agencies Have Been Abusing Their Powers for Decades

All of the imperial powers amassed by Barack Obama and George W. Bush—to kill American citizens without due process, to detain suspects indefinitely, to strip Americans of their citizenship rights, to carry out mass surveillance on Americans without probable cause, to suspend laws during wartime, to disregard laws with which he might disagree, to conduct secret wars and convene secret courts, to sanction torture, to sidestep the legislatures and courts with executive orders and signing statements, to direct the military to operate beyond the reach of the law, to operate a shadow government, and to act as a dictator and a tyrant, above the law and beyond any real accountability—were inherited by Donald Trump.

Wired World: 35 Years of Submarine Cables in One Map

At the same time, more aging cables will be taken offline. Even though signals are no longer traveling through this network of “dark fiber”, it’s still being put to productive use. It turns out that undersea telecom cables make a very effective seismic network, helping researchers study offshore earthquakes and the geologic structures on the ocean floor.

Paul Craig Roberts: Better Relations between the US and Russia Are Not on the Cards

During the Cold War both sides received false alarms of incoming attacks, but neither the Amerians nor the Soviets ever pushed the button in response to the warnings. Why?  The reason is that both sides understood that they were working to reduce tensions and to build trust.  Both sides understood that in this atmosphere the alarms had to be false.

Brexit: 1939 All Over Again

How could it ever be in the interests of a nation state to surrender its capacity to govern itself to a foreign power? That is what results from our EU membership. Laws enacted by the EU trump our national laws.

John Brennan’s and Jim Clappers’ Last Gasp?

That leaves me with the alternative explanation--Smolenkov is a propaganda prop and is being trotted out by Brennan to try to provide public pressure to prevent the disclosure of intelligence that will show that the CIA and the NSA were coordinating and operating with British intelligence to entrap and smear Donald Trump and members of his campaign.

The EU Is a Doomed Empire

European tensions are growing. There is Brexit, a directionless and over-extended Germany, an ambitious but weak France, and a growing regional divide. But the main danger to the European project is democracy. What is the European Union? The closest concept I can come up with is that of a liberal empire. An empire is a hierarchically structured block of states held together by a gradient of power from a centre to a periphery. At the centre of the EU is Germany, trying more or less successfully to hide inside a “Core Europe” (Kerneuropa) formed together with France. Germany doesn’t want to…

Prorogation: The Historical Case for Constitutional Innovation

Should the prorogation of parliament be a possible course of action for a government? Is it an outrage against democracy and the constitution?  Rory Stewart threatens direct action, and Matt Hancock declares that such a thing “goes against everything those men who fought their way up those [D-Day] beaches died for.”  A leading constitutional historian looks here at the facts behind the hysteria. What, exactly, can a government do by exercising the royal prerogative? Like many great constitutional issues, this one exists in a grey area, grey for historical reasons. It is partly a consequence of old and seldom resolved disagreements about…

“We Need a Revival of Spirit, a New Unconquerable Resolve”

On 5 June 2019, in a speech in Portsmouth, HM the Queen led the British commemoration of D-Day. She recalled the "hundreds of thousands of young soldiers, sailors and airmen left these shores in the cause of freedom. In a broadcast to the nation at that time, my Father, King George VI, said: “…what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve...” That is exactly what those brave men brought to the battle, as the fate of the world depended on their success." "Many of them…

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