US politics

By Vahid Yücesoy | – The two major events that have shaken Iran in recent weeks have also had major internal repercussions. The assassination of Qassem Soleimani by an American drone lit the fuse, sending shock waves around the world and increasing the risk of an escalation of armed conflict between Iran and the United […]

Donald Trump

Tens of Thousands of Iraqis mass in Baghdad to Demand Expulsion of US Troops, Hang Trump in Effigy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tens of thousands of Iraqis massed in the Jadriya district of Baghdad on Friday to demand that U.S. troops leave Iraq. Mostly religious Shiites, some of whom came from the south of the country, they were responding to a call for demonstrations by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and by heads […]

Constitution

Chief Justice Roberts is Forced to Preside over an Impeachment that his Ruinous “Citizens United” Ruling Helped Foster

Tiffany Muller

(Inequality.org) – In the decade since this disastrous Supreme Court ruling, just 11 wealthy people have made 20 percent of super PAC donations. Ten years ago this week, the Supreme Court released its disastrous 2010 Citizens United decision. The court, either through remarkable naivety or sheer malevolence, essentially married two terrible ideas: that “money equals […]

Donald Trump

American Apocalypse: The Rapture of a U.S. Foreign Policy Off the Rails

Danny Sjursen

By Danny Sjursen | – (Tomdispatch.com) – In March 1906, on the heels of the U.S. Army’s massacre of some 1,000 men, women, and children in the crater of a volcano in the American-occupied Philippines, humorist Mark Twain took his criticism public. A long-time anti-imperialist, he flippantly suggested that Old Glory should be redesigned “with […]

Donald Trump

Back to 1924: Trump mulls adding Pure anti-African Racism to Visa ban, in Addition to anti-Muslim Hate

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Nicole Narea at Vox reports that Trump is considering adding some of Africa’s most important countries to his visa ban, in a transparent attempt to reduce African immigration to the United States. What is it about Africans, you might wonder that bothers Trump? Yomi Kazeem at Quartz adds that Trump […]

Donald Trump

Corporate Media Blackout: Americans need to Hear from Iranians about Life Under Sanctions and Trump’s Attack

Foreign Policy in Focus

Here are a few illuminating and emotionally resonant pieces by real Iranians on life under sanctions, the brutality of war, and the recent crisis.

Corporate Surveillance

Did Saudi prince Bin Salman personally Hack Jeff Bezos’s Phone, Vacuuming up Secrets? What about Jared Kushner?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update 1/25/20: Subsequent reporting at WSJ and elsewhere has raised questions about how solid the conclusions were, of the cyber-security firm hired by Jeff Bezos, that pointed with certainty to a hack coming from the cell phone of Mohammed Bin Salman. We’ve long known that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s phone […]

Pentagon

Why the Pentagon never Wins Wars any More but Needs Bigger and Bigger nearly trillion-dollar Budgets

Tomdispatch

By Mandy Smithberger | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Call it a colossal victory for a Pentagon that hasn’t won a war in this century, but not for the rest of us. Congress only recently passed and the president approved one of the largest Pentagon budgets ever. It will surpass spending at the peaks of both the […]

Congress

US Public on Trump: Throw the Bum Out, He’s a Failure on Iran, Health Care

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new CNN poll done in mid-January (and reported by Jennifer Agiesta) finds that 51 percent of Americans favor the conviction and removal of Donald J. Trump as president. Only 45 percent disagree. 53 percent of Americans think he does a rotten job as a president. As George Conway pointed […]