US politics

By By Lizet Ocampo | – Children are suffering and dying. Enough is enough. By Lizet Ocampo | July 3, 2019 Over the past several weeks, the brutal terror that immigrants face at the hands of our government has come into even sharper focus. As reports surface about immigrant children sleeping on concrete floors and […]

Immigration

American Concentration Camps, Then and Now

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Harry Blain | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – When human beings are framed as a national security threat, barbed wire is the next logical step. But unlike during the Japanese internment, today there’s high-level political resistance. By Harry Blain, July 1, 2019. Print A Japanese-American internment camp in Colorado (Shutterstock) In our […]

Bill of Rights

Your Fourth of July and My Fourth of July (in the Age of Trump)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised for the the Age of Trump: Your Fourth of July is tanks in the streets. My Fourth of July is James Madison’s warning, “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.” Your Fourth of July is unbathed refugee […]

Immigration

Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes

ProPublica

By A.C. Thompson | – (ProPublica) – The three-year-old group, which has roughly 9,500 members, shared derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers who plan to visit a controversial Texas detention facility on Monday, calling them “scum buckets” and “hoes.” Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths […]

Iran

Iranian Aggression? Or American? Even Great US News Outlets can’t Escape Jingoism

Tom Engelhardt

Tomdispatch.com) – Headlined “U.S. Seeks Other Ways to Stop Iran Shy of War,” the article was tucked away on page A9 of a recent New York Times. Still, it caught my attention. Here’s the first paragraph: “American intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to counter Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf, […]

Donald Trump

On Iran, It’s Trump vs. Trump

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – What would it take to talk Trump out of war with Iran? A good, ripping yarn about peace — with a starring role for himself. The ongoing conflict with Iran showcases all the reasons why Donald Trump remains a hit with his base. First of all, the guy tells a […]

Donald Trump

No, Iranian President Rouhani didn’t Call Trump “mentally Retarded”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The New York Times and other Western news outlets reported on a speech of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani that expressed frustration with the US government in general and President Trump in particular, alleging that he called Trump “retarded.” There has been a long history of mistranslation from Persian in US […]

Donald Trump

The U.S. Isn’t Winning Any Popularity Contests Among Arabs

contributors

By Lawrence Pintak | – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman may consider U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a “dear friend,” but it turns out the U.S. isn’t winning any popularity contests outside the royal palace. Pompeo is in the region to meet with what he described as America’s “great allies,” Saudi Arabia and the UAE, […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Dismantling of our Government: Deregulating our Way to Disaster

John Buell

(Informed Comment) – While Trump’s xenophobic and protectionist agenda, thankfully often blocked by the courts, has received the lion’s share of media attention, his henchmen have enacted a whole series of game changing initiatives in the area of federal regulation. Deregulating such domestic concerns as transportation, occupational health and safety, the environment is hardly new. […]