During the Cold War, the Soviet government banned jazz, rock 'n' roll and other music. A group of bootleggers came up with an unusual way to distribute the music they loved.  

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Recent efforts to sandbag Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard are crude repeats of behaviors that helped elect Trump in 2016. By Matt Taibbi.

The Hawaii congresswoman is quickly becoming the top candidate for Democrats who think the Russian leader is misunderstood. By Lachlan Markay, Sam Stein.

Moscow’s calculations may have changed regarding whom to support in the November 2020 ballot. By Janusz Bugajski.

Nobody wants to hear this, but news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is headed home without issuing new charges is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media. By Matt Taibbi.

"The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk." – Hegel. By Stephen Cohen.

The arrangement was highly unusual, and it appeared to give Mr. Trump and his advisers ammunition in their public campaign against the special counsel investigation. By Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere, Maggie Haberman.

Even though a Russian agent, who is also literally Adolf Hitler, stole the election from Hillary Clinton, and is remaking America into a fascist dictatorship, the only recourse the “Resistance” has is to mount these congressional investigations and publicize them in excruciating detail until November 3, 2020, at which point all this “Fascism” hysteria will just disappear into the ether like the “War on Terror” hysteria did. By CJ Hopkins.

A military exercise staged 35 years ago this week almost triggered World War Three. Previously secret documents now reveal what happened. By Richard Hollingham.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, warned on Thursday against rising ten...

Intelligence agencies, Nikki Haley, sanctions, and public opinion. By Stephen F. Cohen.

Decades after a risky Cold War experiment, a scientist lives with secrets. By Raffi Khatchadourian.

Andrei Nekrasov [Trailer free, full film paywalled]

Sting

Valorizing an ex-CIA director and bashing Trump obscures what is truly ominous. By Stephen F. Cohen.

The American millenarian ‘myth’, then and now, was and is rooted in the fervent belief in the Manifest Destiny of the United States, ‘the New Jerusalem’, to represent humanity’s best hope for a utopian future. By Alastair Crooke.

Oh, and buy their books! By Eoin Higgins.

What drove Edward Teller to push for a 10,000 megaton hydrogen bomb? By Alex Wellerstein. (Sept. 12, 2012)

Hazel Scott was a piano prodigy who wowed the worlds of music, TV and film. But when she stood up for her rights, the establishment took her down. By Lorissa Rinehart.