Donald Trump

No, Trump’s Arrest won’t be Unprecedented for an Executive Officer: Former Vice President Aaron Burr was Arrested and Tried

Revised. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States does not have much of a history of holding its high office-holders to account. No former president or vice president has been convicted of crimes committed while in office. It is not true, however, as some commentators are now implying, that it is unprecedented for a […]

Donald Trump

Trump and the Triviality of Evil

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A New York Grand Jury empaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted the former president, Donald John Trump. So report Ilya Marritz, Andrea Bernstein, Bill Chappell and Vanessa Romo at NPR. I gave all three of Trump’s names because that is usually how felons are referred to in […]

Donald Trump

Can a Republican Politician Succeed at being MAGA-Lite? Nikki Haley’s Dilemma

Tomdispatch

By Clarence Lusane | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In 2015, according to the talking points being floated by former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and her team, she alone heroically removed the Confederate flag that flew on the grounds of the state capitol and so healed racial wounds. She implied […]

Corruption

Corruption: Supreme Court Justices party at $25,000-a-head Soirees with Corporations that have cases before the Court

OtherWords

By Jim Hightower | – ( Otherwords.org) – As many of its own members privately admit, Congress has become a pay-to-play lawmaking casino — closed to commoners, but offering full-service access to corporate powers. But there’s another government entity that’s even more aloof from workaday people: the Supreme Court. And it has become a handmaiden […]

Donald Trump

The Real Failure of January 6th: How America’s Insurrectionists Crossed the Rubicon of History

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Americans tuning into the television news on January 8th eyed a disturbingly recognizable scene. In an “eerily familiar” moment of “déjà vu,” just two years and two days after the January 6th Capitol insurrection in Washington, D.C., a mob of thousands stormed government buildings in the capital city of another country […]

Donald Trump

Is Israel’s Netanyahu even worse than Trump?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – The parallel trajectories of far-far right politicians accruing more power in the US and Israel is striking. Elements include similar motivations, policy actors, agenda and attempts to subvert democracy. But the dynamics differ with the roles of the two nations’ judicial systems. Far-far right wingers in Israel feel […]

Constitution

Hollow Men: The Blowhards of Jan. 6 were Yellow-Bellied Cowards

Juan Cole

Reprinted in commemoration of Brian Sicknick and other victims of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The damning Jan. 6 public hearings revealed a plethora of historical detail, but they also shed light on character. Some of these revelations were profiles in pusillanimity. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the slimiest […]

Corruption

The Republican Sleight-of-Hand: McCarthy Failed on his first Try because He is George Santos

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Republican Party failed to elect a Speaker of the House on Tuesday. The ostensible reason is that 20 of the fascist so-called “Freedom Caucus” representatives voted against him. Six voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the biggest liar in politics since Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise […]

Christianity

A Pastor Comes to Terms with the Church’s Idols of Trump, Money and Power

Minnesota Reformer

By Rev. Angela Denker | – Book excerpt: A pastor comes to terms with the Church’s idols of Trump, money and power Red State Christians: A Journey into White Christian Nationalism and the Wreckage it leaves behind,” available everywhere books are sold. ( Minnesota Reformer ) – On Sunday, January 10, 2021, I woke up […]