Donald Trump

Why do we as a nation keep on playing into the same dismal scenario and committing the same mistakes? Why this seemingly irresistible urge to fight yet another war against evil? The longer we fight, the more deeply we are seized by fear. The more we fear, the more fiercely we are determined to fight. Perhaps the point is not to win the war but to remain trapped in this vicious circle, which feels perversely comforting because it offers a sense of unified national identity as nothing else can in our otherwise deeply divided nation.

12 hours after his dramatic campaign statement to shut out Muslims arrivals into the US, Donald Trump doubled down and in a series of interviews early on Tuesday, he repeatedly told anchors such as CNN's Chris Cuomo that "we're at war - get it through your head" in his latest heated exchange, during which he reminded America how quickly people have forgotten "World Trade Center #1 and World Trade Center #2."

"The Trump campaign, for some time now, has had a 'dustbin of history'-like quality to it, from the vacuous sloganeering, to the outright lies; even the fake hair," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, adding the pertinent question is whether Republicans are "going to be dragged into the dustbin of history" with the Trump campaign.

It appears Donald Trump's latest outburst has pushed the GOP to hit the panic button (just as we warned was probable). Just four months after Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said that Donald Trump is offering his party’s voters a breath of fresh air, WSJ reports that Republican 'operative' Liz Mair is launching "Trump Card LLC" - a SuperPAC aimed at torpedo-ing The Donald's campaign.

"We're gonna have to figure it out, we can't live like this. It's going to get worse and worse, we're going to have more World Trade Centers. It's going to get worse and worse, folks. We can be politically correct and we can be stupid but it's going to be worse and worse." Donald Trump said even as an AP summary of Muslim reactions to Trump can be summarized as follows: "He's trying to alienate not only the Muslim population of the United States but all the Muslims around the world."

Over the weekend, in its latest quarterly presentation, the Bank of International Settlements made what may have been a very premature assessment that China is now contained. Judging by events in the past 24 hours, the reality is anything but.

Having exclaimed "is that all there is?" following President Obama's speech last night on how he would make Americans safer, Donald Trump appears to have decide to take matters into his own hands. The leading Republican presidential nominee has called for a "total and complete" moratorium on allowing Muslims to enter the United States...

"Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST!"

"What you're going to hear from him is a discussion about what government is doing to ensure all of our highest priority — the protection of the American people," the US attorney general said. Lynch's staff later confirmed that the president will specifically call on Congress to review certain gun control measures. And since Congress has long ago given up on taking action in a world in which the Fed's Chairman/woman is expected to "get to work", it will again be up to an Obama executive order to restore peace to the land by continuing his crusade against the Second amendment.

Turkey's most notorious Twitter personality predicted the downing of a Russian warplane a month in advance in the lead-up to November's fraught elections.

Stop swallowing the overblown scaremongering of the government and its corporate media cronies. Stop letting them use hysteria over small menaces to drive you into the arms of tyranny, which is the greatest menace of all. Overthrow the reign of terror the State has installed over your mind. Else the days ahead may be terrible indeed.

"In the year ahead, geopolitics likely poses the greatest potential to disrupt markets in terms of event risk. There is also the potential for geopolitical risks to intersect with economic fragility in the event of a downturn, amplifying both."

Good news for Trump who is once again pulling away from the pack; not so good news for Hillary whose "likability problem" is starting to haunt her.   

While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. This was not supposed to happen. For almost a century, the comforting American narrative was that better nutrition and medical care would guarantee longer lives for all. So the great blue-collar die-off has come out of the blue and is, as the Wall Street Journal says, “startling.”