US politics

( Tomdispatch.com) – As of December 8, 2022, Guantánamo Bay detention facility — a prison offshore of American justice and built for those detained in this country’s never-ending Global War on Terror — has been open for nearly 21 years (or, to be precise, 7,627 days). Thirteen years ago, I published a book, The Least […]

Corporations

Congress Has No Business Shoveling Another $847 Billion Into the Military Industrial Complex

OtherWords

By Lindsay Koshgarian | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Can you imagine the audacity to fail a multi-trillion dollar audit of public funds, and then ask for even more of those taxpayer dollars? Pentagon leaders just did exactly that. This month news broke that the agency once again failed to pass a basic audit showing […]

Displaced and Refugees

Unequal Mercy: The West’s Approach to Refugees

Tomdispatch

By Helen Benedict | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Almost anyone would agree that war is horrifying and peaceful countries should do their best to help its victims. The widespread eagerness to welcome fleeing Ukrainians after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded their country last February is a heartening example of such aid. But behind that altruism lies […]

Africa

What Climate Debt Does the North Owe the South?

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Richer countries haven’t met their $100 billion promise to help poorer countries move beyond fossil fuels. Where’s the money going to come from? By John Feffer | November 30, 2022 To keep the planet from overheating, there’s just so much more carbon that humans can pump into the […]

Far Right

Oath Keepers Convictions shed Light on the Limits of free Speech – and the Threat posed by Militias

The Conversation

By Amy Cooter, Middlebury Institute of International Studies | – The verdicts in a high-profile, monthslong trial of Oath Keepers militia members were, as one defense lawyer acknowledged, “a mixed bag.” Leader Stewart Rhodes was found guilty on Nov. 29, 2022, of the most serious charge – seditious conspiracy – for his role in the […]

Constitution

It isn’t Enough that Oath Keepers were Convicted of Seditious Conspiracy: Trump must be, Too

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ryan Lucas and Carrie Johnson at NPR report that on Tuesday, a jury convicted five leaders of the fascist Oath Keepers militia of “obstructing an official proceeding” by being involved in the invasion of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to keep Congress from certifying the election […]

Donald Trump

The MAGAfication of America: The White Nationalist Coup isn’t Over

Tomdispatch

By Clarence Lusane | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Just in case you didn’t notice, authoritarianism was on the ballot in the 2022 midterm elections. An unprecedented majority of candidates from one of the nation’s two major political parties were committed to undemocratic policies and outcomes. You would have to go back to the Democratic Party-dominated […]

China

A Letter to President Joe Biden: About that pledge you Made of “Diplomacy First”

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – Dear Joe, Remember the mid-March snowball fight with some boys in our 8th grade class at St Helena’s School in Wilmington, Delaware? The snow was wet and made for hard, icy snowballs, so I hid my young sister Monica behind a parked car. You joined me against the […]

Featured

Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims were saved by Native Advice; We should listen to Deb Haaland and other Native Leaders on the Climate Crisis

Juan Cole

Revised. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The popular story about Thanksgiving is an environmental parable that we would do well to remember today. It was a harvest festival in 1621, participated in by the 50 (out of 100) survivors at Plymouth Plantation and 90 members of the Wampanoag tribal confederation. A Patuxet, Tisquantum (known as […]