US politics

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made it abundantly clear in the hearing on Thursday that he cares more about Republican Party control of the Supreme Court than about rape victims. He implied that the charges of sexual assault that have surfaced against Brett Kavanaugh are a Democratic Party plot to deny Trump a Supreme Court justice. […]

National Security State

How the Neocons’ ‘New American Century’ Crashed and Burned

Tom Engelhardt

(Tomdispatch.com) – When you think about it, Earth is a relatively modest-sized planet — about 25,000 miles in circumference at the Equator, with a total surface area of 197 million square miles, almost three-quarters of which is water. It’s not so hard, if you’re in a certain frame of mind (as American officials were after […]

crime

18% of Teen Girls are Sexually Assaulted but Few Report it; Can Education Help?

The Conversation

By David Finkelhor and Ateret Gewirtz-Meydan | – Christine Blasey Ford’s account of allegedly being sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers is provoking both informed and uninformed comment from politicians. Still more private conversations about the subject are happening in homes and offices around the country. There is a […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Remarks on Kavanaugh ‘Con Job’ and Top 4 other Policy Lies that should be Disqualifying

Juan Cole

I plowed through the disturbed ramblings of Trump’s ‘very big brain’ for all the myriads of falsehoods that came out of his mouth Wednesday. Trump poisoned the well of the Kavanaugh hearings by openly doubting the women accusers of his supreme court nominee (before hearing Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony today) and by dismissing the groundswell […]

Rape

But He Doesn’t Look Like a Rapist

Gail Ukockis

(Informed Comment) – The uproar over Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged attack of a 15-year-old has resulted in many irrational reactions, which even included a bizarre conspiracy theory created (and later retracted) by a respected lawyer. When considering the picture of Kavanaugh, I had to wonder if the allegation would have stirred up as many heated denials […]

Pentagon

Trump’s Space Farce

William D. Hartung

(Tomdispatch.com) – Like many in my generation, undoubtedly including Donald Trump, I went into space early (and I’m not even counting all those hours in my early teens I spent reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy or H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds by flashlight under the covers while supposedly asleep). I’m thinking of 1966 and […]

Donald Trump

The US Media Should Learn from UN Audience, and Treat Trump as a Pathetic Joke

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US media, as I predicted, has gone a long way toward normalizing Trump. Despite counts of his over 5,000 ridiculous lies that show a vast increase over time, CNN, MSNBC and other news outlets respectfully report on him as though he really were a president who really did have […]

Crime

A Fourth Woman has contacted Montgomery County with Kavanaugh Rape Allegations

Juan Cole

The local newspaper in Montgomery County, Maryland, is reporting that investigators there are aware of a fourth accuser (counting attorney Michael Avenatti’s anonymous one). The Sentinel writes: “Government investigators confirmed Monday they’re aware of a potential second sexual assault complaint in the county against former Georgetown Prep student and Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh. While investigators […]

Immigration

Is the Trump Administration Drugging the 13,000 Detained Immigrant Children?

The Conversation

Pharmaceutical Violence as Chemical Straitjacket