Republican Party

Why Trump’s Senate supporters can’t overturn Electoral College results they don’t like – here’s how the law actually works

By Donald Brand | – On Jan. 6, the United States Congress will gather in a joint session to tally the votes of the Electoral College, which cast its ballots in state capitols last month. In his role as president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence is slated to officially announce Joe Biden as […]

Donald Trump

The Donald won’t be in Office Long, but will he be more Dangerous out of it?

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – 2021 has indeed begun and god knows what it has in store for us. But unless, somehow, we’re surprised beyond imagining, The Donald is indeed going to leave the White House soon and, much as I hate to admit it, in some strange fashion we’re going to miss him. Of course, it […]

Authoritarianism

Democracy’s Night of the Living Dead: Trump’s GOP Zombies Lost by a Landslide, but they’re back to eat our Brains

Dan Dinello

By Dan Dinello | – Like a political remake of Night of the Living Dead, the Republican Party — put to death by the Lame Duck’s poisonous presidency — has reanimated as the Zombie Party. This hollowed out duplicate looks the same, but has been implanted with the traitorous delusions of the demented ex-President. Denying […]

Authoritarianism

Trump’s ‘smoking gun’ tape is worse than Nixon’s, but congressional Republicans have less incentive to do anything about it

The Conversation

By Ken Hughes | – At least Donald Trump’s “smoking gun” tape is simpler than Richard Nixon’s. Schoolchildren can easily grasp Trump’s high crime, in contrast to the complex, Machiavellian plot immortalized on the tape that led to Nixon’s downfall. It will be harder to explain to them why congressional Republicans decided to hold Nixon […]

Authoritarianism

Tragedies, Farces and Trump’s Coup d’état: The History of an Idea

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amy Gardner at the Washington Post got the scoop. In an hour-long telephone call to Georgia officials, including the the secretary of state, Trump browbeat them and hinted around that he could arrange jail time for them or foment unrest or spoil the January 5 senatorial run-off unless they found […]

Donald Trump

Trump and Iran in Last 17 Days: Will they or Won’t They?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There is a lot of buzz inside the Beltway, most of it generated inside the Beltway, about possible hostilities between Iran and the Trump administration in the Mad President’s last 17 days in office. Some of this buzz is around today’s January 3rd, 2020, anniversary of Trump’s assassination of Gen. […]

Climate Crisis

COVID-19, the US Election and our Desperate Need for Clean Air, Green Energy

Middle East Monitor

By Elif Selin Calik | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – One of the enduring images of 2020, the year of the pandemic, has been the sight of people connected to ventilators in hospitals. It is an image that helped us realise the importance of being able to breathe. Many have died because they […]

Climate Crisis

So long, Sucker! Top 6 Reasons we Won’t miss you, 2020, or Trump, either

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My late friend Fernando Coronil once observed that in order to understand the people of the past we must also understand their own visions of the future. In the 2014 science fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, based on a Japanese young adult novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi […]

Donald Trump

“Those of Us Who Don’t Die Are Going to Quit”: Facing Piled-up Patients, lack of Gov’t PPE, Nurses Losing Hope

ProPublica

By J. David McSwane | — Almost a year into the pandemic, supply shortages remain so severe that nurse Kristen Cline reuses her N95 for several shifts while her hospital buckles, patients suffer and folks nearby socialize maskless as if the pandemic were already over. ( ProPublica) – Nurse Kristen Cline was working a 12-hour […]