After it was revealed that Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned $30 million in the last 16 months, the House Oversight panel backed a measure that would limit taxpayer dollars on expenses incurred by ex-presidents earning more than $400,000 a year. The measure, passed by a voice vote, would set presidential pensions at $200,000 a year, with another $200,000 set aside for office space and other [...]

Two Senate Democrats have sponsored a bill demanding the White House reveal the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the public at least two months before Congress could give President Obama fast-track authority. Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in proposing the two-page Trade Transparency Act, reports The Hill. If adopted, the bill would require [...]

Early video of Sanders gives nice background on his political beliefs. As Independent Senator Bernie Sanders ramps up his campaign for the presidency, his focus has been on issues like economic inequality, the corrupting influence of money in [...]

The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) is an enigma: most of what we know about it comes from the brutal media apparatus of the IS itself. It lets everyone see executions and war the terrorists are waging – but still, how does life go under jihadist rule? One man decided to find out for himself, spending 10 days in the ‘capital city’ of the IS and coming back alive. Today, investigative jo [...]

The war was no mere mistake: The Bush administration wanted a war and concocted the intelligence. "Mistakes were made" just doesn't get at the truth about how America was coerced into the disastrous war in Iraq,and the horrific consequences that are still unfolding. [...]

Despite pretty talk about “democracy” and “human rights,” U.S. leaders have become the world’s chief purveyors of chaos and death – from Vietnam through Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and many other unfortunate nations, a dangerous dilemma addressed by John Chuckman. When I think of America’s place in the world today, the image that comes to mind is of a very large animal, perhaps a [...]

One year into the Ukrainian crisis, Washington reveals a desire to jump on the bandwagon of the Minsk peace accords - brokered by France and Germany. Not bad news, after all, but when it comes from Victoria Nuland... News that US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Sochi to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and President Putin came as only a small surprise this week. [...]

Decades of letting neocons dictate a hawkish foreign policy have put the American Republic in profound danger, just as presidents from George Washington to Dwight Eisenhower predicted, warnings that Americans must finally take to heart, says ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk. In The Financial Times of April 23, Philip Stephens begins a perceptive article with the obvious statement that “It is [...]

Exclusive: Jeb Bush’s stumbling start to his presidential bid has refocused attention on Official Washington’s favorite excuse for the illegal, aggressive and disastrous war in Iraq – that it was just a case of “bad intelligence.” But that isn’t what the real history shows, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern recalls. Presidential aspirant Jeb Bush this week may have damaged his chances [...]

This week US relations with Saudi Arabia cool down, while heating up with Russia and Iran. Is the US considering a sweeping change to foreign policy? Saudi King Salman chose not to attend a joint US-Gulf State meeting this week set to deal with the possibility of giving Gulf States a missile defense system to ward off a nuclear-powered Iran. [...]

You really couldn't make it up, could you? Serial warmonger and unsuccessful US Presidential candidate Senator John McCain has been offered a post as an adviser to Ukraine's "Chocolate King" President Petro Poroshenko. He was supposed to join other neocon rejects such as Georgia’s fugitive ex-President (and famous tie-eater) Mikhail Saakashvili and the ex-Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt. [...]

Award-winning Serbian director and musician Emir Kusturica believes that when Washington eventually starts World War III, RT will become one of its first and primary targets, being an extremely powerful weapon challenging US state propaganda. In an article published by the Serbian daily Politika, Kusturica has aligned RT with Russia’s most powerful weapons, specifically the SS-18, an intercon [...]

The US House has approved a $612-billion measure to fund the military. The Obama administration and many Democrats opposed the defense policy bill for its alleged budgeting "gimmicks," as well as its provisions for arming Ukrainian forces. The House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2016 by a vote of 269 to 151. [...]

The international participation in Russia's Victory Day commemorations proves that the US policy of maximum political isolation for Moscow has failed, claims State Duma's Foreign Relations chief. “After the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory [in WWII] it has become evident that the policy of maximum political isolation of Russia is not yielding the expected results,” Aleksey Pushkov said [...]

The White House is determined to block the rise of the key nuclear-armed nations, Russia and China, neither of whom will join the "world's acceptance of Washington's hegemony," says head of the Institute for Political Economy, Paul Craig Roberts. The former US assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy, Dr Paul Craig Roberts, has written on his blog that Beijing is currently "confr [...]

The US still supports the Kosovo project even though it has failed and brought great instability to the region making many Kosovan extremists join ISIS and come back now to destabilize nearby Macedonia, says International affairs commentator Marko Gasic. Anti-government protests are back on the streets of Macedonia’s capital, Skopje. [...]

John Kerry's Sochi meetings with Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov hardly dissolved years of mistrust between Washington and the Kremlin. However, they probably signaled the end of Ukraine’s period as a global cause célèbre. In 1968, at an art exhibition in Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, the celebrated artist Andy Warhol was the star attraction. [...]

Kerry's trip to Sochi to meet FM Lavrov and President Putin demonstrates that the US is now aware that sanctions they imposed on Russia have failed and they are looking for a way out of the row, says Marcus Papadopoulos, editor of Politics First Magazine. In the past US Secretary of State John Kerry used harsh words to describe Russia's stance on Ukraine. How does he feel now meeting President [...]

Lawmakers in the United States Senate have thrown a wrench in a plan that would have given President Barack Obama "fast track" authority to advance a 12-nation trade deal between the US and Pacific Ring partners. In a 52-45 vote on Tuesday afternoon, the Senate opposed moving forward for now on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. [...]