Politics

Plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor grew from the militia movement’s toxic mix of constitutional falsehoods and half-truths

By John E. Finn | – The U.S. militia movement has long been steeped in a peculiar – and unquestionably mistaken – interpretation of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and civil liberties. This is true of an armed militia group that calls itself the Wolverine Watchmen, who were involved in the recently revealed plot […]

Donald Trump

Call for Fox Media News Monopoly to be Broken up: Rupert Murdoch an “arrogant cancer on … democracy” – Rudd

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has called for the break up of his country’s media monopolies (almost all major media are owned by just two corporations). One of the two media monopolies he was slamming is Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp. In its incarnation as Fox News, the same company has […]

Authoritarianism

Patriotism, American Style: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – What is Patriotism? Let’s begin with the difficult part: defining and understanding patriotism. Patriotism refers to the feelings and behaviors of individuals and groups who see themselves belonging to a large community called a nation, and who identify intensely with it. When the chips are down, those who […]

Donald Trump

Rightwing Populism Will Make You Sick—Really

Reese Erlich

(Foreign Correspondent) – The four countries with the most confirmed COVID-19 infections in the world are all led by rightwing populists: the US, India, Brazil, and Russia. Throw in the United Kingdom, which has the largest infection rate in Europe, and you have a common pattern. Leaders of these countries pose as men of the […]

Climate Crisis

Top 5 Most Horrible things Trump said in his Abnormal Debate

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The “debate” was an unfortunate and distasteful spectacle, largely because of Trump’s bullying and mendacious behavior. But let us resist the cable-tv temptation to focus only on personalities and the horse race to consider some actual policy issues. And the true horror lay in what Trump had to say about […]

Authoritarianism

The Mobster-in-Chief: Will the November Election Be Decided in the Streets?

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The white mobs didn’t care whom they killed as long as the victims were Black. They murdered people in public with guns and rocks. They set fire to houses and slaughtered families trying to escape the flames. In East St. Louis in July 1917, white vigilantes lynched Blacks with impunity. It […]

Democratic Party

A House Divided: America’s new Civil Wars

Tomdispatch

By Andrea Mazzarino | – When it rains, pieces of glass, pottery, and metal rise through the mud in the hills surrounding my Maryland home. The other day, I walked outside barefoot to fetch one of my kid’s shoes and a pottery shard stabbed me in the heel. Nursing a minor infection, I wondered how […]

Climate Change

Germany’s Crypto-Neo-Nazi AfD Party calls for end to all climate action efforts

Benjamin Wehrmann

( Clean Energy Wire ) – The right-wing nationalist AfD party has called for an end to all major climate action efforts Germany has committed itself to and wants to abandon both the Paris Climate Agreement and the European Green Deal. One year before the general election in autumn 2021, the party that holds 12.6 […]

Far Right

Israel: Tens of Thousands Protest Netanyahu as Momentum Grows and Gov’t Faces Collapse

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli-Palestinian newspaper Arab48 reports that tens of thousands of protesters came out against Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday, in what has become a weekly ritual for the past three months that has grown larger and larger. The rallies disproved the allegation of pro-Netanyahu pundits that the recognition […]