Republican Party

By Jim Hightower | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Here’s our big word of the day: extraterritoriality. It expresses a sketchy legal theory asserting that rulers in one state have a right to enforce their laws in another state. Its most prominent was in the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required officials in […]

Constitution

Throwing out the Constitution: Donald Trump vs. the 14th Amendment

Tomdispatch

By Clarence Lusane ( Tomdispatch.com) – When the Civil War ended in 1865, the 76-year-old Constitution needed an upgrading and those leading the country did indeed dramatically transform it with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, known collectively as the Reconstruction Era amendments. The 13th (1865) abolished slavery, while the 15th (1870) […]

censorship

Public Libraries under MAGA Threat: Banning what Matters

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdisptach.com) – When my mother died in 2000, I inherited all her books. Sadly, after several moves and downsizings over the decades, her collection had shrunk. Still, it remains considerable and impressive in its own way. Her legacy to me included some special volumes like a first edition of Frederick W. Taylor’s The Principles […]

Donald Trump

‘Hell No!’: Trump Allies’ Plan to Privatize Medicare Draws Alarm and Outrage

Common Dreams

Jake Johnson A right-wing coalition that’s been laying the policy groundwork for another Trump presidency has developed a plan to further privatize Medicare by making fraud-riddled Medicare Advantage “the default enrollment option” for newly eligible beneficiaries. The plan, highlighted Monday by Rolling Stone‘s Andrew Perez, is outlined about halfway through Project 2025’s 920-page playbook for […]

Donald Trump

A Trumpian Bacchanalia in 2024?

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – I was born on July 20, 1944, almost two years after Joe Biden arrived on this planet and almost a year before You Know Who, like me, landed in New York City. The United States was then nearing the end of the second global war of that century and things were […]

Conspiracy Theories

Super Bowl Conspiracy: How the MAGA Republicans are (Taylor) Swift-Boating Themselves

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – I love how Republicans are using the romance of pop star Taylor Swift and football great Travis Kelce to forecast and promote their own political doom. They’re crying, “This is how we’re gonna’ lose and it’s not fair.” They are “swift-boating” themselves, and they have my permission. […]

Constitution

Federal Appeals Court to Trump: You’re a Citizen, not a King, and no you don’t have Immunity

Michigan Advance

By: Jacob Fischler and Ashley Murray – ( Michigan Advance ) – WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for charges he schemed to overturn the 2020 election, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, rejecting Trump’s argument he was immune from criminal prosecution for any alleged conduct during his […]

National Security State

Ron DeSantis: Yet Another Cog in Guantanamo’s Torture Machine

Common Dreams

Roy Eidelson ( Commondreams.org ) – Recently, there have been troubling revelations about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — a leading 2024 GOP presidential aspirant — concerning his conduct as a Navy JAG officer at Guantanamo Bay. His responsibilities at the detention facility apparently included responding to claims of mistreatment from the war-on-terror prisoners there. Relatively […]

Democratic Party

Israel’s Victory in Gaza turns Pyrrhic as a Majority of Youths and Democrats brand it Genocidal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel is losing its campaign against Gaza not so much on the battlefield — though it is unclear that very many of its military goals have been accomplished — but in the court of public opinion. The Israeli far right has long ignored such PR setbacks, convinced that as long […]