Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on September 11, 2001: CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks. … Continue reading We are so screwed

He's still more than a month and a half away from officially becoming our president, but Donald Trump is already making quite an impression among leaders around the world. We already know that he and Vladimir Putin get along well, and it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that a number of other authoritarian bros … Continue reading Trump around the world

Recently the Washington Post's "Monkey Cage" blog published a piece discussing the findings of a 36 nation African survey that asked people for their views on the importance of democracy and the degree to which their own countries were democratically governed. The report found that, while fewer people view democracy positively than did in similar … Continue reading Surprise election results: West African edition

ISIS is reportedly down to its "last stand" in the Libyan city of Sirte, left controlling only about "two blocks," which at the rate that operation is going could mean another three months of fighting. Still, it's good news. Here, on the other hand, is something that is not good news: Rival armed factions battled … Continue reading Just when you thought it was safe to plan that Libyan vacation

Here's Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, speaking to people whom she wants to convince to invest in her country: "We do not want our country to be unstable. But we've had a long history of disunity within our nation," Suu Kyi said, addressing senior business representatives at the International Enterprise … Continue reading Aung San Suu Kyi’s “unavoidable reconciliation”

With South Africa, Burundi, The Gambia, and now Russia abandoning the International Criminal Court, who will be next to jump ship? Yes, everybody's favorite potty-mouthed, mass murdering head of state, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, is pretty sure he wants out of the ICC too: On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin removed Russia's signature from the … Continue reading Somebody else wants to leave the ICC. Who it is will totally…not surprise you in any way.

Here's a confession: I used to watch a lot of pro wrestling when I was a kid. I'm dating myself, but Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Randy Savage (my favorite), all those guys, I watched as much of the old WWF as I could. If you don't know anything about pro wrestling, there used to … Continue reading Donald Trump’s “Kiss My Ass Club”

  If it's seemed like things have been a little sparse around here this week, it's because, at the cost of a little sleep and a lot of sanity, I've been heavily covering the Trump transition for LobeLog. I haven't been posting links to those stories here because I wanted to wait until I had … Continue reading All the news that’s fit to make you sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KvgtEnABY The role of National Security Advisor is a funny one, insofar as it has no constitutionally-defined duties so it can be, more or less, whatever a particular president wants it to be. Sometimes the National Security Advisor can be more bureaucratic, helping a president centralize national security policy with the National Security Committee in … Continue reading Meet General Ripper, our next National Security Advisor

Joseph Kabila, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, appointed a new prime minister today: Samy Badibanga, a member (I think, we'll get to that) of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party. Seems like a normal story, right? Presidents appoint prime ministers all the time. The thing is, in … Continue reading If you can’t win, don’t try