David S. D’Amato

2 days ago | counterpunch.org | David S. D’Amato

Today, it would be nearly impossible to overstate the extent to which justice for the criminal defendant in the U.S. has been compromised by prosecutorial misconduct of the most serious kinds. A growing body of evidence from journalistic investigations, scholarly studies, and reports from civil liberties groups reveals a startling pattern of serious misconduct, lack of transparency and accountability, and politicized and racialized enforcement.

2 weeks ago | counterpunch.org | David S. D’Amato

The question of whether the United States is an oligarchy has come to the fore, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez draw major crowds around the country to their Fighting Oligarchy Tour. Their message of combatting the outsized influence of rich and powerful corporate interests has resonated with thousands of Americans. But even as it is clear to so many that something is amiss, the idea of oligarchy can seem ill-defined and opaque.

2 weeks ago | counterpunch.org | David S. D’Amato

Since taking office in January, Donald Trump has been hard at work rounding up innocent people for deportation, citing bogus, pretextual reasons related to alleged ties to drug cartels and terrorist organizations. Naturally, Trump does not want these claims tested in the courts—his Department of Justice has brushed off federal judges’ orders and fired lawyers […] To read this article, log in here or subscribe here.

1 month ago | counterpunch.org | David S. D’Amato

On March 24, the country learned that a group of senior Trump administration officials (including the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and the Director of National Intelligence, among others) accidentally sent classified details of military strikes against Yemen to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic. Since Goldberg broke the story, there has been a steady stream of commentary about “Signalgate,” most adding little but sound and fury.

1 month ago | dsdamato.substack.com | David S. D’Amato

With almost a quarter century of the new millennium behind us, we have an opportune time to reflect upon the international system that has defined this new period. The decades between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the present day bore witness to several important and unprecedented military interventions that give shape and structure to this new world order. Perhaps the most pivotal of these episodes was the United States-led attack on Yugoslavia in the last months of the twentieth century.