US politics

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, […]

Donald Trump

Auditor says Trump admin. knew ‘zero-tolerance’ would separate children from parents at border

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Ryan Knappenberger | – ( Cronkite News) – WASHINGTON – Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions knew the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy would separate families at the border but moved ahead with it anyway, a Justice Department official told lawmakers this week. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told the House Oversight and Reform Committee […]

Democracy

America’s Transition Away from Democracy and the World’s Wave of De-Democratization

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The twentieth century was in the eyes of some observers an uneven but steady march to democracy. Those who study transitions from authoritarian governments to democracy have defined a successful transition as characterized by two elections in a row, where all parties agree on the rules of the game, and […]

Nonviolence

America after Trump must Confront MLK’s ‘Giant Triplets of Racism, Extreme Materialism, and Militarism’

Andrew J. Bacevich

By Andrew Bacevich | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – When Martin Luther King preached his famous sermon “Beyond Vietnam” at Riverside Church in New York City in April 1967, I don’t recall giving his words a second thought. Although at the time I was just up the Hudson River attending West Point, his call for a […]

Featured

Top 5 Reasons for Biden to snub Israel’s Netanyahu, whom he still hasn’t Called

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, impatiently tweeted a list of all the foreign leaders that President Joe Biden has already called in his one month in office, and suggesting it was time he called Binyamin Netanyahu. Biden is close to the Israel lobbies and had been […]