he best thing about Thursday night’s Republican presidential primary debate, the sixth of twelve currently on the schedule for 2016, is that it means we are halfway to having no more Republican primary debates. Viewers who suffered through the entire two and a half hours of the event last night were presented with a smorgasbord of soaring demagoguery, sneering ad hominem attacks, and occasion [...]

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last night: “Now, what is true — and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious — is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit; changes that have not let up. [...]

This week we’re here at MIT in Cambridge, MA to interview world renowned linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, someone who’s authored over 100 books on everything to war to propaganda. I wanted to get his take on democracy and elections in the context of American empire. [...]

The price may vary depending on the exchange rate of the national currency. The cost of a single dose of the Russian vaccine against the Ebola virus is approximately $160, the director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology said Friday. [...]

The proposal comes two weeks after hundreds of women were attacked by aggressive men of allegedly Arab and North African origin in a number of German cities. After the attacks on women in Cologne and a number of other German cities, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has called to consider the deployment of Bundeswehr forces within the country. [...]

In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio admitted that he would love to play Vladimir Putin onscreen if provided with such an opportunity. Dicaprio said that for him bringing the image of the Russian president onscreen would be a ‘very, very interesting task.’ [...]

Most in America were happy when Tehran promptly released ten US sailors, who were detained when their two boats drifted in Iran's territorial waters on Tuesday; but US hardliners were furious. "If you think about the [US] bases that surround Iran, you can understand why [the Islamic Republic] would be concerned when a heavily armed naval vessel ventures into Iranian territory," political analys [...]

Crimean authorities are working hard to make Cannes- and Nice-bound vacationers change their mind and set their sights on the Black Sea peninsula, Russian media quoted Crimea’s top prosecutor as saying on Wednesday. Natalya Poklonskaya said that she couldn’t care less about the western [...]

Nearly 18 months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, one of the troubling mysteries is why the U.S. government – after rushing to blame Russia and ethnic Russian rebels – then went silent, effectively obstructing the investigation into 298 deaths, writes Robert Parry. As the whodunit mystery surrounding the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 nears the 1½-ye [...]

The grandees of the Republican Party are on the ropes. Donald Trump has them by the balls, but, even without Trump, they would be in what Bush the Father would call deep “do-do.” Any Republican candidate for President whom two-thirds of the electorate could abide would be anathema to the one-third that Republicans have recruited into their rank and file. Mitt Romney was the final straw. [...]

Amid a crisis that has poisoned the water supply of an entire city, authorities in Flint, Michigan are under renewed fire on Friday for sending out shut-off notices to residents who are behind on paying their water bills. Slammed as "ludicrous, the move comes as Republican Governor Rick Snyder finally asked President Obama to step in and declare a federal state of emergency. [...]

Whatever happened to the days when the primary purpose of journalism was to hold our government accountable for its stupid actions, like when the US Navy, for example, strays into the territorial waters of an Islamic nation at the worst possible time? Just how long and deep America has snorted from the cracked mirror of imperial power, intoxicating the nation with delusions of grandeur and exce [...]

Austria is set to use its army to stop refugees intending to transit through Germany and not apply for asylum there, as hundreds are being rejected at the German border. More than 1,000 migrants with forged IDs are being turned around at the Austrian border each week. [...]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 391.86 points (2.39 percent) on Friday, making it the largest daily point loss since September of last year. The sell-off was triggered by plummeting oil prices and turmoil in Chinese markets. The Dow hasn’t seen such a momentous loss since September 1, 2015 [...]

On New Year's Eve the German city of Cologne witnessed mass organized sexual assaults on hundreds of German women. For five days following the assaults the German media failed to report them. When under public pressure they eventually did, it turned out that a string of similar assaults had also happened simultaneously in various other German cities. [...]

Jordan has set up a joint war room with Russia to carry out coordinated anti-Daesh (ISIL) military operations in Syria, indicating a turn by the country from its US, Saudi Arabia and Israeli allies, in the face of the increasing volatility of the entire Middle East region. [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration policy has brought into question the German leader’s political future. What if Angela Merkel steps down? Experts weigh the pros and cons of the potential move. Angela Merkel's "open-door" refugee policy has already prompted fierce debate among the Chancellor's political opponents and ordinary Germans; the violent massive sex assault on women in Colo [...]

The truth about the elites agenda is about to ‘slap us in the face’. No longer do they hide behind closed doors—no—they are wide open about their cause and they are laughing at the masses while secretly planning our economic downfall. The collapse of the dollar will be the single largest event in human history. [...]

Why is the economy barely growing after seven years of zero rates and easy money? Why are wages and incomes sagging when stock and bond prices have gone through the roof? Why are stocks experiencing such extreme volatility when the Fed increased rates by a mere quarter of a percent? It’s the policy, stupid. And here’s the chart that explains exactly what the policy is. [...]

A German court has ruled Facebook’s ‘friend finder’ function, which allows the social network to market services to non-users, illegal. The court said the promotion is “intrusive” and that Facebook had not adequately informed its members about it. [...]

With the collapse of the US dollar or an economic collapse we need to consider the sociopolitical effects as well as the financial effects. Ron Paul gives the details. It will likely be the tipping point at which the US government becomes sufficiently desperate to implement official restrictions on the movement of people and their money, nationalization of retirement savings, and other forms of [...]

Lawyers and lobbyists for giant multinational corporations have been working up the TPP and promoting it for nearly a decade. The measure would join the United States along with 11 other nations along the Pacific Rim (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam) in a “free-trade zone” [...]