US politics

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The ancient Greek philosopher Bion of Borysthenes said that boys throw stones at frogs in jest, but the frogs die in earnest. The United States government hasn’t placed sanctions on Afghanistan as a joke, but it certainly has done so in a blunt way, and Afghans are on the verge […]

Donald Trump

Jan. 6 Coup attempt became Republican Road Map: Whether democracy survives is up to us

John Feffer

( Otherwords.org ) – The defeat of Donald Trump in 2020 was supposed to put an end to America’s delusional national politics. The quashing of the January 6 insurrection — and the brief, near-unanimous revulsion among members of Trump’s party for that violence — provided some hope that the fever dream had passed. But the […]

African-Americans

Sidney Poitier – Hollywood’s first Black leading man reflected the civil rights movement on screen

The Conversation

By Aram Goudsouzian | – In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary convention banquet of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their guest, he said, was his “soul brother.” “He has carved for himself an imperishable niche in the annals of our nation’s history,” King told the […]

Donald Trump

Capitol assault: the real reason Trump and the crowd almost killed US democracy

The Conversation

By Stephen Reicher, Alex Haslam, Evangelos Ntontis, and Klara Jurstakova | – It was the moment that could have brought US democracy to its knees. One year ago, around noon on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump gave the concluding speech to a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington DC. Within an hour, protesters attacked and […]

Authoritarianism

Dick Cheney says he doesn’t Recognize current GOP, but he Helped pave way for Insurrection

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Vice President Dick Cheney accompanied his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), to the Capitol on Thursday to join the moment of silence in commemoration of the Jan. 6 insurrection. They were the only Republicans to attend. The elder Cheney was quoted as saying of the Republican House leadership, “It’s […]

Antisemitism

The Capitol Insurrectionists came for America with Bibles, Guns and a Messianic Trumpism

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – At Christian Nationalist conferences , “ . . . resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance to God,” according to New York Times writer Katherine Stewart. That accounts for the heavy presence of Christian symbols, crosses and Bibles, AND guns carried by rioters during the January 6 […]

Authoritarianism

How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert

The Conversation

By Ken Hughes | – Now that a full year has passed since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, the 2020 election and the republic, it’s evident that the attack never really ended. Instead, it spread out to other, less visible, more vulnerable targets. Donald Trump had hoped to reverse his election loss […]

Epidemics

Is America a Nation Coming Apart?

Tom Engelhardt

By Tom Engelhardt | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Let me start 2022 by heading back — way, way back — for a moment. It’s easy to forget just how long this world has been a dangerous place for human beings. I thought about this recently when I stumbled upon a little memoir my Aunt Hilda […]

Authoritarianism

In 1953, the Republican Party overthrew the Iranian Government; on 1/6/21 it used the Same Techniques against the elected President

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On January 6, 2021, Trump attempted to make a coup and remain in power despite losing the election to Joe Biden. Although many American pundits speak of Trump’s action as unprecedented, actually the Washington elite has a long history of making or backing coups d’etat in other countries. One of […]