US politics

The GOP Clown Car Crashes and Burns, but Nikki Haley didn’t get the Message, calls for Warnock to be “Deported”

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump era brought to the fore in the Republican Party an assortment of Nazi militiamen, internet trolls masquerading as public servants, and celebrity grifters looking for a big payout from politics. Most of the Clown Car Trumpies went down to ignominious defeat in Tuesday’s elections. Former South Carolina governor […]

Reproductive Choice

In first nationwide Election since Roe was Overturned, Voters opt to protect Abortion Access

The Conversation

By Linda C. McClain, Boston University and Nicole Huberfeld, Boston University | – The first major election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade saw abortion rights on the ballot in a record number of states. The outcomes of these initiatives suggest that when Kansas voters in August 2022 rejected a proposed constitutional amendment […]

Democratic Party

Biden Holds Red Wave to a Ripple, as Trump Loses Big Time in Midterms

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Over the past 40 years, midterm elections have typically been quiet affairs in which only 38% to 40% of voters show up at the polls, and those who vote skew toward the older, wealthier and whiter spectrum of the electorate. In contrast, in presidential election years, the turnout tends to […]

Authoritarianism

Politics and pulpits: Christians and Republicans team up to watch the Polls Tuesday

Minnesota Reformer

By Deena Winter | – The Minnesota Reformer BUFFALO — A flag hanging from a telephone pole marked the turnoff to the Land of Promise. It was unseasonably warm for late October, but three dozen Minnesotans chose to spend their Saturday here, at a church on the north side of Beebe Lake. Inside a building, […]

Donald Trump

Why is the Major Israel Lobby supporting over 100 Antisemitic Racists, Climate Deniers and election Denialists for Congress?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – AIPAC and Jewish Republicans are a puzzlement. They are financially supporting over 100 racists, climate deniers and election deniers running for Congress, because they express unqualified support for Israel’s occupation, expansionist settlements and denial of Palestinian human rights. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the […]

Democracy

The Economy Looms Large in the Midterms, but Abortion, Ukraine and the State of Democracy are also Key Voter Issues

The Conversation

By Stella Rouse, University of Maryland and Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland | – The 2022 midterm elections, perhaps more than most in recent American history, present voters with a multitude of pressing issues to consider as they prepare to vote. These issues range from abortion to rising inflation, energy costs to the state of […]

Agriculture

The Saudis depleted their Own Aquifers: now they’re emptying Arizona’s and Getting Sweetheart Deals to do So

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ella Nilsen at CNN has done an excellent deep dive on the shrinking aquifers of the Southwest and how Arizona has allowed a Saudi and a United Arab Emirates company to establish water-hog farms to grow crops to be shipped back to the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is a country […]

Authoritarianism

The MAGA Golden Calf: The Christian Right’s dangerous Flirtation with Political Violence and Far-Right Extremism

Matthijs Kronemeijer

By Matthijs Kronemeijer | – Toronto (Special to Informed Comment) – The November edition of First Things, a magazine of the Christian Right, features a lengthy statement from a group of theologians called Evangelicals and Catholics Together. The church friend who spontaneously sent me a link indicated that the statement is about Christian citizenship and […]

Conspiracy Theories

The Courts have been the Last Bastion of Sanity in Polarized America, but what if they Go MAGA too?

Tomdispatch

By Andy Kroll | – ( Tomdispatch.cm ) – For about a week in the summer of 2018, I caught an early-morning train from Washington, D.C., to the Albert V. Bryan federal courthouse in the suburb of Alexandria. Located a short drive from George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, that courthouse serves the Eastern District […]