Authoritarianism

By Benjamin Ward | (Human Rights Watch) | – – Jailed Human Rights Defenders Could Face up to 15 Years in Prison If it were a television script, any sensible producer would reject it as too far-fetched. Ten human rights defenders met on a small island in Istanbul for a training session on July 5. […]

Authoritarianism

Muslim Rohingya Refugees from Burma: “The Army… burned down my house.”

Juan Cole

TeleSur | – – “The army came and burned down my house. I was inside the house at that time,” one survivor said. Rohingya refugees arriving at treatment centers in Bangladesh covered in burns have told of an increased wave of violence against Muslims by the government’s military offensive. “The army came and they burned […]

Authoritarianism

Book-Burning, Trump’s Torchbearers & Reading Donald Duck

contributors

We thought the days of book-burning ended with the defeat of Hitler, but with Trump they might be back

Arab World

Arabs, Thomas Friedman and the “iron fist”

contributors

By Brian Whitaker | ( Al-Bab.com) Writing about conflicts in the Middle East for the New York Times yesterday, columnist Thomas Friedman talked of “the power that is lost to a society like Syria or Iraq that needs an iron fist to make its many into one, and when that fist is removed, how the […]

Authoritarianism

Cop Arrests Nurse For Doing Her Job (TYT Video)

contributors

Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian and Maytha Alhassen | (The Young Turks Video Report) | – – “A police officer in Salt Lake City arrested a nurse because she refused to break the law. Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian and Maytha Alhassen of The Young Turks, break it down.” TYT: “Cop Arrests Nurse For Doing Her Job […]

Authoritarianism

Trump’s Organized Chaos: Channeling the Dictators – And Their Lieutenants

contributors

By Shalom Goldman | (Informed Comment) | – – When Donald Trump was vying for the Republic nomination, and even more so after he won the nomination and was running for office, some of his most alarmed critics compared him to Adolf Hitler. These claims were not restricted to the American fringe (in all of […]

Authoritarianism

Resisting? 5 Lessons on Authoritarian Regimes from Latin America

contributors

By Cheryl Duckworth | (Informed Comment) | – – Daily headlines suggest we could soon be experiencing a genuine constitutional crisis. We’ve learned that White House lawyers are exploring if the President can pardon himself and fire the Special Prosecutor looking into the Russia issue, so there is no better moment than now to consider […]

Authoritarianism

Turkish Legislators hold Sit-in to protest Creeping Dictatorship

contributors

TeleSur | – – Under the changes, lawmakers can also vote to ban for three sessions fellow parliamentarians who use expressions such as “Kurdistan” or “Kurdish provinces.” Turkey’s main opposition staged a sit-in late Wednesday to protest proposed changes to parliamentary procedures which they say will restrict lawmakers’ ability to challenge President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling […]

Authoritarianism

Morocco’s Rif Revolt: Only a Democratic Response is Sufficient

contributors

By Hsain Ilahiane | (Informed Comment) | – – Since October 2016, the Berbers (Imazighen) of the Rif, a region on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, have been carrying out one of the most sustained and largest demonstrations of public discontent and rage in Morocco since the protests of the Arab Spring in 2011. Reminiscent […]