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Michael Avenatti, the California lawyer representing porn star Stormy Daniels, is considering running for president on the Democratic ticket in 2020. “I believe that the Democratic Party must be a party that fights fire with fire,” he told Iowa Democrats at a fundraising dinner on August 10. “When they go low, I say we hit harder."  But does he have what it takes to defeat Trump and become the next Commander-in-Chief? In an interview on "This Week" Sunday with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Avenatti was unable to answer simple questions regarding economic and foreign policy.  "Would you repeal all of the Trump tax cuts?" Karl asked Avenatti. "I haven't decided yet. I'm still analyzing the issue," he said.  Embed from Getty Images Karl then asked Avenatti what the biggest national security threat facing the United States right now is.  "I think it would be the situation in the Middle Ea

Peter Strzok was fired on Friday after serving in the FBI for 21 years, his lawyer Aitan Goelman said in a statement. "The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts (FBI) Director (Christopher) Wray's testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters," Goelman stated. Republican legislators and right-wing media had accused Strzok of anti-Trump bias , yet failed to provide any evidence that his personal opinions had influenced the way he carried out his duties as FBI agent. Embed from Getty Images “Let me be clear, unequivocally and under oath, not once in my 26 years of defending my nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took,”  Strzok said in his opening statement before a joint hearing of the House judiciary and oversight and government reform committees in July.  “I have the utmost

The map of  China  on the website of the United States Department of State shows Taiwan as being part of Chinese territory.  Taiwan (officially Republic of China , ROC) has never been de facto or de jure controlled by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Nevertheless, Beijing insists that Taiwan is part of its territory and it has vowed to use force to achieve "reunification" if all peaceful options were exhausted.  China has oftentimes urged the Taiwanese government to adhere to the so-called " 1992 consensus ", according to which there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of it. But Taiwanese President Ts'ai Ing-wen has refused to endorse Beijing's position and is seeking to maintain the status quo of de facto independence.  During the Sino-American negotiations that took place in the 1970s, Beijing requested that the United States broke off diplomatic relations with the ROC. In August 1977 Cyrus Vance, Jimmy Carte

Obama-Putin meeting in Mexico, 2012 (official White House photo by Pete Souza) On August 5 conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham criticized people who are obsessed with Russia. "As we obsess about Russia," she wrote in a Tweet, "China rising: Our greatest rival and a growing threat." As we obsess abt Russia—> China Rising: Our greatest rival and a growing threat https://t.co/ZLeoDlbuS9 — Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) August 5, 2018 Though Ingraham is right about the growing China threat , both economically and militarily, her criticism of those who want to protect the United States and the West from Russian election interference sounds hypocritical. Only a few years ago, Laura Ingraham and Fox and Friends hosts criticized Obama's foreign policy for being too weak on Russia. And they slammed former Secretary of State John Kerry, who in a televised interview  had stated: "I think that candidate Romney has been breathtak

"The Wealth of the Nation" by Seymour Fogel via Wikimedia Commons In his bestseller Free to Choose economist Milton Friedman offered a vision of American economic history that revolved around the idea of freedom. He wrote: "Ever since the first settlements of Europeans in the New World America has been a magnet for people seeking adventure, fleeing from tyranny, or simply trying to make a better life for themselves and their children ... When they arrived, they did not find streets paved with gold; they did not find an easy life. They did find freedom and an opportunity to make the most of their talents. Through hard work, ingenuity, thrift, and luck, most of them succeeded ... "The story of the United States is the story of an economic miracle and a political miracle that was made possible by the translation into practice of two sets of ideas .... One [of them] was embodied in the Wealth of Nations, the masterpiece [by] Adam Smith [w

On July 27, 2017, China’s State Council announced that “ foreign garbage ”, including "plastic waste from living sources, paper, textile waste, and vanadium slag," would be banned from entering the country.  On July 18 Beijing had already notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that by the end of the year it would no longer accept shipments of those types of waste. According to state-run Xinhua News Agency , China began to import solid waste as raw materials in the 1980s to meet its domestic demand for resources. However, some companies allegedly engaged in smuggling foreign garbage into the country for profit, "damaging the environment and public health." The Chinese authorities believe that imported solid waste poses "a serious threat to the environment" and has caused "widespread public concern." By the end of 2019 China will gradually phase out the import of "solid waste for which substitute resources are available in Chin

Looking north on Spadra Avenue, Fullerton, 1950s (image courtesy Orange Country Archives via Flickr) The era between 1945 and 1975 is often described as the 'Golden Age' of capitalism. During this period the economy of the United States, Western Europe and Japan grew at an unprecedented pace. The post-war economic miracle was made possible by the parallel growth of productivity, capital stock per worker and real wages, which ensured a balanced development of production and consumption. Despite the rapid increase in the volume of international trade, in the post-war period developed countries mostly relied on their domestic market to boost growth (see  The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience , eds Stephen A. Marglin, Juliet B. Schor). But were the nearly three decades that followed the Second World War really a 'golden age'? Were people better off than we are now? Let us look at some facts. In 1960-61 the average  household income

United States Supreme Court (by Jeff Kubina, via Wikimedia Commons) In August 1971, shortly before accepting Richard Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court,  Lewis Powell  wrote a confidential  memorandum  to the US Chamber of Commerce. In the document, Powell argued that the American system of free enterprise was under attack by leftist groups, and he envisioned a strategy to fight back against those forces that were, in his view, anti-business. "[B]usinessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it," Powell wrote. He praised business executives for having performed "very well indeed" the role "to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens." However, he argued th