US politics

( Code Pink) – As Congress still struggles to pass a COVID relief bill, the rest of the world is nervously reserving judgment on America’s new president and his foreign policy, after successive U.S. administrations have delivered unexpected and damaging shocks to the world and the international system. Cautious international optimism toward Biden is very […]

Far Right

“I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection

ProPublica

By Joaquin Sapien and Joshua Kaplan | – The Insurrection ( ProPublica) – The Effort to Overturn the Election The riot squad defending the embattled entrance to the west side of the U.S. Capitol was surrounded by violence. Rioters had clambered up the scaffolding by the stage erected for the inauguration of President Joseph Biden. […]

Culture

How Spanish Can Help Us Survive Viral Times: A Journey into the Heart of a Language We Need Now More Than Ever

Ariel Dorfman

“Una nación bajo Diós, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos.” ( Tomdispatch.com) – When Jennifer López shouted out that last line of the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish during Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, like so many Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States I felt a sense of pride, a sense of arrival. It was […]

Donald Trump

Trump evades conviction again as Republicans opt for self-preservation

The Conversation

By Jennifer S. Hunt | – Twice-impeached former US President Donald Trump has evaded conviction once more. On the fourth day of the impeachment trial, the Senate verdict is in. Voting guilty: 57 senators (representing nearly 70% of the country or 202 million people, and the majority public opinion on the issue of conviction). Voting […]

Donald Trump

Who were the Republican Senators afraid of when they Acquitted their own attempted murderer?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The odious Trump once smugly observed that “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” When it comes to the Republican base, he was clearly correct. The opinion polling shows that registered Republicans still overwhelmingly support Trump even after he unleashed […]

Corruption

Trump’s acquittal is a sign of ‘constitutional rot’ – partisanship overriding principles

The Conversation

By John E. Finn | – The Senate’s decision to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial may have been a victory for Trump, but it is a clear sign that democracy in the U.S. is in poor health. As a constitutional scholar, I believe the United States – the world’s first […]

Featured

Federal Court strikes down Arkansas’ attempt to Punish proponents of Boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Andrew DeMillo at the Associated Press reports that a 3-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis has struck down an Arkansas law requiring contractors with the state to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel. The alternative print monthly the Arkansas Times carried advertising […]

Immigration

Undocumented Americans need a Pathway to Citizenship; Biden’s Plan is promising but needs swift implementation by Congress

OtherWords

By Vanessa Meraz ” – ( Otherwords.org) – Years of advocacy have made DACA the floor of what’s possible, not the ceiling. By Vanessa Meraz | February 10, 2021 My father’s tired eyes lit up in a way that I had not seen since my sister was born. “Esto nos podría cambiar la vida,” he […]

Arab World

Targeting Iran, Trump added Israel to the US Mideast Military Command; How will the Arab World Respond?

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor) – A major reorganisation of US military operation in the Middle East was announced last month in a momentous decision reflecting the seismic geo-political shifts underway in the region. The move, the last of many gifts granted by Washington to Tel-Aviv under former President Donald Trump, […]