Authoritarianism

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – There is a proverbial elephant in the room that few dare to identify openly. Revoking visas, arresting students on the streets, detaining them in staunchly Republican jurisdictions, banning protests, cutting federal funding to universities, and forcing institutions to censor their faculty and curricula—all of these actions, and more, […]

Authoritarianism

Trump Harvests Autocratic Powers Planted by Bush and Cheney

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In 2003, the Macedonian police arrested Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen vacationing in their country. They handed the unfortunate man over to the CIA, who shipped him off to one of their “black sites.” For those too young to remember (or who have quite understandably chosen to forget), “black sites” was […]

Authoritarianism

The “War on Terror” Comes Home in the Trump Era

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Four years ago, I published Subtle Tools, a book on the erosion of American democratic norms in the face of what came to be known as the Global War on Terror. Both what had been done in the name of “national security” in response to the 9/11 attacks and how it […]

Academic Freedom

The Trump Administration is an Existential Threat to Academic Freedom and Higher Education: Middle East Studies Assn.

Middle East Studies Association

Board of Directors, the Middle East Studies Association The second Trump administration has ushered in an existential threat to academic freedom and higher education in the United States. The current campaign targeting universities is an extension of earlier right-wing efforts to attack and defund teaching about race, gender, and sexuality at the state level, but […]

Authoritarianism

Withholding Consent from the Trump Regime

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Not even two months since Inauguration Day and it’s already been quite a trip. Ping-ponging between vindictive pettiness and unconstitutional overreach while using everything in his power (and much that isn’t), Donald Trump has served up a goulash of dubious orders with a slathering of venom on top. […]

Authoritarianism

Dumb and Dumber: Trump’s Tariffs will cost each U.S. family $1072, wipe out Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs

Peter G. Prontzos

Vancouver (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Just about every day, the U.S. president does something that is incompetent, dangerous, or stupid. Often all three. His decision to proceed with tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, is all of the above. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada will hit back hard at the […]

Authoritarianism

The French showed us how to Fight SCOTUS’s Immunization of Trump for 2nd-Term Despotism

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The MAGA Supreme Court created a lawless presidency with their opinion on Trump immunity last week. In doing so, it obliterated a basic principle of American constitutional government: “No one is above the law.” Enabling abuses of power, the 6-3 decision on Trump v. United States gives Trump such vast immunity […]

Authoritarianism

Trump’s Dangerous ‘State of Exception’: SCOTUS must not Allow Presidential Immunity

Andrew Kolin

Hamburg, NY (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Carl Schmitt wrote in Political Theology (1922) “sovereign is he who decides on the state of the exception.” What Schmitt meant in using the word “exception” is that in a specific historical timeframe a sovereign can suspend law in the context of a declared state of emergency. […]

Apartheid

Brazil’s Lula compares Netanyahu to Hitler: How Fascist is Israel’s War on Palestinians?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stirred controversy when he said, “What is happening in the Gaza Strip and with the Palestinian people did not exist at any other historical moment. Or rather, it did: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” He continued, “It is not a war […]