Democratic Party

By Angela Bradbery | – When U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that he wouldn’t support President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better Act, he set off a wave of breaking news alerts. It was fitting. For months, media coverage has breathlessly focused on the behind-the-scenes wrangling and hour-by-hour negotiations around the legislation. How much […]

Climate Crisis

Revenge is a Dish best Served Green: Biden could get around Manchin with GOP Senators Supporting Wind, Solar, Battery

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Senator Joe Manchin has attempted completely to shoot down the Build Back Better bill, underlining the thin legislative margin with which President Biden has to work. With a 50/50 Senate, Biden’s legislative agenda going forward will need to be bipartisan. The successes this approach can garner are apparent in the […]

Democratic Party

Which Side is Sen. Joe Manchin On?

OtherWords

By Kristen Olsen | – ( Otherwords.org) – I work hard to make ends meet for my family. But as an educator in West Virginia, that’s hard sometimes — especially with child care to pay for. Fortunately, the expanded Child Tax Credit that Democrats passed this spring has been a lifeline. Those monthly payments mean […]

Iran

To Succeed in US Foreign Policy, Biden needs a clean Break with Trump

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink) – The Biden presidency is still in its early days, but it’s not too early to point to areas in the foreign policy realm where we, as progressives, have been disappointed–or even infuriated. There are one or two positive developments, such as the renewal of Obama’s New START Treaty with Russia and […]

Climate Crisis

“Given me a Lever and I will Move the Earth:” Biden orders greening of Federal Gov’t, buying of EVs and Solar Panels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse (d. 212 BC), speaking of the power of the lever, said, “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth” (δῶς μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω). In the US economy there are few more powerful levers than […]

Featured

To Avoid another War Biden must get US Troops, caught in Israel-Iran Crossfire, out of Syria

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Eric Schmitt and Ronen Bergman at the New York Times report that a drone strike on a US base in eastern Syria last month has been assessed by the Pentagon as retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on Iranian bases in Syria. US troops abandoned the base before the strike, based on […]

Authoritarianism

Fiddling at the Death of Democracy: The Media and Democrats need to confront our Dr. Strangelove Moment

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – We learned from Dr. Strangelove that all it takes to blow up the world is one sexually insecure Air Force general and one wacko wing commander . . . also that there is an upside to a nuclear holocaust if you’re well positioned. But who is? Destroying American […]

Democracy

In the Middle East, the US was Never about Democracy Promotion

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – How much of the blame should U.S. policy take for the decline of democracy in the twenty-first century, with the reversions to dictatorship and the rise of illiberalism in older democracies? In a fine article at the New York Times, Max Fisher discusses how an NYT team mined data at […]

China

As Biden and Xi Zoom, the Iran issue Looms

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden and his counterpart Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for half an hour on Monday by video, as Biden attempted to establish “guard rails” in the relationship of the two countries so that tensions do not spiral out of control. Biden is a status quo president, attempting to […]