US politics

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda ( RFE/ RL ) – The fourth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States has ended in Muscat, with Tehran suggesting a new round will be scheduled by Omani mediators. Iranian Foreign Minister spokesman Esmail Baqaei wrote on X that the talks on May 11 were “difficult but […]

Corporations

Donald Trump’s Feverish Lust for Green Energy Resources isn’t about the Climate

Joshua Frank

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Ancient oak trees rise above gigantic boulders scattered across a high desert mesa in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. This is Oak Flat (Chi’ chil Bildagoteel), a sacred site for Native Americans, including the Western and San Carlos Apache. And like many other lands across the West, it’s under grave threat from multinational […]

Bill of Rights

Rümeysa Öztürk freed, as Judge Warns of Grave Threat to Free Speech

Common Dreams

“There has been no evidence that has been introduced by the government other than the op-ed,” U.S. District Judge William Sessions III said, referring to Öztürk’s article urging divestment from Israel. By Brett Wilkins | – ( Common Dreams ) – Rümeysa Öztürk, one of several pro-Palestine scholars kidnapped and imprisoned by the Trump administration […]

Conspiracy Theories

When Politics Leaves Reality Behind

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The traditional left–right political spectrum no longer captures the forces driving division in America today. That model works when we’re dealing with competing ideologies and when ideological disagreement is the primary driver of division in society. But today, we face something more destabilizing: a profound rupture in shared […]

Bill of Rights

Antisemitism Awareness Act – Protecting Jews from What?

H. Scott Prosterman

Last year, Congress proposed the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA) (S.558 and H.R. 1007) to combat anti-Semitism, but Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and other Republican officials object to the bill because it infringes on the right of far-right Christians to express that Jews are to blame for the death of Jesus? Excuse me, […]

Pentagon

The Real Evil Empire May Surprise You

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Forty years ago this month, I was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. I would be part of America’s all-volunteer force (AVF) for 20 years, hitting my marks and retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2005. In my two decades of service, I met a lot of fine […]

Authoritarianism

American Psycho: Trump’s Delusional Crusade Transforms America into a Pariah State

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – In Franz Kafka’s story “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa awakens to “find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin” — a terrifying metamorphosis that leaves him alienated and rejected by his family. Similarly, Trumpism rejects vast segments of the population as unworthy of belonging. Almost overnight, immigrants, government workers, scientists, lawyers, […]

Donald Trump

Trump halts Bombing of Yemen, Reportedly under Saudi Pressure, and to Dismay of Israel

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Middle East Eye reports that Saudi Arabia pressured the Trump administration to cease bombing Yemen in advance of his planned trip to the Kingdom next week because such raids would be an embarrassment for him and his host. Trump said Tuesday that he was convinced that the Houthis were sincere […]

Donald Trump

Sports are not Enough to Distract us from Continuous Trump

Tomdispatch

By Robert Lipsyte ( Tomdispatch.com ) – If the overwhelming deluge from the Trumpian firehose of lies, threats, incompetency, illegal actions, and surreality is sweeping you off your feet, driving you to bedridden depression, leaving you passive and breathlessly unable to mount a response, much less resistance, please get into the huddle, take a time-out, […]