US politics

(Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine, just for the sake of argument, that the president of the United States was an arrogant, information-challenged, would-be autocrat with a soft spot for authoritarian leaders from China, Russia, and North Korea to Egypt (“my favorite dictator”), Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. And then, suppose that very president, while hollowing out the State […]

Assyrians

Trump Administration Says Iraq is Dangerous for Christians, until it Wants to Deport Them

ProPublica

By Yeganeh Torbati | – To deport Iraqi Christians, Trump’s immigration officials rely on testimony saying they won’t be at particular risk. But to justify funding and attention, officials elsewhere in the administration say the Christians face grave danger. (ProPublica) – Even as U.S. immigration officials have pushed to deport hundreds of Iraqi Christians over […]

Bernie Sanders

Can Bernie Sanders yet make Socialism Cool Again?

The Conversation

By Jason Hannan | – Love him or hate him, Bernie Sanders … has inspired a massive, energetic, hardworking and fiercely loyal following, determined to carry him to victory at the Democratic National Convention in July. To the great agitation of his rivals and critics, Sanders has demonstrated a stunning popularity among a diverse cross-section […]

Bernie Sanders

The Real Losers on Super Tuesday: Urgent Climate Action, Medicare for All, Anti-Plutocracy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Primaries can be long drawn-out affairs. The Obama-Clinton struggle of spring-summer 2008 went down to the wire, still being contested in June. As I write Tuesday evening, the delegate count for Super Tuesday is still not known, and the actual count for California could take a long time to nail […]

Corruption

Can’t we All get a Presidential Pardon from Life Imprisonment in the Trump Penal Colony?

Tom Engelhardt

(Tomdispatch.com) – Here’s the truth of it: I’d like a presidential pardon. Really, I would. And I think I deserve it more than Michael Milken or Rod Blagojevich or — because it’s obviously heading our way — Roger Stone (not to speak of Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort). Unlike the rest of them, I genuinely […]

Bernie Sanders

The Corporate Democrats’ Biden Obsession

Tarek R. Dika

Notre Dame, IN (Special to Informed Comment) – The Establishment wing of the Democratic Party is so worried about the possibility of a Sanders victory on Super Tuesday that they would rather have Biden win the primary and lose the general election than have Sanders win both. And it is clear that Sanders is a […]

Pentagon

Assad and Putin have Waged Total Air War on Idlib’s Civilians, Learning from US Bombing of Iraq

Open Democracy

Paul Rogers | – ( OpenDemocracy.net) – The tactics of Syrian and Russian forces are unforgiveable – but scarcely different to what the US and its allies were doing just a few years ago. Around the world, people are watching the suffering of the people of Idlib with pity; their governments are alarmed at the […]

Donald Trump

Trump Spending $1.2 Trillion a year on War, with Nothing to Show for It

Tomdispatch

By Mandy Smithberger | – Hold on to your helmets! It’s true the White House is reporting that its proposed new Pentagon budget is only $740.5 billion, a relatively small increase from the previous year’s staggering number. In reality, however, when you also include war and security costs buried in the budgets of other agencies, […]

China

Maybe Try Friendship? Hatred and Enmity are bad Politics for America and a World in Crisis

Richard Penaskovic

We live in an era where animosity and even rage are the norm in the political arena. Both Democrats and Republicans are deeply divided in Congress so that little can be done legislatively. Correspondingly, millions of families are often split down the middle in terms of their political views with relatives divided among Democrats, Republicans […]