US politics

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Late last month, President Biden signed a bill that clears the way for $858 billion in Pentagon spending and nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy in 2023. That’s far more than Washington anted up for military purposes at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars or even during […]

African-Americans

On MLK Day, Let’s Learn the Right Lessons from History

OtherWords

By Svante Myrick | – ( Otherwords.org) Every year, the arrival of the Martin Luther King holiday calls us to pause and reflect on Dr. King’s legacy. And every year, I’m struck by the same thing: as sincere as we are in our reverence for Dr. King, we keep learning the wrong lessons not just […]

African-Americans

J. Edgar Hoover was the QAnon of his Era, and Martin Luther King Jr. was the Victim of his Dirty Tricks

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ours is an age beset by conspiracy theories, with the fascist QAnon cult at the center of much public lunacy. These completely implausible ideas, apparently taken seriously by millions of people, have been enabled by the internet, by social media, and by the rise of a new, militant billionaire class […]

Pentagon

Why does the Pentagon Budget Really Keep Growing? When Democracies Pursue Imperial Dominance it doesn’t End Well

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine this scenario for a moment: a “great power” watches another major power fight a war in a nearby nation for 10 years before its army limps home defeated and, not so very long after, that country implodes. A little over a decade later, by then unofficially the “last superpower” on planet […]

Corruption

Will Birtherism come back to bite Republicans in the Behind? On top of all his other Lies, is George Santos even a US Citizen?

Michael G. Roskin

Nashville (Special to Informed Comment) – Suspicions grow that not only did new Congressman George Santos (R-NY) fabricate his educational and employment record but that he fabricated a marriage in order to get a permanent residency permit (“green card”). Let us, as the intel people say, “walk the cat backwards” — ask a series of […]

Apartheid

Criticizing Israel: Letter to the President of Harvard University regarding Kenneth Roth

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | Lawrence S. Bacow President, Harvard University president@harvard.edu Dear President Bacow: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about the July 2022 decision […]

Food Security

The Pentagon’s Hunger Games

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – By any standard, the money the United States government pours into its military is simply overwhelming. Take the $858-billion defense spending authorization that President Biden signed into law last month. Not only did that bill pass in an otherwise riven Senate by a bipartisan majority of 83-11, but this year’s budget […]

US Foreign Policy

Why American Exceptionalism can be a Very Bad Thing

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Let me start with a confession: I no longer read all the way through newspaper stories about the war in Ukraine. After years of writing about war and torture, I’ve reached my limit. These days, I just can’t pore through the details of the ongoing nightmare there. It’s shameful, but I […]

Christianity

Christian Nationalism is downplayed in the Jan. 6 report and Collective Memory

The Conversation

By Joyce Dalsheim, University of North Carolina – Charlotte; and Gregory Starret, University of North Carolina – Charlotte | – (The Conversation) – When they entered the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, a group of insurgents stopped and bowed their heads in prayer to consecrate the building and their cause to Jesus. When the […]