Donald Trump

Why does he Hate our Freedoms? White Nationalist Extremist Tucker Carlson touts Orban’s Hungarian Fascism as better than America

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Extreme white nationalist Tucker Carlson took his Fox Cable “News” show on the road to extreme white nationalist Hungary this week. It reminded me a little of when Stephen Colbert went to New Zealand and hung out with Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, except that both Colbert and Arden are very […]

Authoritarianism

1/6 Committee: Can a Pinochet-Style Chilean Dictatorship be Forestalled in the United States?

Jill Richardson

( Otherwords.org) – If you believe violence instead of voting is justified, I implore you to at least consider the alternative viewpoint. By Jill Richardson | July 28, 2021 As the congressional investigation into the January 6 insurrection gets underway, we’re learning disturbing new details about Trump supporters’ violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election. […]

Authoritarianism

Tunisia’s President just made the kind of Coup Trump and US Republicans plotted (and are plotting) Against President Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera reports that Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the prime minister, prorogued parliament for 30 days, stripped parliamentarians of their immunity and appointed himself the country’s attorney general in what the opposition branded a coup. Opposition leaders pointed out that the Tunisian constitution does not grant the president the […]

Corruption

Trump Associate Indicted for being Agent for Emirates, Covertly Shaping US Mideast Policy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Donald Trump as president dumped the Paris Climate Accord, withdrew from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, endorsed the 2017 blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and pushed for declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood had been part of the 2011 uprisings against […]

Donald Trump

Did Netanyahu Try to get Trump to Wag the Dog with Strike on Iran after Biden Won?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Susan B. Glasser reports at The New Yorker that after it became clear that Joe Biden had won the presidency, from November 7, lame duck Donald Trump desperately wanted to hold on to his office and contemplated a strike on Iran to bolster his position. Glasser writes that “the subject […]

Authoritarianism

Shaken by Trump’s ‘Fuhrer Moment,’ Gen. Milley had to Blockade Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day ‘to Keep the Nazis out’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb, Marshall Cohen, Elizabeth Stuart and Barbara Starr at CNN reported the juicy tidbits from the forthcoming book of Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year. The protagonist of the story as told is Gen. Mark Milley, chairman […]

Authoritarianism

South Africa ‘Ungovernable’ after a former President was Jailed; Do Trump and Trumpism pose a similar danger to U.S.?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – After former South African President Jacob Zuma went to jail over corruption and contempt of court charges last week, his followers began a concerted attempt to disrupt the country. His lieutenants had threatened to make the country ungovernable if he was sent to jail, according to the BBC. Zuma refused […]

Donald Trump

As CPAC Tinfoil Hat Crowd Decries Vaccines, Delta Variant ‘Velociraptor’ Menaces US Red States with India-Style Wave

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-II is to the original vanilla COVID-19 strain as velociraptors were to gentle plant-eating sauropods. And it is coming for America. What is worse, the Republican Party and its media arms such as Fox, Newsmax and OAN, are playing the wicked witch to GOP voters’ Hansel […]

Authoritarianism

The Ugly Truth: The Republican Party is trying to Outlaw Democracy

Jim Hightower

( Otherwords.org ) – Ralph Waldo Emerson told of a dinner guest who went on and on about the virtue of honesty, offering his own life as a model of perfect rectitude. “The louder he talked of his honor,” said Emerson, “the faster we counted our spoons.” That’s my reaction to the cacophony of phony […]