US politics

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 […]

Pentagon

War is Bad for you — And the Economy: Biden touts the Alleged Benefits of the Arsenal of Democracy

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Joe Biden wants you to believe that spending money on weapons is good for the economy. That tired old myth — regularly repeated by the political leaders of both parties — could help create an even more militarized economy that could threaten our peace and prosperity for decades to come. Any […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza: Will Biden go Big on Diplomacy or on Military Destruction?

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – On the horizon, shimmering like some heavenly ideal, is a grand bargain to end the war in Gaza, establish an independent Palestinian state, and stabilize the Middle East. Also on the horizon, blazing like an infernal nightmare, is the prospect of an escalation of the current war in […]

Democratic Party

A majority of Jewish Democrats and Muslim Democrats agree on one Thing: Immediate Gaza Ceasefire

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Muslim-American think tank based in Michigan, finds that half of Jewish Democrats and a majority of Muslim Democrats agree on the need for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Some 78% of Muslim Democrats favored an immediate […]

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) […]

Arab Americans

A Brief History of Dearborn, Michigan – The First Arab-American Majority City in the US

The Conversation

By Sally Howell, University of Michigan-Dearborn; and Amny Shuraydi, University of Michigan-Dearborn | – (The Conversation) – Dearborn, Michigan, is a center of Arab American cultural, economic, and political life. It’s home to several of the country’s oldest and most influential mosques, the Arab American National Museum, dozens of now-iconic Arab bakeries and restaurants, and […]

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 […]

Iraq

Washington Chooses Genocide over Diplomacy in the Middle East

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – On February 7, 2024, a U.S. drone strike assassinated an Iraqi militia leader, Abu Baqir al-Saadi, in the heart of Baghdad. This was a further U.S. escalation in a major new front in the U.S.-Israeli war on the Middle East, centered on the Israeli genocide in Gaza, but already also […]