Far Right

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – “Between 18 and 20 December 1922 Turin Fascism unleashed a 3 day terror campaign on a recalcitrant anti-Fascist labour movement.” So informs us Antonio Sonnessa.* Turin (Torino) was a site of resistance to Fascism. It had a powerful labor union, dissident newspapers, a Communist Party (Antonio Gramsci was there and […]

Far Right

From Jones’s Kool-Aid to Trump’s Clorox– Can we Finally leave the Death Cults Behind Us?

Waging Nonviolence

By Michael Nagler | – ( Waging Nonviolence) – When I compared the president and his followers to Jim Jones and the “Peoples Temple” cult two years ago I didn’t expect many would go that far. In fact, I hoped events would prove me wrong. Unfortunately, the comparison has become inescapable, and other writers have […]

Cults

The Church of QAnon: Will Trumpian conspiracy theories form the basis of a dangerous new religious movement?

The Conversation

By Marc-André Argentino | – Followers of the QAnon movement believe in wild and dangerous conspiracy theories about U.S. President Donald Trump. Now a faction within the movement has been interpreting the Bible through QAnon conspiracies. I have been studying the growth of the QAnon movement as part of my research into how extremist religious […]

Donald Trump

Male Face Masks have been the Height of Masculinity for Centuries: Why see Coronavirus Masks as Wimpy?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A recent study of the way Americans are adapting to the coronavirus found that “Men more than women agree that wearing a face covering is shameful, not cool, a sign of weakness, and a stigma”. The study indicated that American men resist wearing face masks more than do women, partly […]

African-Americans

The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery highlights again the Fatal Danger of Jogging while Black

The Conversation

By Rashawn Ray | – Unsteady cellphone footage follows a jogger – an apparently young, black man – as he approaches and attempts to run around a white pickup truck parked in the middle of a suburban road. Moments later he lies dead on the ground. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery took place on Feb. […]

Donald Trump

From WW II Victory to Trump’s ‘America First’: Is our anti-Nazi Resolve Foundering?

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in May 1945 ought to prompt thoughtful reflection. For Americans, V-E Day, as it was then commonly called, marked the beginning of “our times.” The Covid-19 pandemic may signal that our times are now coming to an end. Tom Engelhardt, editor and proprietor of […]

Donald Trump

Neo-Nazi “Reopeners” would Kill nearly as many Americans as died in All US Wars

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Roughly 1,264,000 US soldiers have died in all the wars this country has ever fought. A new simulation by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School predicts that if all the states completely reopened today and all Americans ceased all social distancing measures, a million people would die in this country […]

Donald Trump

How the Tiny ‘Reopen’ protest movement was Astroturfed and boosted by Fake Grassroots Tactics

The Conversation

By Marc Ambinder | – Many Americans have been under strict stay-at-home orders, or at least advisories, for more than a month. People are frustrated and depressed, but have complied with what they’ve been asked to endure because they trust that state and local public health officials are telling the truth about the coronavirus pandemic. […]

Donald Trump

“Unhinged” Trump Calls on his Mussolini-Style Black Shirts to Attack Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s tweets on Friday, “Liberate Michigan,” and “Liberate Minnesota,” and “Liberate Virginia” were clearly intended to incite his armed, conspiracy-minded, militant followers on the far right against those elected state governments, which intend to buck him on reopening the economy on May 1. The possibility of Trump-inspired violence against Governor […]