International Politics and Economy

By Chris Myant ( OpenDemocracy.net) – In the small Provençal town of Aups, where the local Catholic church declares République française: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité [The French Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity], above its main entrance, there is a plain and nondescript monument put up in 1881. Its plaque announces that it is there: A la memoire […]

Donald Trump

Call for Fox Media News Monopoly to be Broken up: Rupert Murdoch an “arrogant cancer on … democracy” – Rudd

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has called for the break up of his country’s media monopolies (almost all major media are owned by just two corporations). One of the two media monopolies he was slamming is Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp. In its incarnation as Fox News, the same company has […]

Authoritarianism

Patriotism, American Style: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – What is Patriotism? Let’s begin with the difficult part: defining and understanding patriotism. Patriotism refers to the feelings and behaviors of individuals and groups who see themselves belonging to a large community called a nation, and who identify intensely with it. When the chips are down, those who […]

Donald Trump

Rightwing Populism Will Make You Sick—Really

Reese Erlich

(Foreign Correspondent) – The four countries with the most confirmed COVID-19 infections in the world are all led by rightwing populists: the US, India, Brazil, and Russia. Throw in the United Kingdom, which has the largest infection rate in Europe, and you have a common pattern. Leaders of these countries pose as men of the […]

Democracy

If there ever is another Presidential Debate, the Corporations shouldn’t Manage it

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The organization most responsible for the debacle of the first Presidential debate offered an implicit apology and a promise. “Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues. The […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia: ‘Image Laundering’ Conceals Abuses

Human Rights Watch

(Human Rights Watch) – (Beirut) – The Saudi government has spent billions of dollars hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events as a deliberate strategy to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 2, 2020, Human Rights Watch launched a global campaign to counter […]

Climate Crisis

Top 5 Most Horrible things Trump said in his Abnormal Debate

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “debate” was an unfortunate and distasteful spectacle, largely because of Trump’s bullying and mendacious behavior. But let us resist the cable-tv temptation to focus only on personalities and the horse race to consider some actual policy issues. And the true horror lay in what Trump had to say about […]

Authoritarianism

The Mobster-in-Chief: Will the November Election Be Decided in the Streets?

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The white mobs didn’t care whom they killed as long as the victims were Black. They murdered people in public with guns and rocks. They set fire to houses and slaughtered families trying to escape the flames. In East St. Louis in July 1917, white vigilantes lynched Blacks with impunity. It […]

Corruption

Did Trump Throw Kurds under the Bus for Turkey because of his Istanbul Revenue Stream?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The New York Times reported, in the scoop of the decade, that Trump has $420 million in loans and other obligations coming due in the next four years, and that most of his core businesses hemorrhage money, so that he has no way to pay them back. In the past […]