US politics

By Khury Petersen-Smith | Trump has sent more new troops to the Middle East than he’s bringing home from Afghanistan. (Otherwords.org ) – There was this moment during the State of the Union Address that I can’t stop thinking about. When President Trump spoke to army wife Amy Wiliams during his speech and told her […]

Pentagon

If America is going to Fight Forever Wars, Should we Bring back the Draft?

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Bizarrely enough, the spate of phone calls from recruiters began a couple of years ago. The first ones came from the Army, next the Marines, and then other branches of the military. I’m decades past enlistment age. I’ve been publicly antiwar for most of that time and come […]

Donald Trump

“Children of Men” Come True: Trump Immigration Crackdown outdoes Cuaron’s Science Fiction Dystopia

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Like the dystopian nightmare imagined in the 2006 science fiction masterpiece Children of Men, Trump’s xenophobic efforts to terminate immigration result in death, suffering, humiliation, and destroyed lives. Under Trump, the speed of America’s plunge into casual barbarism is breathtaking. Along with the illusory border wall, the immigration clampdown […]

Bernie Sanders

Feeling the Bern? Why Trump is Terrified of having to go up Against Sanders

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com) – Donald Trump filed his paperwork to run for reelection only hours after his inauguration in January 2017, setting a presidential record, the first of his many dubious achievements. For a man who relished the adulation and bombast of campaigning, it should have surprised no one that he charged out of the starting […]

Arab Americans

With Bernie Sanders in Dearborn, Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans take the Political Stage

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bernie Sanders’ rally at Dearborn, Michigan with a crowd that included Arab-Americans, on stage and off, was a frontal attack on one of the last permissible prejudices in America. Media personalities have been fired (and rightly so) for bigoted public statements about African-Americans and other minorities. But Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans […]

Donald Trump

How the US could Restart Negotiations with Iran

Thomas Buonomo

(Special to Informed Comment) – Trump‘ s policy of exerting maximum pressure on Iran, highly provocative targeting of Quds Force General Qassem Suleimani, non-recognition of Congress’s war powers, vow that as long as he remains in power Iran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, and Iran’s increasingly alarming violations of its own obligations […]

Donald Trump

Why Mike Pence is the Worst Choice to Lead a Coronavirus Response

Jill Richardson

( Otherwords.org ) -The former Indiana governor presided over the state’s worst ever HIV outbreak. His ignorance made it worse. A year after Trump took office, Saturday Night Live did a sketch called “What Even Matters Anymore?” Game show host Jessica Chastain read a list of outrageous things Trump has done and asked, “Does it […]

Afghanistan

Trump may want out of Afghanistan, but this so-called “Peace Deal” with Taliban isn’t Likely to Succeed

The Conversation

By Madhav Joshi | – After 18 months of negotiations, the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace deal on Feb. 29. It is expected that the deal will provide a plan for a comprehensive Afghan peace process. The deal addresses the security of foreign troops; the Taliban’s commitments to sever ties with terrorist organizations; […]

Bill of Rights

From Stoning Gays to Endorsing Slavery: The Problem with Bible Classes in State Schools

James A. Haught

(Syndicated to Informed Comment) – Here in Appalachia’s Bible Belt, conservatives in the Legislature want to force all West Virginia public high schools to teach Bible classes, as occurs in several other Republican-controlled states. I wonder how such classes handle Bible topics like these: First, the Bible decrees that gay males must be killed. Leviticus […]