2019

Trump’s Ukraine Ask was Criminal; but it Was SCOTUS’ Citizens United that Invited Foreign Interference in US Elections

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump is accused of soliciting the help of a foreign government to dig dirt on, essentially to do opposition research for him, on his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. It should be underlined, though, that the possibilities for foreign interference in US elections is a much bigger phenomenon than simply this […]

Constitution

Dry Impeachment alone won’t Save our Democracy: The Public has to Get Fired Up

Yes! Magazine

Congress is officially moving toward impeaching the president. But even then, it’s up to the people to keep our republic.

Donald Trump

Trump’s Assault on the Constitution: Politics as World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

Jill Richardson

(Otherwords.org ) -Either our system is going to break, or Trump’s finally going to fail. It’s an exhausting drama. Does Trump understand democracy? I’m really asking. His approach to politics is combative — kill-or-be-killed. If you hit him, he will hit you back harder, no matter what the rules of the game are. That might […]

Education

Trump v. Duke U.-UNC: Why the Study of Cultures is Essential to our National Security

The Conversation

By Nicholas Tampio | After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a commission formed to figure out why the attacks occurred. One of the culprits, according to the commission’s 9/11 report, was “lack of imagination.” With few exceptions, the report stated, government officials could not imagine that Osama bin Laden and his affiliates, hidden in […]

Israel

As Israel struggles to form a Government, why do its poorest immigrants vote for the right and far right?

The Conversation

By Amandine Desille | – The Israeli election was held on September 17, but it remains unclear who – Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud) or his main opponent Benny Gantz (Blue White) – will be able to bring together a government. One thing is for sure: in elections in April and September 2019, Israel’s populist, religious and […]

Israel/ Palestine

Anti-Palestinianism is the modern day McCarthyism

Middle East Monitor

By Asa Winstanley | @AsaWinstanley | – As regular readers of this column will know, the McCarthyite atmosphere in Britain against supporters of Palestinian rights is getting worse. That is down in part to the Labour Party leadership’s acquiescence to the smear campaign to portray the party as anti-Semitic. The Labour National Executive Committee’s acceptance […]

Arms Sales

Forget Nukes: Now for the Hypersonic Weapons Race

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com) – Hypersonic weapons close in on their targets at a minimum speed of Mach 5, five times the speed of sound or 3,836.4 miles an hour. They are among the latest entrants in an arms competition that has embroiled the United States for generations, first with the Soviet Union, today with China and […]

Donald Trump

Pompeo, Complicit in Ukraine Call, hides behind the State Department he Persecuted in Benghazi Conspiracy Theory

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a Kansas oil man in the back pocket of Koch Industries and a mealy-mouthed convert to High Trumpism, issued a shot across the bow of Congress on Tuesday. He sent a letter, which he also tweeted, in which he tried to take cover behind the […]

censorship

On Khashoggi Murder Anniversary: Trump’s other Dangerous Conversations besides Ukraine, with Saudi Bin Salman

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – CNN reports that, in addition to Trump’s Ukraine conversation last July, the transcripts of his telephone calls with Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Russian president Vladimir Putin were also stored in a super highly classified server. The implication is that his staff heard him commit crimes in the […]

Archives for 2019