Congress

By Misha Jones ( Cronkite News) | WASHINGTON – In the South Phoenix neighborhood of Lindo Park-Roesley Park, temperatures can be up to 13 degrees higher than locations just 2 miles away, according to the Nature Conservancy. Communities that are predominantly Hispanic and Black, like Lindo Park-Roesley Park, are part of the focus in a […]

Congress

We’ve been Sunk by Chickenhawks like Trump, but will the Veterans in Congress Save Us?

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | ( Tomdispatch.com) – If you still follow the mainstream media, you’re probably part of the 38% of registered voters who knew something about the op-ed Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) published in the New York Times early in June, exhorting the president to use the Insurrection Act to “restore order to our […]

Congress

Supreme Court Slaps down Trump’s Claim of Immunity from Grand Jury Subpoena

The Conversation

By Stanley M. Brand | – In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that President Donald Trump has no immunity, by virtue of being president, from a state grand jury subpoena for his business and tax records in a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney. “[N]o citizen, not even the president, is […]

Congress

Sanders, AOC, Tlaib Threaten to Cut Israeli Funding if Netanyahu Annexes 1/3 of Palestinian West Bank

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Progressive members of Congress will circulate a letter on Tuesday threatening US funding for Israel if the Netanyahu government proceeds with its plans to steal one third of the Palestinian West Bank in July. Hassan Abbas at The Arab-American saw an advance copy of the letter. The letter to secretary […]

Banking

Is Mitch McConnell Blocking further Congressional Aid to States on Behalf of Vulture Funds and Corporations with Impunity?

John Buell

Has the Senate Majority Leader lost his faith in the wisdom and predictability of markets? Crude partisanship may underlie his reluctance to enact further Covid Depression relief assistance, but the reason given was extraordinary. The Senator professed a desire to wait for the effects of the first relief package to become apparent. “I think we […]

Arms Sales

Did Trump fire State Dept. Inspector to Protect Shady Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The mystery deepens. Late last Friday, Trump summarily fired the State Department Inspector General, Steve Linick. While in US law as it now stands, the president has the power to fire pretty much anyone in the executive, if he fired Linick as an act of retaliation for one of Linick’s […]

Authoritarianism

Ayatollah Trump Declares “Total Authority:” Top 5 Ways he is Becoming American Version of Iran’s Supreme Leader

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – At the embarrassing public meltdown that passed for his news conference on Monday, Trump addressed the question of opening back up the economy. Most epidemiologists warn that if social distancing measures end too soon, it could provoke a massive “second wave” of the pandemic, as happened with the Spanish Flu […]

Congress

The Age of Trump and Pseudo America: Phonying Up our Key Institutions

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com) – The impeachment of the president of the United States! Surely such a mega-historic event would reverberate for weeks or months, leaving in its wake no end of consequences, large and small. Wouldn’t it? Shouldn’t it? Truth to tell, the word historic does get tossed around rather loosely these days. Just about anything […]

Congress

Engel: Trump gave out False Justification for Whacking Soleimani, Nearly starting a war with Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dan Mangan at CNBC reports that Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., is attacking Trump over his justification for assassinating Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani on January 3. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed to the Trump administration’s report to Congress on the drone strike at Baghdad International Airport, which […]