US politics

( Tomdispatch.com) – “The thirty-year interregnum of U.S. global hegemony,” writes David Bromwich in the journal Raritan, “has been exposed as a fraud, a decoy, a cheat, [and] a sell.” Today, he continues, “the armies of the cheated are struggling to find the word for something that happened and happened wrong.” In fact, the armies […]

Anti-Vaccination

Demented DeSantis denounces “Hysteria” over Florida Hospitals Filling up with Covid-19 Victims, rejects Masks, Vaccine Mandates

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – Just like the noble from La Mancha named Alonso Quixano, who read so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become the knight-errant Don Quixote to revive chivalry and serve his nation, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis similarly has lost his mind and portrayed himself […]

Congress

In Bid to Recapture Congress’ Power to Declare War, Key Senate Committee advances Repeal of Iraq War Authorizations

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trish Turner at ABC News reports that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voted to repeal the two Authorizations for Use of Military Force in Iraq passed in 1991 for the Gulf War and in 2002 for George W. Bush’s war on Iraq. I’m personally happy about this, since I […]

Anti-Vaccination

Republican Governors have gone too Far in Banning Local Mask, Vaccine Mandates

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – With the Delta variant of Covid 19 now producing escalating case counts and hospitalizations, talk among pundits has turned to the possibility of a federally imposed vaccination mandate. Many of these discussions and debates have revolved around familiar albeit simplistic dichotomies, such as voluntary choice versus government […]

Mental Health

Moral Injury and Forever Wars: The after-action Military Suicides Americans don’t Want to Hear About

Tomdispatch

By Kelly Denton-Borhaug | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – This summer, it seemed as if we Americans couldn’t wait to return to our traditional July 4th festivities. Haven’t we all been looking for something to celebrate? The church chimes in my community rang out battle hymns for about a week. The utility poles in my neighborhood […]

Authoritarianism

1/6 Committee: Can a Pinochet-Style Chilean Dictatorship be Forestalled in the United States?

Jill Richardson

( Otherwords.org) – If you believe violence instead of voting is justified, I implore you to at least consider the alternative viewpoint. By Jill Richardson | July 28, 2021 As the congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection gets underway, we’re learning disturbing new details about Trump supporters’ violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election. […]

Featured

Palestinian Christians welcome U.S. United Church of Christ affirmation of right to Boycott Israel for Occupation of Palestinian Territories

Juan Cole

Palestinians UCC BDS Occupation Israel

African-Americans

In the Wake of “Black Lives Matter,” does the the 1919 Chicago Race Riot Take on Special Significance?

Michael Slager

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – This week marks another infamous anniversary in US history: the Chicago race riot of 1919. It started when white beachgoers threw rocks at Eugene Williams, a black teenager. He had drifted on a homemade raft from his neighborhood beach toward a white section of it, where a group pelted […]

Children

As Florida’s cases Spike to Unprecedented 21,683, Ron “Satan” DeSantis wants to Kill your Kids

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey S. Solocheck at the Miami Herald reports that Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Friday issued a royal decree forbidding school districts to require that pupils wear a mask and threatening to cut funding from any that defied him. DeSantis has also banned Florida municipalities from putting in renewed mitigation […]