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Category: Politics

Netanyahu’s nuclear pretext for seeking regime change in Iran

Netanyahu’s nuclear pretext for seeking regime change in Iran

Jeffrey Lewis writes: One reason that many hawkish Israelis and their Washington fanboys opposed the nuclear deal was precisely because it might work. Resolving the nuclear issue would have removed some sanctions on the regime. This initial wave of attacks isn’t about the nuclear threat; it’s about using the nuclear threat to justify an attempt to topple the regime. Netanyahu essentially admitted this, telling Iranians: “Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years. I…

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How the Trump regime is emulating the Pinochet regime

How the Trump regime is emulating the Pinochet regime

HuffPost reports: The only information Ysqueibel Yonaiquer Peñaloza Chirinos’ family has received about him in the past three months came from former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. Gaetz probably didn’t mean to help. But last month, as part of a propaganda video for the far-right One America News Network, he took a tour of the infamous Salvadoran prison to which President Donald Trump has sent hundreds of U.S. immigrants for indefinite detention, without charge, trial or sentencing: El Centro de Confinamiento…

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Stephen Miller overrules Trump and insists ICE be given free rein to meet immigrant arrest quotas

Stephen Miller overrules Trump and insists ICE be given free rein to meet immigrant arrest quotas

The Washington Post reports: The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status. Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids…

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Companies warn SEC that mass deportations pose major economic risk

Companies warn SEC that mass deportations pose major economic risk

Wired reports: As the Trump administration executes an aggressive deportation campaign across the United States, a growing number of US companies warn that the crackdown could threaten their operations. Since January, more than 40 companies have mentioned the impact of deportations in filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, with many saying it could hurt the labor force, increase the risk of a recession, or create more economic uncertainty, according to 74 filings reviewed by WIRED. The impacted industries…

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The resistance to Trump has been reawakened

The resistance to Trump has been reawakened

Michelle Goldberg writes: Before this Saturday’s enormous nationwide No Kings protests, Leah Greenberg, a founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind the demonstrations, worried that too many people had lost faith in their collective ability to stop Donald Trump from remaking America in his tawdry autocratic image. Her group realized that they needed “to reverse the sense that Trump is inevitable, that he’s going to win,” she told me. When Trump first took office in 2017, it seemed to…

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A battered Iran signals it wants to de-escalate war with Israel and resume nuclear negotiations

A battered Iran signals it wants to de-escalate war with Israel and resume nuclear negotiations

The Wall Street Journal reports: Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said. In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed…

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Israel and Iran both have little incentive to stop fighting and no obvious route to outright victory

Israel and Iran both have little incentive to stop fighting and no obvious route to outright victory

The New York Times reports: When Israel and Iran clashed last year, they fought in short and contained bursts that usually ended within hours, and both sides looked for off-ramps that allowed tensions to ebb. Since Israel started a new round of fighting on Friday, the two countries have said they will continue for as long as necessary, broadening the scope of their attacks and leading to much higher casualty counts in both countries. This time, the conflict appears set…

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The online tools that fueled the No Kings protests and the Trump resistance

The online tools that fueled the No Kings protests and the Trump resistance

Wired reports: Jack and Fiona wanted to do something, but they didn’t know where to start. For months, the couple had watched as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, then spearheading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had turned the US into what they thought was “a fascist hellscape.” But they live in a deeply red county in a deeply red state in the South, and were worried that speaking out publicly could mean putting them and their children…

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‘Who controls the present controls the past’: What Orwell’s ‘1984’ explains about the twisting of history to control the public

‘Who controls the present controls the past’: What Orwell’s ‘1984’ explains about the twisting of history to control the public

George Orwell’s ‘1984’ has some lessons for 2025. NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images By Laura Beers, American University When people use the term “Orwellian,” it’s not a good sign. It usually characterizes an action, an individual or a society that is suppressing freedom, particularly the freedom of expression. It can also describe something perverted by tyrannical power. It’s a term used primarily to describe the present, but whose implications inevitably connect to both the future and the past. In his second…

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Open door to discrimination: New rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans

Open door to discrimination: New rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans

The Guardian reports: Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all…

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We the people

We the people

  18-year-old Atlanta resident Lavora Vincent delivers a fiery speech at an anti-Trump protest, slamming the U.S. military parade on Trump’s birthday as “North Korea-style propaganda.” Speaking out against injustice, Lavora says America was built on oppression and pledges to represent herself when Congress won’t. “If you’re not angry, you’re not listening,” she declares.     Trump looking absolutely inconsolable at his fascist-themed 79th birthday party which no one turned up to other than those who had to because he's…

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Will Netanyahu drag the U.S. directly into his war against Iran?

Will Netanyahu drag the U.S. directly into his war against Iran?

David Hearst writes: When a delegation from Hamas arrived in Moscow after the 7 October attacks, Putin passed a message of thanks for this “birthday gift”, my sources tell me. Putin was born on the same day in 1952. Would Russia allow Israel, supplied by the US, to topple Iran after the loss of Bashar al-Assad in Syria? It’s a question that Netanyahu and Trump should consider. Trump had a 50-minute talk with Putin over the weekend. Netanyahu should also…

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Political violence is impossible to predict but the factors that elevate the risks are already in clear view

Political violence is impossible to predict but the factors that elevate the risks are already in clear view

The Daily Beast reports: The wife of a man suspected of killing a Democratic lawmaker and her husband was detained in a traffic stop after police discovered a weapon, ammunition, cash, and passports in the trunk of her car. Jenny Boelter was stopped by officers in Onamia, Minnesota, around 10 a.m. on Saturday, local news KTSP reported, though it was not clear whether the check was a routine stop or a planned raid by law enforcement as part of efforts…

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Trump and the climate of violence

Trump and the climate of violence

Barbara McQuade writes: Political violence has existed in the United States since its founding. But in recent years, we have seen an increase in the incidence of threats and harassment against public officials. The Minnesota killings were reminiscent of the 2022 attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their home by a hammer-wielding intruder. Last year the U.S. Capitol Police documented a surge in threats against members of Congress, with more than 9,000 incidents. Threats against judges are also on the…

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Budget bill would make courts powerless to protect constitutional rights

Budget bill would make courts powerless to protect constitutional rights

Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick writes: Like a well-armed drone flying beneath the radar, the latest assault on the independent judiciary is dangerous and stealthy. A short and easily overlooked passage in Section 70302 of the behemoth budget reconciliation bill, it created hardly a ripple of attention as it passed in the House of Representatives and awaited action in the Senate. In the past few days, however, the Senate rewrote the provision in a way that arguably makes it…

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Racism hidden behind ‘crime’: Most ICE arrests are of immigrants with no criminal convictions

Racism hidden behind ‘crime’: Most ICE arrests are of immigrants with no criminal convictions

Reuters reports: The number of people booked into immigration detention who have been charged only with immigration violations has jumped eight-fold since President Donald Trump took office, government data shows, undercutting his anti-crime message. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention statistics show the number of detainees arrested by ICE with no other criminal charges or convictions rose from about 860 in January to 7,800 this month – a more than 800% increase. Those arrested and detained with criminal charges or…

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