International Politics and Economy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Liz Sawyer at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the Twitter account of Danielle Stella, the Republican challenger to Ilhan Omar has been shut down after she called for her opponent to be lynched. Stella managed to combine the worst excesses of Jim Crow punitive policies toward the African-American congresswoman with […]

African-Americans

The Fate of the Nation depends on Dems Turning out the Black Womens’ Vote

Yes! Magazine

By Tasha Williams | – ( Yes! Magazine ) – Turnouts demonstrate that when we are effectively engaged, our work can make seemingly impossible victories possible. A volunteer checks off voters as they arrive at the Beulah Baptist Church polling station in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 12, 2017. Tasha Williams posted Nov 21, 2019 Democratic […]

Islamophobia

These Young Muslims want to meet Islamophobes and Change their Minds. And it’s Working

The Conversation

By Ihsan Yilmaz, Ana-Maria Bliuc, and Fethi Mansouri | – The political influence of the far-right, along with a more salient national security agenda, has spurred a growing anti-Muslim sentiment and deep social division in Australia. While most research participants believe in the power of contact, dialogue and exchange to transform negative attitudes. Shutterstock In […]

Politics&Culture

Why are there so many Mass Protests in Today’s World but so Few real Revolutions?

The Conversation

By Peter McPhee | – We live in a world of violent challenges to the status quo, from Chile and Iraq to Hong Kong, Catalonia and the Extinction Rebellion. These protests are usually presented in the media simply as expressions of rage at “the system” and are eminently suitable for TV news coverage, where they […]

Lebanon

Lebanon’s Peaceful Protesters have One Demand: The Whole Rotten Elite Must Go

Waging Nonviolence

By Jenny Gustafsson | – (Via Waging Nonviolence) – Unlike previous movements, demonstrations in Lebanon have spread to all parts of the country and are targeting the entire political establishment. Holding a megaphone, a women chants to the crowds gathered at Martyrs’ Square in the middle of central Beirut, “We are the revolution of the […]

Arms Sales

America’s Arms Sales Addiction: The 50-Year History of U.S. Dominance of the Middle Eastern Arms Trade

William D. Hartung

(Tomdispatch.com) – It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive arms salesmen in history. How do we know? Because he tells us so at every conceivable opportunity. It started with his much exaggerated “$110 billion arms deal” with Saudi Arabia, announced on his first foreign trip as president. It continued with […]

Democratic Party

Top 4 Things Rep. Ilhan Omar was Right about, from Stephen Miller Racism to Trump Impeachment

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week The Southern Poverty Law Center reported from Hatewatch that Trump administration official Stephen Miller spent the period before 2016 sending white supremacist messages to the Breitbart Nazi-lite site. He was upset about the turn against Confederate symbols after the massacre in a church by Dylann Roof, and he […]

Drones

Drone Strikes and Tears

Tomdispatch

By Allegra Harpootlian | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Think back to the last time you cried at work. Did the tears come after your boss sent you a curt email? Or when you accidentally cc’d (instead of bcc’d) everyone? Maybe you just had a really, really long day and that one last little misstep pushed you […]

Far Right

Trump, Johnson, Erdogan: The International Alt-Right’s Bluster and Surrender

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – From the U.S. to the U.K. to Turkey, it is a hallmark of right-wing populists to make a preposterous policy and then be forced to retreat. It is a hallmark of right-wing populists to make a preposterous policy and then be forced — by opposition, by circumstance, by the laws […]