Donald Trump

Berkeley, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – On February 4, the Republican National Committee voted to censure two party members. The charge was that investigating the January 6 attack on Congress is, “persecuting individuals engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with the attack.” RNC thereby asserts that only the rioters are […]

Authoritarianism

The Terrifying World of 2025: The Coming MAGA Cultural Revolution?

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – I’ve just wrapped up my shift at BurgerBoy and I don’t have much time before the weekly self-criticism session at town hall. This hour with my diary is precious, especially when I have to make a big decision. Writing used to be my job, but it’s so much more difficult after […]

Authoritarianism

Why isn’t US Media Screaming that the Republican Party Is Now Openly Against Democracy?

Peter Certo

( Otherwords.org ) – If you’re the sort of person who follows the news, you’ve probably heard a good bit lately about podcaster Joe Rogan, Neil Young’s fight with Spotify, and maybe a little about Russia and Ukraine. All that’s good grist for the mill. But did you also hear former President Trump admit that […]

Donald Trump

Race, Religion and Whoopi Goldberg: Her Mistake on Judaism Pales before that of Trump

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – It’s time to stop flogging Whoopi Goldberg, and re-examine the semantics of Judaism as a race or religion. She is NOT anti-Semitic. She said something reckless, but her mistake was not explaining herself well, on a complex topic that most people are ill-informed about to begin with. On […]

Authoritarianism

Beer Hall Putsch 2.0: Republican Nat’l Committee Channels their inner Hitler in defending Capitol Insurrectionists

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Republican National Committee’s censure of Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) slammed the two for “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” and of “utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes.” The […]

Donald Trump

America’s Two Pandemics: And How They Mixed and Matched

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Imagine that you were experiencing all of this (and by this, I mean our lives right now) as if it were a novel, à la Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. The famed author of Robinson Crusoe — Defoe claimed it had been written by the fictional Crusoe himself […]

Donald Trump

How Trump appeased Putin and Endangered Peace in Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I don’t approve of all the loud saber-rattling in Washington on Russia. For reasons I’ll explain below, I nevertheless don’t think Russia has a right to nibble at Ukrainian territory. Although I think Washington over-uses sanctions and in a broad-stroke way that inflicts a lot of harm on innocents, carefully […]

Authoritarianism

Have Sinema and Manchin Tolled the death Knell of Free and Fair Elections for a Decade?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, CA (Special to Informed Comment) – In this Brave New World of evolving lexicons, “gerrymandering,” a dirty word to begin with; has become a euphemism for “vote-rigging.” Lessons learned in high school Civics classes about the electoral and re-districting processes are now quaintly outdated, as Republican-dominated state houses do all they can to ensure […]

Donald Trump

Biden’s First Year vs. Trump’s First Year: Are you Friggin’ Kidding me with this “Failed Presidency” Idiocy?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Republican outlets like Politico and Fox and the Wall Street Journal (the latter two echo chambers for reactionary Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch) have been asking whether Biden’s is a failed presidency. The stupid gives me vertigo. After the lunacy Trump put the country through, even if Biden had had fewer […]