2020

Trump Administration Planning to Send Federal Agents to Other Cities

What Biden’s presidency means for the US-Iran Cold War

By Brett Sudetic and Giorgio Cafiero | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The upcoming US presidential election’s outcome is bound to significantly impact Iran’s future. President Donald Trump securing another term could leave Tehran continuing to face Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign—a policy of harsh and sweeping sanctions crippling the country’s already faltering economy, […]

Crime

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: Republican Ted Yoho authorized all Men to call all Women Fcking Btches

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It all started when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) remarked at a virtual Town Hall last week regarding the recent increase in violent crime in New York, ““Do we think this has to do with the fact that there’s record unemployment in the United States right now? The fact that people […]

Bill of Rights

The Attack of the Feds from the Deep: Autocratic Trump is Testing his Limits

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Federal agents poured into Portland, Oregon this month to crack down on anti-racism protests. They beat up peaceful protesters and fired impact munitions at demonstrators, seriously injuring one of them. They drove around the city in unmarked vans pulling people off the street. Oregon officials at every level — […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey: how President Erdoğan is using coronavirus to clamp down further on dissent

The Conversation

By Balki Begumhan Bayhan | – Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has always made use of crises to consolidate its power. The coronavirus has been no exception. The regime has cracked down on opposition and attempted to undermine its effectiveness, while endeavouring to legitimise the rule of the […]

Epidemics

Essential Work suddenly Valued during Pandemic: Why does it Pay so Little, Cost so Much?

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In two weeks, my partner and I were supposed to leave San Francisco for Reno, Nevada, where we’d be spending the next three months focused on the 2020 presidential election. As we did in 2018, we’d be working with UNITE-HERE, the hospitality industry union, only this time on the campaign to […]

Arab Americans

“The most significant civil rights bill for Muslim Americans in our country”: House Bans Trump’s Muslim Ban as Dingle, Tlaib Preside

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a largely party-line vote by 233-183, the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn Trump’s Muslim ban, according to Hassan Abbas at The Arab American News. The floor debate was presided over by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan), and the final vote was presided over by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). […]

Donald Trump

A Russia-China-Iran ‘Axis of the Sanctioned?’ Will Russia risk defying Trump to sell arms to Iran?

Nikola Mikovic

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – Russia risks facing severe US sanctions if it starts selling weapons to Iran after October 18, which is when the United Nations arms embargo on the Islamic Republic expires. Although the UN Security Council will likely decline to extend the bar on such sales, since Russia and China are […]

Israel/ Palestine

More Afraid of Int’l Criminal Court than it Lets On, Israel makes Secret List of its Officials who may be Charged with War Crimes

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) has adjourned without issuing its ruling on whether Israeli officials will be tried for war crimes against the Palestinian people since 2014, when Gaza was destroyed during “Operation Protective Edge”. With an extended timeframe until the ruling is due, Israel now has additional time to […]

Archives for 2020

How US Immigration Policies Foreshadowed Violence Against Protesters