Corruption

Strange Attractors: Why is Trump’s Covid-19 Train Wreck so Mesmerizing to Corporate Media and the rest of Us?

(Tomdispatch.com) – My partner and I have been fighting about politics since we met in 1965. I was 13. She was 18 and my summer camp counselor. (It was another 14 years before we became a couple.) We spent that first summer arguing about the Vietnam War. I was convinced that the U.S. never should […]

Corruption

When you Work for Corporations you Don’t Care about People: How Wisconsin GOP Forced in-person Voting in the Midst of a Pandemic to Suppress Urban Dem Vote

Common Dreams

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – As footage of Wisconsin’s crowded polling stations flooded the internet Tuesday, public health officials and civil rights advocates condemned the state’s Supreme Court and Republican legislative leaders for allowing in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic and thwarting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ last-minute efforts to address voter […]

Corruption

Jared Kushner, With No Government Background, Scolds States for Requesting Supplies From National Equipment Stockpile

Common Dreams

By Julia Conley, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – Progressives expressed shock at the Trump administration’s latest indication that it intends to provide little assistance to states where thousands of people have contracted the coronavirus, after Jared Kushner, senior advisor and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, made his first appearance as a key member of […]

Corruption

The Contango Tango: SecState Pompeo Pressures Saudis to Raise Gasoline Prices, Harming US Consumers

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a phone call with Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman on Tuesday. So reports Sam Meredith at CNBC. Then the State Department issued a statement on Wednesday that said, “Secretary Pompeo and the Crown Prince focused on the need to maintain stability in global […]

Corruption

There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal

The Conversation

By Anne P. DePrince and Joan M. Cook | – U.S. intel agencies issued dire, classified warnings to President Trump in January and February about the dangers posed by the coronavirus, according to revelations reported in The Washington Post. For weeks, U.S. communities coast to coast sounded the alarm. They didn’t have enough tests to […]

Corruption

Can’t we All get a Presidential Pardon from Life Imprisonment in the Trump Penal Colony?

Tom Engelhardt

(Tomdispatch.com) – Here’s the truth of it: I’d like a presidential pardon. Really, I would. And I think I deserve it more than Michael Milken or Rod Blagojevich or — because it’s obviously heading our way — Roger Stone (not to speak of Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort). Unlike the rest of them, I genuinely […]

China

Trump, head of GOP, demands Chinese Communist Party Prosecute Businessman for Crime of Making Money

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A particularly unperceptive and unfeeling wag came up with the bon mot defining a “socialist” as someone kept up at night by the fear that somewhere someone was making money. (Socialists are actually haunted by people working but not making money because the capitalist class is stiffing them). But by […]

Climate Crisis

The New Age of Protest

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus) – People are hitting the streets to protest government inaction, repression, and corruption. Does that mean democracy is in trouble or stronger than ever? By John Feffer, October 2, 2019. Print School strike for climate in Melbourne (Julian Meehan via Flickr) Led by young people, climate strikers blocked traffic on two […]

Corruption

Bribery & High Crimes and Misdemeanors: Did Trump finally go Full Impeachable in Ukraine Calls?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that in the course of his conversation in July with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump pressed him on eight separate occasions to investigate Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden. Biden when vice president is known to have pressured the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor […]