Democratic Party

By Brian Glyn Williams | – One common claim by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has been that his administration beat IS, or what’s formally known as the Islamic State terrorist group. It came up most recently in the vice presidential debate, when Mike Pence boasted, “We destroyed the ISIS caliphate. … You know when […]

Campaign Finance

Election 2020 sees record $11 billion in campaign spending, mostly from a handful of super-rich donors

The Conversation

By Richard Briffault | – Total spending in the 2020 federal elections is projected to set a new record of almost US$11 billion by November. When adjusted for inflation, that’s over 50% higher than 2016 election spending. This year’s federal election spending – for the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives – is […]

Climate Crisis

Kamala Harris’s best Zingers and Pence’s worst Lies

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Pence-Harris debate was what disagreements among normal people might look like, as opposed to the weird behavior of Trump in the first presidential debate. While pundits are saying that it lacked fireworks, that is not true if you define fireworks as policy disagreement as opposed to mud wrestling. The […]

Democratic Party

Trump Prospects Plummet as Public blames him for Illness, Independents desert him over Debate Bullying

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Those observers asking whether Trump would get a bounce of sympathy from falling ill with COVID-19, the way Ronald Reagan saw his popularity soar after he was shot and had to be hospitalized, now have their answer. No. An October 2-3 opinion poll conducted by Yahoo and YouGov from Friday-Saturday, […]

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

Rethinking Saudi Arabia: A Biden administration could ensure that Khashoggi’s death was not in vain

Middle East Monitor

By Abderrahmane Amor | – Breaking News The Biden-Harris campaign releases a statement on the two-year anniversary of Khashoggi's murder stating that his death "will not be in vain." https://t.co/ZYEmx5kMem pic.twitter.com/rsl7pOWZEP — Abderrahmane Amor/عمور (@TheAmorTimes) October 2, 2020 ( Middle East Monitor) – In an interview a few days after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi […]

Authoritarianism

Arab World, Alarmed at US Debate Debacle, Worries about Military Coup and ‘Banana Republic’ on Potomac

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Arabic press watched the Trump-Biden fiasco of a debate with alarm. The US is so involved in the Arab world that our elections are consequential for their lives. When we hear that Arabs are looking at America and thinking “this looks like a military coup waiting to happen,” we […]

Barack Obama

Six Years later, remembering how Socialist Kurds and the US Air Force defeated the ISIS Siege of Kobani

Brian Glyn Williams

By Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Troy Souza | – Dartmouth, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – Six years ago, in October, 2014, the brutal ISIS terorist group came for the Kurds in the Syrian enclave of Kobani. It would have been a gateway for them into Turkey, on which it bordered. The US intervened […]

Democratic Party

With Barrett on the Court, if Trump is Reelected and goes Full Mussolini, Can he be Stopped?

Michael G. Roskin

Williamsport, PA (Special to Informed Comment) – “A republic, if you can keep it,” Ben Franklin famously described the new Constitution in 1787. Well, can Americans, including the Republicans, keep it, or will they let it slide into authoritarianism? I, like Franklin, am an optimist, but we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that […]