2020

Will Trump Follow through? US Congress’ ‘Caesar Act’ Sanctions Russian, Syrian, Iranian Officials over Torture, War Crimes

( Middle East Monitor) – On this day, 17 June 2020, America’s Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act of 2019 (also known as the Caesar Act) takes effect. The act, which was passed by the US Senate in December 2019, requires the US President to impose sanctions on members and allies of the Syrian regime, including […]

China

Trump’s China Shell Game: Bashes Biden on Beijing but asks Xi for reelection Help

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration has been running ads against Joe Biden accusing him of being soft on Beijing. And the Biden campaign has been depicting Trump as a patsy for praising Chinese President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Both are betting that the US public is increasingly hostile to […]

Iran

Washington’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ seeks Regime Change in Iran, but such changes Have usually been disasters for US Interests

David Belt

Washington, D.C. (Special to Informed Comment) – The United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the unanimous UNSCR 2231—the “Iran nuclear deal” -— along with the enactment of an unprecedented “maximum pressure” sanctions regime on the Islamic Republic of Iran has amounted to a strategic-level strike on the economy of this country of 80 million. The goal […]

African-Americans

No, Racial Justice Protesters aren’t ‘Maoists’; Conservatives just aren’t Comfortable with Black Lives Matter

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In their effort to transform their discomfort with the current #BlackLivesMatter protests into a superficially sophisticated critique, right-wing “intellectuals” in the United States and Europe have latched onto a dubious historical analogy. When former congressman Newt Gingrich, the National Review’s David Harsanyi, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, and other right-wingers […]

prison reform

Being convicted of a crime has thousands of consequences besides incarceration – and some last a lifetime

The Conversation

By Cynthia A. Golembeski | – At least 77 million U.S. adults have criminal records, including nearly 7 million currently in prison or jail or on probation or parole. Typically, more than 10,000 of the incarcerated leave prison and nearly 200,000 churn through jails every week. But because more than 64,000 inmates and workers have […]

Donald Trump

“Trump Heights”: Illegal New Israeli Squatter Settlement on Occupied Syrian Golan Approved

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s government has formally greenlighted a new squatter settlement on the Syrian Golan Heights, to be named for US president Donald J. Trump. Israel has has militarily occupied much of the Golan Heights since 1967 and which it has illegally stolen from Syria. The United Nations Charter, to which Israel […]

Inequality

Bailouts for Weapons Firms, Tent Cities for Vets: Covid Reveals U.S. Military Priorities

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – On May 18, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched a Salvation Army-like charity drive asking the public for donations of money, food, and mobile phones to help an estimated 40,000 homeless veterans during the pandemic. More than one-half of all homeless veterans are African American and Hispanic, […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Misinformed America is the Highest Stage of Post-Truth

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – No American president in memory has pursued his personal and public ambitions largely by willfully misinforming the American public on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis with his tweets and speeches. Indeed, Trump’s singular achievement has been his relentless effort to usurp and fill the void of political ignorance […]

Epidemics

Yemen’s health system is collapsing as coronavirus spreads, UN warns

Brian Whitaker

(Al-Bab.com) – Yemen is desperately short of medical supplies, though some are still getting through. Photo:

Archives for 2020