Browsed by
Category: Politics

No Kings: Stand against Trump’s un-American birthday bash on June 14

No Kings: Stand against Trump’s un-American birthday bash on June 14

Jeffrey C. Isaac writes: As we anticipate Trump’s Kim Jong-un–style celebration of this year’s Flag Day, it is worth keeping this flag-centered image clearly in view: This is MAGA patriotism in action—the merging of the U.S. flag with the Confederate battle flag and the Trump flag, and the conflation of patriotism with racist reaction, violence, and Trump himself, the megalomaniac who has declared that “I was saved by God to make America great again.” The Trumpian June 14, 2025 parade…

Read More Read More

Bukele regime blocked extradition of MS-13 leaders to prevent them testifying in U.S. courts

Bukele regime blocked extradition of MS-13 leaders to prevent them testifying in U.S. courts

By T. Christian Miller and Sebastian Rotella This story was originally published by ProPublica In mid-April, President Donald Trump sat down in the Oval Office with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to celebrate a new partnership. They had recently negotiated an extraordinary deal in which El Salvador agreed to incarcerate in a maximum security prison hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants that the Trump administration had labeled as violent criminals, though few had been convicted of such crimes. The U.S. also…

Read More Read More

Families arrested in Los Angeles ICE raids held in basements with little food or water, lawyers say

Families arrested in Los Angeles ICE raids held in basements with little food or water, lawyers say

The Guardian reports: As federal agents rushed to arrest immigrants across Los Angeles, they confined detainees – including families with small children – in a stuffy office basement for days without sufficient food and water, according to immigration lawyers. One family with three children were held inside a Los Angeles-area administrative building for 48 hours after being arrested on Thursday immediately after an immigration court hearing, according to lawyers from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), which is providing non-profit…

Read More Read More

National Guard troops and Marines deeply troubled by being deployed ‘against our own communities’

National Guard troops and Marines deeply troubled by being deployed ‘against our own communities’

The Guardian reports: California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join. Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being…

Read More Read More

Trump tells Israelis: end war in Gaza and don’t to strike Iran. Netanyahu considers military action without U.S. support

Trump tells Israelis: end war in Gaza and don’t to strike Iran. Netanyahu considers military action without U.S. support

The Times of Israel reports: In a tense 40-minute phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, US President Donald Trump told the premier he must permanently end the war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli television reported Tuesday. Trump reportedly told Netanyahu that the so-called “Witkoff framework,” which would pause the war for some 60 days in exchange for about half of the hostages held by Hamas, will not suffice. Netanyahu has so far refused to negotiate a Gaza…

Read More Read More

What Trump’s war on universities means for international students and scholars

What Trump’s war on universities means for international students and scholars

John K. Wilson writes: On June 4, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation banning all new international students from Harvard University, and asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prohibit all existing foreign students there, which a Harvard spokesperson called “yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights.” Trump’s attack on Harvard is part of a war on academia unprecedented in the history of American higher education. In this battle against universities,…

Read More Read More

The man who got the Diggers digging

The man who got the Diggers digging

Rowan Wilson writes: In April 1649, the earth of St George’s Hill in Surrey, England, was disturbed. A group of men and women calling themselves the ‘True Levellers’, known to history as the ‘Diggers’, had taken to the ‘wast[e] ground’ in the parish of Walton to protest enclosure, the process by which common land was parcelled into units of private property, stripping commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. The land was bad – ‘nothing but a bare…

Read More Read More

‘No Kings’: 1,800+ rallies planned as protests spread across the U.S.

‘No Kings’: 1,800+ rallies planned as protests spread across the U.S.

  A nationwide “No Kings” movement plans to hold over 1,800 anti-Trump rallies across the United States on June 14, the same day as President Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., as he celebrates his 79th birthday. Organizers are protesting President Trump’s mass deportations, militarized crackdown against protesters, defiance of court orders, and attacks on civil rights. “We’re going to show him on June 14 that real power lies in the people,” says Leah Greenberg⁠, co-founder and co-executive director of…

Read More Read More

Trump wants to look strong because he feels weak

Trump wants to look strong because he feels weak

You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep. Here they are — being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another. If anyone is treating our troops disrespectfully, it is you @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/4i8VIiYZLr pic.twitter.com/sUYD2KHu6O — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025 Greg Sargent writes: With President Donald Trump sending more troops into Los Angeles amid protests there, a remarkable image has gone viral on social media. It shows members of…

Read More Read More

The challenge posed by lawful but unethical orders

The challenge posed by lawful but unethical orders

Joshua Braver writes: Would a military officer disobey a lawful but unethical order — unethical in the sense that it violates the officer’s professional code? We may be on the verge of finding out. The Trump administration has sent Marines to the Los Angeles area to join the National Guard troops already there. At the moment, the Marines have been deployed to help protect “federal functions and property,” as President Trump’s memorandum specifies — not to engage in broader domestic…

Read More Read More

Judge rules Mahmoud Khalil can’t be deported or detained for foreign policy reasons cited by Rubio

Judge rules Mahmoud Khalil can’t be deported or detained for foreign policy reasons cited by Rubio

CBS News reports: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the federal government cannot deport or detain Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil for the foreign policy reasons cited by the Trump administration. The preliminary injunction — issued by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey — does not go into effect until Friday morning, giving the government a chance to appeal. But it marks a blow to the Trump administration’s push to remove Khalil, a green card holder who was…

Read More Read More

Some Republicans warn Trump against deporting ‘hardworking people’

Some Republicans warn Trump against deporting ‘hardworking people’

Axios reports: Some GOP lawmakers are starting to warn the Trump administration to reconsider its all-in deportation push. Why it matters: Republicans are convinced they have a clear mandate to kick out hardened criminals and gang members. But differences are emerging on how aggressively ICE should deport workers, longtime residents and some people who’ve sought refuge from brutal regimes. The White House wants ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day, and dramatically boost their deportation numbers. That could lead to more workplace raids. Zoom in: Today’s dissent is far…

Read More Read More

U.S. embassy in Baghdad prepares for partial evacuation ahead of Iran talks

U.S. embassy in Baghdad prepares for partial evacuation ahead of Iran talks

Middle East Eye reports: The US is reducing staff levels at its embassy in Iraq on security concerns, US officials told several media outlets on Wednesday, as Iran threatened US bases if conflict breaks out. “Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our mission in Iraq,” a US official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, The Financial Times reported that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth authorised the voluntary departure of military dependents throughout the…

Read More Read More

X drums up ad business with threats and intimidation

X drums up ad business with threats and intimidation

The Wall Street Journal reports: Late last year, Verizon Communications got an unusual message from a media company that wanted its business: Spend your ad dollars with us or we’ll see you in court. The threat came from X, the social-media platform that has been struggling to resuscitate its ad business after many corporate advertisers fled over concerns about loosened content-moderation standards following Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase in late 2022. It worked. Verizon, which hadn’t advertised on X since…

Read More Read More

The first mass movement against the Trump regime has begun

The first mass movement against the Trump regime has begun

David A. Graham writes: For months, as Donald Trump has hollowed out the executive branch, defied courts, and worked to suppress dissent, his critics have rightly worried about the lack of visible public opposition. Democratic Party leaders are still obsessing over the 2024 election; outside organizations are fatigued; and mass protests such as those seen in the early months of Trump’s first term have been missing. That began to change over the past few days, as demonstrations arose in Los…

Read More Read More

For Trump, safeguarding Los Angeles was never the point

For Trump, safeguarding Los Angeles was never the point

Michelle Goldberg writes: Since Donald Trump was elected again, I’ve feared one scenario above all others: that he’d call out the military against people protesting his mass deportations, putting America on the road to martial law. Even in my more outlandish imaginings, however, I thought that he’d need more of a pretext to put troops on the streets of an American city — against the wishes of its mayor and governor — than the relatively small protests that broke out…

Read More Read More