Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump, according to senior administration officials. They based that conclusion, in part, on another finding — which they say was also reached with high confidence —…
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that he would separate himself from his businesses before he enters the White House. More details about the arrangement will be announced in mid-December, but it sounds as if he plans to step away from only the management of his business, which presumably will be turned over to his children,…
The quest for the caliphate will endure—with or without ISIS. Last May, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, the second most powerful leader in the Islamic State, hinted that the caliphate was crumbling. “Whoever thinks that we fight to protect some land or some authority, or that victory is measured thereby, has strayed far from the truth,” he…
Here are some takeaways from the news about “fake news”: false stories propelled Donald Trump’s presidential victory, undermined the peace deal in Colombia, and contribute to ethnic violence in Myanmar. Facebook is to blame, with Twitter and Google distant abettors. Whatever you think of these conventional conclusions, fake news is causing us to close this…
Are Americans racist and xenophobic? As usual, two package deals angrily competing for our attention. The first says: Americans are obviously racist and xenophobic. The second says: No, you’re just being paranoid. Neither package deal sees America clearly. For racism, Avenue Q has it right: while (almost) everyone’s a little bit racist, the key word…
After US citizen Rizwan Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik murdered 14 people in San Bernardino on December 2, 2015, Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Trump tweaked the plan, but never abandoned it. He later rephrased it as suspending “immigration from terror-prone regions where…
This campaign in which Donald Trump kept claiming he’d make America great again has, in fact, made it seem much smaller to the rest of the world. CHRISTOPHER DICKEY 11.08.16 7:51 AM ET PARIS—Every four years, when American presidential elections roll around, there is one almost universal refrain that can be heard half in jest,…
Exclusive: North Korean Official Says Country Will “Strike” US if Necessary A senior North Korean foreign ministry official told NBC News exclusively that the DPRK would “strike first” if it saw “US nuclear forces moving against our country.” Source: Exclusive: North Korean Official Says Country Will “Strike” US if Necessary – NBC News
What if the United States went to war and nobody here even noticed? The question is absurd, isn’t it? And yet, this almost perfectly describes what actually happened this past week. While many Americans, myself included, were all hypnotized by the bizarre spectacle of the Republican nominee for president, a US navy destroyer fired a…
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has issued an apology for his country’s decision to bomb Serbia during Bill Clinton’s tenure at the White House. U.S. and NATO allies launched aerial campaigns against the faltering Yugoslav regime, targeting ethnic Serb troops, in 1995 and 1999. The first attack was carried out in support of groups in…