International

Unlike SCOTUS, Iraqi Kurds are Rethinking Lax Gun Laws after Shootings; Will even Iraq be Safer than the US?

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Other countries can just adopt rational policies to deal with severe social problems. The United States is locked into various weird metaphysical dogmas that make reasoning about such issues difficult. The second amendment, for instance, has nothing to do with universal gun ownership, whatever ideologues on the Right assert. The […]

Climate Crisis

Greens return to French Parliament in Left Coalition, as Neoliberal Macron loses Majority

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – France’s parliamentary elections witnessed an upset, with centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s party, La République En Marche and its Ensemble coalition losing its absolute parliamentary majority. A majority requires 289 seats, and Macron’s party gained 245 seats. Among the beneficiaries are the Left and the Greens, who joined together in the […]

Climate Crisis

What we can Learn from Bolivia’s Struggle for Free Water: Review of Maude Barlow, “Still Hopeful After All These Years”

Peter G. Prontzos

Review of Maude Barlow, Still Hopeful: Lessons from a Lifetime of Activism. ECW Press, 2022. When I was teaching Political Science, some of the most memorable events were the teleconferences that Noam Chomsky did with my students. During a discussion of international trade treaties, Noam singled out the work of Maude Barlow, then Chairperson of […]

Donald Trump

Why the Oath Keepers looks an Awful lot like al-Qaeda and Trump is its Usama Bin Laden

Juan Cole

Revised. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although the Congressional inquiry into the Jan. 6 insurrection is releasing new information about the ties between the White House and the insurrectionists, that the attack on the Capitol that day was a well-planned paramilitary operation was clear from Department of Justice indictments already released. Below, I revisit one […]

Far Right

Let’s avoid the Other F-Word: If it is Democracies versus Fascism, We’re Stuck in Forever Wars

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History at Yale University, is a scholar of surpassing brilliance. His 2010 book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin chronicles in harrowing detail the de facto collaboration of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union that resulted in the murder of millions of innocents. On any […]

Corruption

Iranian Protesters demand Justice after Deaths in Abadan’s Building Collapse

Global Voices

Written by Fred Petrossian | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Hundreds of Iranians took to the streets in Abadan, the capital of the southwestern oil-rich province of Khuzestan, demanding justice after a 10-storey Metropol building collapsed on May 23, killing at least 29 people. Officials said 37 people were also wounded and it remains unknown how […]

Arms Sales

The lasting Consequences of School Shootings on the Students who Survive Them

The Conversation

By Maya Rossin-Slater, Stanford University; Bokyung Kim, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts; Hannes Schwandt, Northwestern University; Marika Cabral, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts; and Molly Schnell, Northwestern University As the U.S. reels from another school shooting, much of the public discussion has centered on the […]

Inequality

One-Off Demonstrations are not Enough: Progressives need Standing Mass Organizations

Tomdispatch

By Beverly Gologorsky | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – To begin, an anecdote. This past summer, a pigeon walked through my open balcony door while my attention was elsewhere. I shooed it out, but when I turned around two more pigeons walked out of my bedroom. In the 20 years I’ve lived in my apartment, […]

Arms Sales

Arsenal of Autocracy? The Major Weapons Makers Cash in Worldwide, Not Just in Ukraine

William D. Hartung

By William D. Hartung | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – These are good times to be an arms maker. Not only are tens of billions of dollars in new military spending headed for the coffers of this country’s largest weapons contractors, but they’re being praised as defenders of freedom and democracy, thanks to their role in […]