Michael Brenner, US Can’t Deal With Defeat

Michael Brenner In the U.S., the strongest collective memory of America’s wars of choice is the desirability – and ease – of forgetting them. So it will be when we look at a ruined Ukraine in the rear-view mirror, writes Michael Brenner. The United States is being defeated in Ukraine. One could say that it is facing defeat — or, more starkly, that it is staring defeat in the face. Neither formulation is appropriate, though. The U.S. doesn’t look reality squarely in the eye. It prefers to look at the world…

Michael Brenner, Et tu–Barack?

Michael Brenner The previous essay on executive abuse of authority was cast broadly. The few, brief specific examples alluded elected leaders in Washington, their senior appointees and the federal judiciary. Overshadowing all was the culture of criminality and illicit conduct that pervaded the Trump administration. Understandably so since by both example and precedent he encouraged the current, accelerating trend toward unaccountability and impunity. It would be erroneous, though, to focus exclusively on the Trump tenure and its aftermath. His predecessors did much to prepare the ground.  In this regard, the…