US politics

By Ben Railton | (The Conversation) | – – With the crowded roster of GOP presidential candidates set to expand to 16 with Ohio Governor John Kasich’s planned July 21 announcement, the importance of the August 6 Republican debate – the race’s first – in starting to winnow down the field becomes increasingly clear. Even […]

African-Americans

Muslim-Americans raising $100K to Rebuild burned Black Churches

contributors

Nik Zecevik and Margaret Howell | (TheLipTV2 Video) | – – “Respond With Love” a Muslim charity has raised nearly [$90,000] $45,000 to aid black churches that were burned down during the two weeks that followed the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. During that time six predominantly black churches fell victim […]

Guns

Chattanooga: Assault Weapons a Security Problem for U.S. (Cole @ Truthdig)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Truthdig) | – – My column is out in Truthdig.com Excerpt: The United States is peculiarly prone to mass killings by people armed with semi-automatic weapons. There is no good reason for ordinary citizens to own military-style weapons, and they have long posed a threat to American national security. The mass […]

Civil Rights

Celebrating Bernie Sanders via Stand-Up: He doesn’t Give a —

contributors

Francesca Fiorentini | (AJ+ Video) – – “Whether in a speech or an interview, 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has little patience for politicking. This grandpa socialist can’t be bought, for better or for worse.” AJ+: “Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Give A F***”

Constitution

That Time Ronald Reagan opened Iran and Illegally sold Khomeini Weapons

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Reagan administration in the 1980s was buffeted by two policy drives toward Iran. On the one hand, Reagan ally Saudi Arabia supported Iraq, which illegally launched a war on the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1980 in order to steal its oil-rich Khuzistan Province. Reagan […]

Latinos

The Republican Party’s New Coiffure (Political Cartoon)

contributors

Paul Jamiol | (Jamiol’s World) Via Jamiol’s World See also Jamiol’s World: The Book

Barack Obama

Iran Deal can only Succeed with the Support of Civil Society

contributors

By John Robert Kelley | ( Euractiv) | – – . . . [T]he key to success in the Iran nuclear deal lies in its implementation, and that should be everyone’s business. Diplomacy is not just for elites anymore. Success will require total cooperation throughout the societies of parties to the deal, and this applies […]

Foreign Policy

Why did the US fail in Iraq? Roots of American Overstretch

contributors

By William Polk | (Informed Comment) | – – In The Financial Times of April 23, 2015, Philip Stephens begins a perceptive article with the obvious statement that “It is easier to say that Obama never gets it right than to come up with an alternative strategy.” Of course it is. It was never easy […]

Central Intelligence Agency

The Unbearable Heaviness of the Drone Cowboy

contributors

By Pratap Chatterjee | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – The myth of the lone drone warrior is now well established and threatens to become as enduring as that of the lone lawman with a white horse and a silver bullet who rode out into the Wild West to find the bad guys. In a similar fashion, […]