Bill of Rights

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Bush administration’s war of aggression on and military occupation of Iraq that began in 2003 shifted the United States to a militaristic society. Some 2.7 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, an astonishing number. The Bush administration began the practice of sending to civilian police departments military […]

African-Americans

Riot or resistance? How media frames unrest in Minneapolis will shape public’s view of protest

The Conversation

Danielle K. Kilgo | – A teenager held her phone steady enough to capture the final moments of George Perry Floyd’s life as he apparently suffocated under the weight of a Minneapolis police officer’s knee on his neck. The video went viral. What happened next has played out time and again in American cities after […]

Authoritarianism

Ayatollah Trump Declares “Total Authority:” Top 5 Ways he is Becoming American Version of Iran’s Supreme Leader

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – At the embarrassing public meltdown that passed for his news conference on Monday, Trump addressed the question of opening back up the economy. Most epidemiologists warn that if social distancing measures end too soon, it could provoke a massive “second wave” of the pandemic, as happened with the Spanish Flu […]

Bill of Rights

From Stoning Gays to Endorsing Slavery: The Problem with Bible Classes in State Schools

James A. Haught

(Syndicated to Informed Comment) – Here in Appalachia’s Bible Belt, conservatives in the Legislature want to force all West Virginia public high schools to teach Bible classes, as occurs in several other Republican-controlled states. I wonder how such classes handle Bible topics like these: First, the Bible decrees that gay males must be killed. Leviticus […]

Bill of Rights

This is how ancient Rome’s republic died – a classicist sees troubling parallels at Trump’s impeachment trial

The Conversation

By Timothy Joseph | – The U.S. Senate has made its judgment in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, acquitting the president. Fifty two of 53 senators in the Republican majority voted to acquit the president on the abuse of power charge and all 53 Republican senators voted to acquit on the obstruction of […]

Bill of Rights

Your Fourth of July and My Fourth of July (in the Age of Trump)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised for the the Age of Trump: Your Fourth of July is tanks in the streets. My Fourth of July is James Madison’s warning, “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.” Your Fourth of July is unbathed refugee […]

Bill of Rights

Why the Assange indictment is a Threat to the US First Amendment

The Conversation

The American government has traditionally abstained from charging publishers of classified information for the crime of publication

Bill of Rights

Landmark 1st Amendment Ruling striking down Texas Law Banning Israel Boycott won by CAIR

contributors

By Arsalan Bukhari | – WASHINGTON, D.C. (CAIR News Release) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today welcomed this afternoon’s landmark victory in CAIR’s First Amendment lawsuit on behalf of Bahia Amawi, the Texas speech language pathologist who lost her job because she refused to […]

Bill of Rights

When it Comes to Actively Defending Religious Minorities, Trump is no George Washington; but he Should Be

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – If Trump were actually acting as a president, he could and would tamp down the terrifying spread of hatred against Muslims that has resulted in several mass murders at mosques in the English-speaking world in recent years. All he would have to do is come out and say that ordinary […]