US politics

Biden’s Aid Pier SNAFU washes away in Indictment of US unwillingness to Pressure Israel to stop the Starvation

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US military has given us many acronyms. Most are forgettable alphabet salads only beloved by bureaucrats. But SNAFU is one of the greats, allegedly originating during WW II. The polite phrase is “situation normal, all fouled up.” But we know that the GIs actually used the F word. Quite […]

Anti-Zionism

Most Bigoted, Genocidal Representative in Congress smears Juan Cole as a Racist

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The House Committee on Education and the Workplace, headed by the increasingly unhinged Rep. Virginia Palmieri Foxx (R-NC), held another Stalin-style show trial on Thursday, grilling the presidents of Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and the University of California Los Angeles about how they dealt with campus student protests against the […]

Pentagon

The Pentagon’s .00035% Problem

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com ) – There are constants in this world — occurrences you can count on. Sunrises and sunsets. The tides. That, day by day, people will be born and others will die. Some of them will die in peace, but others, of course, in violence and agony. For hundreds of years, the U.S. military […]

Bill of Rights

Protesting U of Texas-Dallas Arrest and Suspension of Faculty and Students Peacefully Protesting against Gaza War

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Dr. Richard C. Benson President, University of Texas at Dallas president@utdallas.edu . . . We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern over your administration’s recent actions with respect […]

African-Americans

Trumpism, Race and Authoritarianism: The Storm is Coming

Tomdispatch

By Clarence Lusane ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Consider Donald Trump to be in a racial bind when it comes to election 2024. After all, he needs Black voters to at least defect from Joe Biden in swing states, if not actually vote for him. Yet, more than ever, he also needs his white nationalist base […]

Climate Crisis

Top 3 Climate Catastrophes Menacing Florida, as DeSantis Erases Climate Change From Web Sites

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – When we think about Florida, we may think about flamingos. But in the Ron DeSantis regime, the state bird ought to be the ostrich. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the governor this week signed legislation that would make the term “climate change” disappear from state web sites and would […]

Donald Trump

The Forever Wars, MAGA and the Loneliness of Anger

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com) – An acquaintance who hails from the same New Jersey town as I do spends his free weekends crawling through the woods on his stomach as part of a firearms training course, green camouflage paint on his face and a revolver in his hand. He considers this both a way to have fun […]

Authoritarianism

Trump’s Dangerous ‘State of Exception’: SCOTUS must not Allow Presidential Immunity

Andrew Kolin

Hamburg, NY (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Carl Schmitt wrote in Political Theology (1922) “sovereign is he who decides on the state of the exception.” What Schmitt meant in using the word “exception” is that in a specific historical timeframe a sovereign can suspend law in the context of a declared state of emergency. […]

Displaced and Refugees

Lindsey “Dr. Strangelove” Graham, Critic of Putin’s Atrocities, Urges Nuking of Gaza’s Civilians

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina let his inner genocidal maniac loose on Sunday, defending Israel’s total war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and he appeared to urge the nuking of Gaza. He said on NBC, “When we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the […]