US politics

Seattle’s BLM Autonomous Protest Zone and the Paris Commune of 1871: Anti-Capitalist Spirit still Lives

Oli Mould | – A new autonomous zone set up in Seattle by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement bears some striking similarities with the Paris Commune of 1871. Despite its brutal ending, the seminal event in the French capital 150 years ago set the agenda for progressive urban politics and broader social justice movements […]

African-Americans

Tucker Carlson Rises to Defense of Confederates who Killed 360,222 Federal Troops, 100x more than Al-Qaeda

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tucker Carlson is shedding advertisers the way a rattlesnake sheds his skin. He went full white supremacist some time ago, and has been carried at Fox News only because the channel’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, appears to be a throwback to the policies of white Australia, which restricted immigration to that […]

Pentagon

The Outpouring of Grief over George Floyd’s Death gave America a chance at Rebirth: Will we take it?

Nick Turse

( Tomdispatch.com) – They were relegated to the protest equivalent of a ghetto. Their assigned route shunted them to the far fringes of the city. Their demonstration was destined for an ignominious demise far from any main thoroughfare, out of sight of most apartment buildings, out of earshot of most homes, best viewed from a […]

Colonialism

All the Lies Trump told the West Point Graduates about American Militarism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It was bad enough that Trump endangered the health of the graduating class at West Point for the purposes of a photo op for his reelection campaign by insisting on bringing them back to campus. It was bad enough that he gave an alarming performance in which some observers saw […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Infatuation with the Insurrection Act Recalls Worst Political Divide in US HIstory

The Conversation

The Vice President rebelled and sought to be Emperor of the West

Donald Trump

Another Screw-Up: Iraq announces Gradual US Troop Withdrawal, in Aftermath of Trump’s Strike on Local Generals

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Thursday, the new Iraqi government of Mustafa al-Kadhimi concluded its first security review with its US partner, according to Arwa Ibrahim at Al Jazeera. They issued a joint statement saying, “”In light of significant progress towards eliminating the ISIS [or ISIL] threat, over the coming months the US would […]

Pentagon

On How those Army Bases were Named for Confederate Generals to Shore up Jim Crow Segregation

contributors

By Troy E. Mosley | – (Citizens against Intolerance) – Some 160 years ago, a swath of Americans intent on defending a lifestyle of profiting off of a race of people they believed should be subjugated into slavery, chose to take up arms against its fellow citizens. Today, members of the most diverse American military […]

Militarization

What does it Mean to ‘Defund’ and Re-imagine Policing?

The Conversation

By Michelle Stewart | – On May 25, social media erupted with the image of a Black man once again whispering “I can’t breathe” while under the knee of a white police officer for eight minutes and forty six seconds. George Floyd’s death sparked horror, outrage — and familiarity. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin looked […]

China

The Looming US-Chinese Missile Crisis

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – America’s pundits and politicians have largely concluded that a new Cold War with China — a period of intense hostility and competition falling just short of armed combat — has started. “Rift Threatens U.S. Cold War Against China,” as a New York Times headline put it on May 15th, citing recent clashes […]