US politics

South Carolina removes the Physical Flag: Can it remove the Spiritual Illness of Racial Discrimination?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The South Carolina legislature has voted to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the statehouse. It was put there in 1961 as a show of defiance against the Civil Rights movement, i.e. against the demand that the system of legally-imposed segregation of African-Americans cease. […]

Democratic Party

The Rear-View Mirror on Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Bus (Political Cartoon)

contributors

James MacLeod | (Political Cartoon) Via MacLeod Cartoons

Foreign Policy

The Confederate Flag flew in Iraq as Symbol of Empire and Militarism (“Valor”)

contributors

By Greg Grandin | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – The Pentagon just can’t let go. In the wake of the Charleston Massacre, Amazon and Walmart have announced that they will no longer sell Confederate flag merchandise. Ebay says it will stop offering Confederate items for electronic auction. Mississippi’s Republican speaker of the house calls his state […]

Latinos

Donald Trump Tries To Backpedal But Can’t Stop Saying Racist Things

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video) | — “Donald Trump continues putting his foot in his mouth, Trump retweeted something he probably regrets and made hideous comments about Univision. When Trump was asked by Fox & Friends whether or not his brand has been damaged he gave a surprisingly honest answer. Cenk Uygur, host […]

Barack Obama

Ghosts of King George III: Top 5 Things that threaten American Independence Today

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The things that irked the residents of the Thirteen Colonies about British rule have reemerged from other quarters to threaten American democracy. The colonists minded being ruled arbitrarily by British-appointed officials, some of them corrupt. They minded not being represented in parliament even though that body […]

Civil Rights

Your Fourth of July and My Fourth of July

Juan Cole

Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised for the 2010s: Your Fourth of July is invasions and wars. My Fourth of July is the pure sunbeam of peace. Yours is the Confederate flag and nostalgia for the hierarchies of slavery. Mine is ‘all men are created equal.’ Yours is kowtowing to billionaires in […]

Civil Rights

Donald Trump, Dumpee: Forgetting to use the GOP racial dog-whistle is an Expensive Mistake

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump is seeing short-term gains from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, but his recent behavior will have a fatal impact on his presidential ambitious. Republican candidates who wanted to play to the “angry white men” were in the past slightly more subtle. […]

Drone Warfare

The Ghost of Soviet Collapse haunts the West: Military Hegemony isn’t what it Used to Be

contributors

By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – The rise and fall of great powers and their imperial domains has been a central fact of history for centuries. It’s been a sensible, repeatedly validated framework for thinking about the fate of the planet. So it’s hardly surprising, when faced with a country once regularly labeled […]

African-Americans

Bernie Sanders’ 10,000-person crowd in Madison biggest of any Candidate so Far

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Democratic Party’s left wing is fed up and isn’t going to take it any more. Americans in opinion polling overwhelmingly favor the positions of Bernie Sanders on most political and social issues. But gerrymandering, big money in politics, and voter suppression have produced presidents who […]