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Archives for June 2020

African-Americans
On Juneteenth:  That Time Muslim Tunisia Pleaded with Antebellum US to Abolish Slavery

On Juneteenth: That Time Muslim Tunisia Pleaded with Antebellum US to Abolish Slavery

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor| (Informed Comment) | – – Back in 2017, then Trump chief of staff John Kelly created a controversy with an argument from historical relativism, defending the honoring of Confederate figures. I addressed his glib argument, and reprise it here in honor of Juneteenth. Juneteenth.com explains the origins of today’s commemoration of the end […]

Donald Trump
Supreme Court ruling on Dreamers sends a clear message to the White House: You have to tell the truth

Supreme Court ruling on Dreamers sends a clear message to the White House: You have to tell the truth

The Conversation

By Morgan Marietta | – When it came down to it, the fate of 700,000 immigrants brought to U.S. as children hung on a simple question: Does the White House have to tell the whole truth in justifying its move to deport them? On June 18, the Supreme Court said “yes.” In a 5-to-4 decision […]

Donald Trump
The World isn’t Flat After All, But Trump’s America is.  Very Flat.

The World isn’t Flat After All, But Trump’s America is. Very Flat.

Tom Engelhardt

(Tomdispatch.com) – Let me rant for a moment. I don’t do it often, maybe ever. I’m not Donald Trump. Though I’m only two years older than him, I don’t even know how to tweet and that tells you everything you really need to know about Tom Engelhardt in a world clearly passing me by. Still, […]

Donald Trump
Will Trump Follow through?  US Congress’ ‘Caesar Act’ Sanctions Russian, Syrian, Iranian Officials over Torture, War Crimes

Will Trump Follow through? US Congress’ ‘Caesar Act’ Sanctions Russian, Syrian, Iranian Officials over Torture, War Crimes

Lauren Lewis

( Middle East Monitor) – On this day, 17 June 2020, America’s Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act of 2019 (also known as the Caesar Act) takes effect. The act, which was passed by the US Senate in December 2019, requires the US President to impose sanctions on members and allies of the Syrian regime, including […]

China
Trump's China Shell Game: Bashes Biden on Beijing but asks Xi for reelection Help

Trump’s China Shell Game: Bashes Biden on Beijing but asks Xi for reelection Help

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration has been running ads against Joe Biden accusing him of being soft on Beijing. And the Biden campaign has been depicting Trump as a patsy for praising Chinese President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Both are betting that the US public is increasingly hostile to […]

Iran
Washington's 'Maximum Pressure' seeks Regime Change in Iran, but such changes Have usually been disasters for US Interests

Washington’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ seeks Regime Change in Iran, but such changes Have usually been disasters for US Interests

David Belt

Washington, D.C. (Special to Informed Comment) – The United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the unanimous UNSCR 2231—the “Iran nuclear deal” -— along with the enactment of an unprecedented “maximum pressure” sanctions regime on the Islamic Republic of Iran has amounted to a strategic-level strike on the economy of this country of 80 million. The goal […]

African-Americans
No, Racial Justice Protesters aren’t ‘Maoists’; Conservatives just aren’t Comfortable with Black Lives Matter

No, Racial Justice Protesters aren’t ‘Maoists’; Conservatives just aren’t Comfortable with Black Lives Matter

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In their effort to transform their discomfort with the current #BlackLivesMatter protests into a superficially sophisticated critique, right-wing “intellectuals” in the United States and Europe have latched onto a dubious historical analogy. When former congressman Newt Gingrich, the National Review’s David Harsanyi, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, and other right-wingers […]

prison reform
Being convicted of a crime has thousands of consequences besides incarceration – and some last a lifetime

Being convicted of a crime has thousands of consequences besides incarceration – and some last a lifetime

The Conversation

By Cynthia A. Golembeski | – At least 77 million U.S. adults have criminal records, including nearly 7 million currently in prison or jail or on probation or parole. Typically, more than 10,000 of the incarcerated leave prison and nearly 200,000 churn through jails every week. But because more than 64,000 inmates and workers have […]

Donald Trump
"Trump Heights": Illegal New Israeli Squatter Settlement on Occupied Syrian Golan Approved

“Trump Heights”: Illegal New Israeli Squatter Settlement on Occupied Syrian Golan Approved

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s government has formally greenlighted a new squatter settlement on the Syrian Golan Heights, to be named for US president Donald J. Trump. Israel has has militarily occupied much of the Golan Heights since 1967 and which it has illegally stolen from Syria. The United Nations Charter, to which Israel […]

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