…The United States must recognize that its own policies have played a role in enabling the North Koreans to conduct four nuclear tests over the last decade. Specifically, there are three examples of U.S. policies that have undermined our credibility on the issue of nuclear proliferation.
Analysis
Edward and Tatiana Lozansky: Deplorables and Useful Idiots for Peace
According to the current political vocabulary the “deplorables” are people who are rooting for Trump, while the “useful idiots” are those who believe that for the United States it is much better to have Russia as a friend rather than a foe.
By Bread Alone: Why Poor Russians Aren’t Protesting (Andrei Kolesnikov)
In November 2015, the index of positive consumer sentiments, as calculated by the independent Levada polling center, dropped to 64 percent of its record high it reached in March 2008. In a survey conducted in the same month, two thirds of respondents said they expected the economic crisis to last more than two years. The same proportion said they expected annual inflation to reach 30 percent. (It was just 13 percent in 2015.)
Glenn Greenwald: The U.S. Media Yesterday Suffered its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages
U.S. media outlets are very good at demanding respect. They love to imply, if not outright state, that being patriotic and a good American means that one must reject efforts to discredit them and their reporting because that’s how one defends press freedom.
Joe Lauria: How Russia-gate Rationalizes Censorship
The Russia-gate hysteria has spread beyond simply a strategy for neutralizing Donald Trump or even removing him from office into an excuse for stifling U.S. dissent that challenges the New Cold War, reports Joe Lauria.
PODCAST: A Secret Deal for Ukraine? Stephen F. Cohen Talks With John Batchelor
Is peace about to break out in Ukraine? This week, ACEWA Founding Board Member Professor Stephen F. Cohen talks with John Batchelor about the meaning of last week’s meeting between US State Department Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland and Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov in Kaliningrad.
Mehdi Hasan: Trump’s Transition Team Colluded With Israel. Why Isn’t That News?
Until Mueller issues his final report, we can all agree to disagree on whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. For now, what seems beyond doubt is that Flynn and Kushner colluded with Netanyahu and Dermer, on behalf of Trump, to make America not great again, but much less secure.
Max Blumenthal: Michael Flynn’s Indictment Exposes Trump Team’s Collusion With Israel, Not Russia
The only area where Flynn proposed any form of coordination with Russia was in defeating ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria.
In Ukraine, an Opportunity for Progress Between Russia and the West (STRATFOR)
A lot of pieces are in play this week in wide-ranging negotiations between the United States and Russia. Tuesday brought possible movement on one particularly thorny issue: Ukraine. On Jan. 19, an official from the Donetsk People’s Republic said the pro-Russia separatist territory was open to compromise on the issue of local elections in Donbas — a key sticking point in the implementation of the Minsk agreement.
Robert Parry: The Tangled Thread of Russia-gate
No matter how often the U.S. mainstream media asserts the suspicion of Russian “hacking” of Democratic emails as flat fact, no solid proof has yet been presented – and the claim has been denied by both the Russian government and WikiLeaks, which published the key emails.
Michael Brendan Dougherty: Putin Conspiracists Often Sound Envious
The obsession with Putin can act as a kind of infantile escapism for depressed liberal elites.
Aaron Mate: The Trump Team Definitely Colluded with a Foreign Power, Just Not the One You Think
Why is the media paying scant attention to Michael Flynn’s admissions about Israel?
Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age: An Open Letter to the American People (The Nation)
Throughout the world there is a false confidence that, because the Cold War is over and no nuclear weapons have been used since 1945, the nuclear dangers that once frightened and concerned people can now be ignored.
Leonid Bershidsky: President Petro Poroshenko is sacrificing Westernization to a personal political agenda
It’s become increasingly clear that Obama-era U.S. politicians backed the wrong people in Ukraine. President Petro Poroshenko’s moves to consolidate his power now include sidelining the anti-corruption institutions he was forced to set up by Ukraine’s Western allies.
Doug Bandow: Why Isn’t Europe Preparing for a War with Russia?
Despite the overwrought rhetoric that fills Washington, Moscow poses no meaningful military threat to the United States. Mucking around with the 2016 election was offensive, but Washington has done the same, only far more often in many more nations.
TAKING UKRAINE’S CARROT (Paul Robinson)
Ukraine, we are often told, has made a choice – to become a ‘European’ country, and in this way to decisively cut its historical ties to ‘non-European’ Russia. But what if Europe (in the form of the European Union (EU)) turns Ukraine away?
This has always been more likely than supporters of Ukraine’s post-Maidan government have been willing to admit.
Gwendolyn Sasse: High Time to End the War in Ukraine
Overall, the political conditions for a resolution of the war in Donbas are deteriorating on all sides.
Robin Andersen: Backlash Against Russian ‘Fake News’ Is Shutting Down Debate for Real
The way fake news is being defined in this battle is an attack on alternative journalism itself.
The New US-Russian Cold War Originated in the 1990’s (Stephen F Cohen)
Nation contributing editor and ACEWA Board Member Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new American-Russian Cold War.
Robert Parry: The Scalp-Taking of Gen. Flynn
The Russia-gate prosecutors have taken the scalp of ex- National Security Adviser (and retired Lt. Gen.) Flynn for lying to the FBI. But this case shows how dangerously far afield this “scandal” has gone, reports Robert Parry.