Dissent

TeleSur | – – A Turkish court has handed down a two-year, nine-month and 22-day jail sentence to a Kurdish artist because of her painting of a Kurdish village being razed by Turkish security forces. Turkish Artist Zehra Doğan Sentenced to Prison for Painting of Kurdish Town Attack — Alexander Rubinstein (@AlexR_DC) March 24, 2017 […]

Authoritarianism

I Am an Enemy of the People (Feffer)

Juan Cole

By John Feffer | ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) | – – If Trump cracks down on journalists, there might be less uproar than you’d think. Even before the election of Donald Trump — and his extraordinary declaration that the media are the “enemies of the people” — U.S. journalism was in trouble. According […]

Dissent

To Counter Normalization, deflect Elite tactics to dampen Outrage

contributors

By Brian Martin | ( Waging Nonviolence ) | – – The Trump administration’s policies have already triggered public outrage and massive opposition. To understand the techniques that make opposition effective, it is useful to look at regular patterns of injustice and outrage. When powerful groups do things that might trigger resistance, they regularly use […]

censorship

Turkey’s Coup aftermath and Human Rights: A Feminist Perspective

contributors

By Banu Gökarıksel | ( Duke University Blog ) | – – Feminist critiques of political power reveal the central function of gender, sexuality, and difference in maintaining that power. Yet, in current events, a feminist geopolitics is rarely considered and has been absent from analysis of the 2016 coup attempt and its aftermath in […]

Culture

Iran’s Oscar-Winning Director Hopes Anti-Fascist Movement Grows

contributors

TeleSur | – – “We believe there is no best country, best gender, best religion or best color,” the directors of the five Oscar foreign films nominees wrote in a joint statement. Thousands of people braved London’s winter drizzle on Sunday for a screening of the Oscar-nominated movie that has become a rallying point for […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey’s Long Nightmare: Remembering the Night of the Coup

contributors

Cüneyt Özdemir | (Duke University Middle East Studies Center | – – Cüneyt Özdemir is a columnist and investigative journalist with 28 years experience reporting from Turkey and the Middle East. An icon of Turkish media, he is host of the weekly current events program 5N1K, the author of thirteen books on politics and popular […]

Dissent

The Superbowl of American Values: Kaepernick and the Touchdown of Dissent

contributors

By Robert Lipsyte | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – The Super Bowl is superfluous this year. Who needs a reality show about violence, domination, and sexism, not to mention brain damage, now that we have Trumpball, actual reality that not only authenticates football’s authoritarianism but transforms us from bystanders into victims? Before this game is over, […]

Dissent

The Sadism of Racist Exclusion: Courts Temporarily Block Trump

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Picking on immigrants and refugees is the act of a sadistic bully, since they are the one fairly large group of residents of the United States whose constitutional rights are disputed. The executive order Trump signed late on Friday suspending entrance to the United States for […]

Dissent

In a Dark Time, the Eye Begins to See: Going Local, remaining Indivisible

contributors

By H Patricia Hynes | (Informed Comment) | – – “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” Writing decades ago, the poet Theodore Roethke could not have foreseen these dimmest of times. Piercing the dark ages of this presidency, bulging with billionaires, climate deniers, generals where civilians should be, and thieves of women’s […]