US politics

Kamala Harris is the America that Trump tried to Stop: the Best of Jamaica and India and born in Oakland

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kamala Devi Harris says she is just an American, and that is certainly true. She identifies Black, and that is certainly true. Here I would like to explore her Americanness by considering two of her ancestors, a grandfather and a great-grandmother, neither of whom had much to do with the […]

Donald Trump

Will Trump Strike Iran as his October Surprise?

Bob Dreyfuss

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Was Donald Trump’s January 3rd drone assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering Cold War between the United States and Iran into a hot war in the weeks before an American presidential election? Of course, there’s no way to know, but behind by double digits […]

African-Americans

Before Kamala Harris became Biden’s running mate, Shirley Chisholm and other Black women aimed for the White House

The Conversation

By Sharon Austin | – U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the American daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is Joe Biden’s choice for vice president. If Biden wins in November, Harris would break three centuries-old barriers to become the nation’s first female vice president, first Black vice president and first Black female vice president. Geraldine Ferraro […]

Corruption

Lebanon’s Leaders Resign over deaths of 200, but Trump refuses Accountability for 163,462 Deaths

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Monday, the prime minister of Lebanon and his entire cabinet resigned en masse, reports Bassem Mroue at the Associated Press. Last week an enormous explosion destroyed Beirut’s port and part of the city, killing over 200 persons and wounding thousands, and leaving 300,000 homeless. The explosion came about after […]

Corruption

How did Americans become such Wimps? Silence as Trump kills tens of Thousands, Destroys Social Security and Post Office, Plots Election Fraud

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Nicole Winfield and Lisa Marie Pane at the Associated Press write at the unbelief with which Europeans are staring at the United States, as we head for 300,000 dead from the coronavirus and our economy shrank 33% on an annualized basis last quarter, and we just appear to be all […]

Climate Crisis

OK, Boomers: Will the America we die in be unprecedentedly Hot, Racist, Unequal, Sickly and Authoritarian?

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Let me be blunt. This wasn’t the world I imagined for my denouement. Not faintly. Of course, I can’t claim I ever really imagined such a place. Who, in their youth, considers their death and the world that might accompany it, the one you might leave behind for younger generations? I’m […]

Donald Trump

What the huge COVID-19 testing undercount in the US means: We may actually have 30 million Cases

The Conversation

Melissa Hawkins | – Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions recently published a study which estimated that the true number of people infected by COVID-19 could be six to 24 times higher than the number of confirmed cases. Melissa Hawkins, professor of public health at American University, explains what […]

Arms Sales

Will Trump’s Maximum Pressure on UNSC against Lifting Iran Arms Embargo Backfire Big Time?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Peter Hutchison at AFP reports that the Trump administration may be set to shoot itself in the foot at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) next week by pressing for an over-ambitious resolution against lifting the arms embargo on Iran. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by the […]

Epidemics

Cramped ICE Detention Centers during COVID-19 Threaten Migrant Safety, even Officers

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Jessica Myers | Luce Foundation: Southwest Stories Fellowship | – ( Cronkite News) – PHOENIX – In the six months Maria Chávez’s husband has been detained at La Palma Correctional Center, he has been quarantined twice after being exposed to suspected cases of COVID-19. And quarantine, for him, has meant solitary confinement. Andrés gets […]