Most accounts of the situation in the Ukraine and Crimea have focused to date on political events and conditions. Little has been said in the press about the economic consequences of the Coup and subsequent events, or likely scenarios for the future.

One of the challenges to resolving the US - Russia rift is to cope with domestic elements in both countries that pine for the Cold War

We are troubled to note that so far the U.S. government has taken the most aggressive and partisan stance of any country in the hemisphere.

We all interpret the facts through our own mythic lens.

The neocon holdovers in the State department hope that they can neutralize Putin as Obama’s ally in trying to tamp down tensions with Syria and Iran – and thus put American military strikes against those two countries back under active consideration.

John McCain called Obama “naïve”—as if simply rushing in and talking loudly will keep either us or the Ukrainians safe. This is not a game, as fun as it can be for politicians to treat it as one.

The US push to topple the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro once again pits Washington against South America

Obama wants to impose “prudent limitations” on the drone war. But the only “prudent” limit would be to end the drone war.

The best you could say is that he hasn’t started any illegal wars, and has attempted to take the US off a war footing. He cannot see the dangers of his undeclared drone wars, however.

by Mark Weisbrot The Guardian / UK Tuesday’s cancellation of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff‘s state visit to the White House, scheduled for next month, came as little surprise. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden, and reported by Glenn Greenwald and TV Globo, had caused an uproar in Brazil. According to the documents and...