The fact that the USA is facing a profound crisis, possibly the worst one in its history, is accepted by most observers, except maybe the most delusional ones. Most Americans definitely know that. In fact, if there is one thing upon which both those who supported Trump and those who hate him with a passion can agree on, it would be that his election is a clear proof of a profound crisis (I would argue that the election of Obama before also had, as one of its main causes, the very same systemic crisis). When speaking of this crisis, most people will mention the deindustrialization, the drop in real income, the lack of well-paid jobs, healthcare, crime, immigration, pollution, education, and a myriad of other contributing factors. But of all the aspects of the "American dream", the single most resilient one has been the myth of the US military as "the finest fighting force in history". In this new book, Andrei Martianov not only comprehensively debunks this myth, he explains step by step how this myth was created and why it is collapsing now. This is no small feat, especially in a relatively short book (225 pages) which is very well written and accessible to everyone, not just military specialists.

Martyanov takes a systematic and step-by-step approach: first, he defines military power, then he explains where the myth of US military superiority came from and how the US rewriting of the history of WWII resulted in a complete misunderstanding, especially at the top political levels, of the nature of modern warfare. He then discusses the role ideology and the Cold War played in further exacerbating the detachment of US leaders from reality. Finally, he demonstrates how a combination of delusional narcissism and outright corruption resulted in a US military capable of wasting truly phenomenal sums of money on "defense" while at the same time resulting in an actual force unable to win a war against anything but a weak and defenseless enemy.

The paranoid government isn't allowing Donald Trump to meet with Nigel Farage when the US President visits Britain next week, sources claim.

The Telegraph reports Downing Street has ruled it 'a red line' that President Trump doesn't meet with Nigel, despite the fact the pair have a great relationship that, presumably, could be beneficial for the UK.

A source close to Farage told Westmonster: "Downing Street's actions have already set the special relationship into a downward spiral. They continue to shoot themselves in the foot again and again by not working with the few people in Britain that know President Trump well."

When reports emerged that India and China are in talks about forming an oil buyers' club, OPEC was probably too busy with its upcoming June 22 meeting to concern itself with that dangerous alliance. Now, it may be time for it to start worrying.

"The timing is right. The boom in U.S. oil and gas production gives us greater leverage against OPEC," the Times of India quoted an Indian official as saying last month after the formal start of said talks. The two countries, after all, account for a combined 17 percent of global oil consumption and they are the ones that would be the hardest hit if prices rise as a result of OPEC's actions.

What's more, they might not be alone in this attempt to curb OPEC's clout on the global oil market. According to Bloomberg's Carl Pope, Europe and Japan, previously reluctant to take part in any anti-OPEC projects, may now join in. The reason they are likely to join in is that unlike in previous oil price cycles, now there are alternatives to fossil fuels. Electrification is where OPEC may have to face off with a future oil buyers' cartel.

India, China, and Europe are all very big on EV adoption. Japan is a leader in battery manufacturing. If they set their minds to it, these four players could upend the oil market and effectively cripple OPEC. Of course, this is a best-case scenario of the kind that rarely unfolds in reality.

To tens of millions of Mexicans, Sunday's stunning electoral victory by the charismatic leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a perpetual also-ran in the country's recent Presidential elections, was an apotheosis. López Obrador, or AMLO, as he is also called, won fifty-three per cent of the vote, leaving his nearest rivals, including Ricardo Anaya of the conservative PAN party, far behind. Not only did López Obrador win; the party that he founded a few years ago-the Movement for National Regeneration-also won a majority of seats in both houses of the national legislature, and it took five of the nine governorships that were up for grabs. It was, as they say, a real sweep. And unlike a number of recently disputed elections in Mexico, López Obrador's win was the chronicle of a victory foretold. To many observers, he has been the favorite to win this year's election since Donald Trump took office, a year and a half ago.


The outgoing Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto, will hand over the reins to López Obrador on December 1st. He leaves behind a country with tattered morale and widespread doubts about the future. Rarely has a President so fumbled his term in power the way Peña Nieto has-from adopting a posture of obsequiousness with Trump to giving the appearance of either powerlessness or complicity amidst a culture of wholesale political corruption. Peña Nieto's inability to slow down the country's gruesome "war on drugs"-which was initiated by his predecessor and has cost as many as two hundred thousand lives-has deepened the sense of national despair. He has failed to prosecute some of the most horrific criminal cases that have occurred on his watch, including the disappearance and suspected mass murder of forty-three teaching trainees in the town of Ayotzinapa, an incident that reportedly involved local politicians, police, a drug gang, and the Army.

Enter López Obrador, an unabashed left-wing politician who has built up a base of national support through good old-fashioned grassroots campaigning over the past twenty years. By any definition, he is an extraordinary political figure. Born and raised in the state of Tabasco, a Gulf Coast backwater, López Obrador is a curious blend. An unassuming man of simple tastes and a reputation for personal austerity, he is also a published historian with a half-dozen books to his name, and he's a passionate follower-and player-of baseball. On Sunday, at the age of sixty-four, he has also become the most powerful person in Mexico, someone who promises to end the country's culture of corruption and to launch it into a new era-what he calls the "fourth Mexican transformation." The first came with Mexico's independence from Spanish colonial rule, in 1821; the second with Benito Juárez's liberal reforms and his return to power, after ousting the French-imposed Habsburg emperor Maximilian, in the eighteen-sixties; the third was the epochal and bloody Mexican Revolution, in the early twentieth century. López Obrador promises that his transformation will be a peaceful one.

The D.C. Council had a simple message on Twitter for President Trump's proposed grand military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue: "Tanks but No Tanks!"

Local officials are panning the prospect of an unprecedented show of military force that would leave the city on the hook for security, cleanup and road repair - even if the federal government reimburses its costs later.


The early jeers suggest the tensions ahead if Trump proceeds with an elaborate procession in a city that overwhelmingly voted against him and has emerged as an epicenter of progressive resistance.

"I don't think anyone believes this would be about trying to honor men and women who serve our country," said council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6). "This would only be about feeding one man's ego."

Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) said that if Trump holds a military parade, he would organize "an equally large parade and march for peace and for nonviolence" to take place simultaneously.

The EU has always been an elite project to decide matters without being accountable to the people in any way

It is becoming increasingly clear why immigration is so important to the EU elites: because they see the mass movement of people essentially as a weapon against national sovereignty. Their mass-migration project of recent years hasn't been a humane endeavour to improve the lives of foreign peoples; it has been about further erasing borders, using migrant flows effectively as a tool to push the EU oligarchy's post-nation agenda.

This is why, ahead of this week's EU summit on the migrant crisis, Angela Merkel said the migrant question is central to the EU's 'value system' and to its celebration of 'multilateralism'. In short, migrant flows make real the EU's claim to be a post-sovereignty entity. This is also why Brussels is upping the ante against Hungary - because Hungary's refusal to take in certain migrants represents an intolerable assertion of national independence against EU pressure.

A Washington DC judge has thrown out a lawsuit alleging the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and Wikileaks to publish hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

The suit, filed by two DNC donors and one former DNC employee, argued that 'Russian agents' gained access to the DNC's networks, and distributed emails in a "deliberate campaign to interfere in the US election and tilt its outcome in favor of Donald Trump."

The hunger strike, which Lula may participate in, will begin this month with the support of the Workers' Party

Eleven social activists convened in front of Brazil's Federal Supreme Court are preparing a hunger strike for the freedom of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right to run as a presidential candidate in October's elections.

The hunger strike, which Lula may participate in, will begin this month and with the support of the Workers' Party, or PT.

The PT released a statement that said "after consecutive defeats in the STF and signs that the president of the court, Carmen Lucia, will not schedule hearings requesting the review of his imprisonment...11 militants from social movements linked to the PT will start a hunger strike appealing for the freedom of former president Lula...The extreme act is part of a series of measures the PT will promote in an attempt to revert Lula's imprisonment. The party will present a signed petition to high courts on Aug.15."

The letter affirmed that there will be a demonstration to register Lula as a presidential candidate on the same day.

Former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa has defied an arrest order, claiming the new government is waging "lawfare" to deprive him of a political future - and even life, in an exclusive RT interview.

Judge Daniella Camacho ordered the arrest of three-term President Rafael Correa on Tuesday over his alleged involvement in the 2012 abduction of a political opponent and requested that Interpol apprehend him for extradition. Correa, who now lives in Belgium, called the allegations "tremendously ridiculous" and dismissed Ecuador's pressure on him in an interview with RT.

Trump is likely to tell NATO members the US will cease to be the bloc's "piggy bank," focusing instead on problems at home, the White House said. The remark may add to jitters among US allies about the upcoming summit in Brussels.

US President Donald Trump is poised to deliver his vision on burden-sharing among military allies at Brussels NATO summit in July, Hogan Gidley, the White House's Deputy Press Secretary, told reporters on board Air Force one. "What the president is going to do is go into these meetings with the mindset to protect the American people," he commented.

"But as he said many times before, America is thought, so often, to be the world's piggy bank, and that's got to stop," Gidley said. "We have problems here we have to fix at home, and that's what the president is focused on. And he'll convey those messages, I'm sure, and sentiments to those other leaders."