Category Archives: history

Spencer Ackerman REIGN OF TERROR: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America & Produced Trump

Spencer Ackerman had just graduated from Rutgers University, when the attacks on 9/11 occurred. He began his journalism career, focused on national security, with the New Republic in 2002, and then went on to write for Wired, The Guardian and The Daily Beast.

He won a 2012 National Magazine Award for his reporting on biased FBI training, and a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (with Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, Laura Poitras, and others at the Guardian) for reporting on revelations of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency based on the Edward Snowden revelations.

His recent book, REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA AND PRODUCED TRUMP, was published by Viking in August, 2021. We spoke with him on December 3, 2021.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this interview:

House Responds To GOP’s Lauren Boebert With Islamophobia Bill Sponsored By Ilhan Omar https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-us-congress-boebert-omar_n_61b9c78ae4b0317f6dcec77a

US rejects calls for regulating or banning ‘killer robots’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/02/us-rejects-calls-regulating-banning-killer-robots

The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/08/the-rise-of-the-killer-robots-jody-williams-mary-warehan-artificial-intelligence-autonomous-weapons

How Sept. 11Gave Us Jan. 6 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/opinion/how-sept-11-gave-us-jan-6.html?searchResultPosition=4

McChrystal: ‘Impossible to Argue’ War on Terror Was Worth It https://www.thedailybeast.com/mcchrystal-impossible-to-argue-war-on-terror-was-worth-it?ref=author

Donald Rumsfeld, Killer of 400,000 People, Dies Peacefully https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-rumsfeld-killer-of-400000-people-dies-peacefully?ref=author

Secret Court Reveals: FBI Hunted for Domestic Terrorists Without a Warrant https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-court-reveals-fbi-hunted-for-domestic-terrorists-without-a-warrant?ref=author

The Insurrection Isn’t Over https://www.huffpost.com/entry/insurrection-republican-party-trump_n_60b1217ae4b04ddf13edbe9d

Maj. Ian Fishback, Who Exposed Abuse of Detainees, Dies at 42 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/us/ian-fishback-dead.html?surface=most-popular&fellback=false&req_id=485534344&algo=bandit-all-surfaces&variant=0_bandit-all-surfaces&pool=pool/91fcf81c-4fb0-49ff-bd57-a24647c85ea1&imp_id=505104580&action=click&module=Popular%20in%20The%20Times&pgtype=Homepage

Pentagon Chief Orders New Inquiry Into U.S. Airstrike That Killed Dozens in Syria https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/us/politics/pentagon-airstrike-syria.html

‘The goal was to silence people’: historian Joanne Freeman on congressional violence https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/28/historian-joanne-freeman-congressional-violence-paul-gosar

US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/22/us-list-backsliding-democracies-civil-liberties-international

Can American democracy escape the doom loop? So far, the signs are not promising https://www.salon.com/2021/12/10/democracy-doom-loop/

Kathleen Belew A Field Guide to White Supremacy

Kathleen Belew is an international authority on the White-Power Movement and Assistant Professor of History at the university of Chicago.

Her 2018 book, BRING THE WAR HOME: THE WHITE POWER MOVEMENT AND PARAMILITARY AMERICA, published by The Harvard University Press, was a hugely important work toward our understanding of the international white supremacy movement.

She now has a compilation of essays, A FIELD GUIDE TO WHITE SUPREMACY, which she co-edited with her colleague at the University of Chicago, History Professor, Ramón A. Gutiérrez. It contains the writings of a diverse group of writers, among them Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Jamelle Bouie, Judith Butler, Rebecca Solnit, just to name a few.

In September of 2019, Professor Belew was a witness at a congressional hearing on confronting white nationalism. In her witness statement, she described the white power movement as a threat to our democracy and that that is was transnational. Her research and writings decry the notion that attacks such as the massacres at the Christchurch Mosque, the Tree of Life Synagogue, or the El Paso walmart are the work of lone wolves. We spoke with Kathleen Belew on October 28, 2021.

Articles referred or pertinent to this interview can be found here:

A historian of white power reacts to the Rittenhouse verdict: ‘a bonanza for the far-right’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/24/historian-white-power-reacts-kyle-rittenhouse-verdict-far-right

Three Trials in America – The conversations playing out in courtrooms in Kenosha, Charlottesville, and Georgia are revealing https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/10/kenosha-charlottesville-georgia-trials-justice-system-race.html

Neo-Nazi duo handed nine-year US prison terms over apparent attack plot https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/28/neo-nazi-the-base-far-right-us-prison-terms

Victims of Charlottesville Rally Argue the Violence Was Planned https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/charlottesville-rally-trial.html

U.S. Border Agency Settles With 2 Americans Detained for Speaking Spanish https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/us/montana-spanish-border-patrol.html?searchResultPosition=1

A 19th-Century Law Dismantled The KKK. Now It Could Bring Down A New Generation Of Extremists https://www.huffpost.com/entry/charlotesville-spencer-kessler-trial-spitalnik_n_61730a2ee4b09314320ae288

How higher education can win the war against neoliberalism and white supremacy https://www.salon.com/2021/10/24/how-higher-education-can-win-the-against-neoliberalism-and-supremacy/

2020 Had The Most Reported Hate Crimes Since 2001: FBI Data https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fbi-2020-hate-crimes-asian-americans_n_6176fd81e4b010d933148e55

“Diversity,” “White Supremacist” Among Terms WI GOP Seeks to Ban in Schools https://truthout.org/articles/diversity-white-supremacist-among-terms-wi-gop-seeks-to-ban-in-schools/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1e0e4c93-75bb-4f98-941f-8f5c9ca0dbce

California synagogue killer not allowed to speak as he gets life without parole https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/01/california-synagogue-killer-not-allowed-speak-life-without-parole

Abortion Has Just Never Been About Abortion https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/opinion/abortion-evangelicals-conservatives.html

White supremacists declare war on democracy and walk away unscathedhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/10/white-supremacists-war-on-democracy-unscathed

Giulio Boccaletti WATER: A Biography

In addition to having been a lead author of the fifth Assessment Report to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Giulio Boccaletti was Chief Strategy Officer and Global Managing Director for Water at The Nature Conservancy, where he led a team of over 200 freshwater scientists, policy experts, economists and on-the-ground conservation practitioners, promoting action on water issues by governments and businesses.

Earlier in his career, he was a partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he co-founded the water practice and worked with businesses and governments around the world. He trained at MIT, Princeton and Bologna University in Physics and Atmospheric Science. His book, WATER: A Biography, was published in Sept. 2021 by Pantheon Books. We spoke with him in England on October 15.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this interview:

He’s Got a Plan for Cities That Flood: Stop Fighting the Water https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/climate/sponge-cities-kongjian-yu.html

Lobbyist for Saudi Alfalfa Company Desiccating Arizona Was Elected to Maricopa County Board of Supervisors https://theintercept.com/2022/11/28/maricopa-supervisors-saudi-lobbyist-thomas-galvin/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter

Spring time: why an ancient water system is being brought back to life in Spain https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/11/ancient-water-system-restore-spain-sierra-nevada-aoe

Flooding could shut down a quarter of all critical infrastructure in the U.S. https://www.axios.com/flood-risk-united-states-critical-infrastructure-a8703d5b-8d95-4584-8bc3-4ea086b83cfa.html

Slow water: can we tame urban floods by going with the flow? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/07/slow-water-urban-floods-drought-china-sponge-cities

China floods: Nearly 2 million displaced in Shanxi province https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58866854

Joe Manchin’s Climate Objections Opposed by BP and Shell https://www.newsweek.com/joe-manchin-build-back-better-clean-energy-joe-biden-bp-shell-1640230

As Manchin Blocks Climate Plan, His State Can’t Hold Back Floods https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/climate/manchin-west-virginia-flooding.html

It’s easy to feel pessimistic about the climate. But we’ve got two big things on our side https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/15/climate-crisis-cop26-bill-mckibben

The Climate Disaster Is Here https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/oct/14/climate-change-happening-now-stats-graphs-maps-cop26

Corporations are pledging to be ‘water positive’. What does that mean? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/14/water-positive-pledge-corporations

The Lost Canyon Under Lake Powell https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/the-lost-canyon-under-lake-powell

Andrew Cockburn The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine

Award winning journalist, documentary film producer and Harper’s Washington, DC editor, Andrew Cockburn, comes from an illustrious family of British journalists. In addition, he has been married to American journalist and documentarian, Leslie Cockburn, since 1977.

For more than four decades, he has focused on national security not just of the United States, but of the Soviet Union as well. Beginning with his Peabody Award winning 1981 PBS film, THE RED ARMY, which was the first in-depth study of deficiencies in the Soviet military, he has covered the wars in Afghanistan since the 1980s with his wife, Leslie Cockburn. In 2009, they produced the film AMERICAN CASINO on the financial collapse of 2007. His 8th book, THE SPOILS OF WAR: POWER, PROFIT and the AMERICAN WAR MACHINE, has just been published by Verso.

In it he asserts that “The record shows America’s Afghan War was nothing other than a prolonged and entirely successful operation – to loot the US Taxpayer. At least a quarter of a million Afghans, not to mention 3,500 US & allied troops paid a heavier price.”

He is proud to be descended from Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, who ordered the burning of Washington in 1814, as he recounts in this interview.

We spoke with Andrew Cockburn on Sept. 29, 2021, as the Senate Armed Services Committee was grilling Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, about the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years and trillions of dollars spent, which they characterized as “a logistical success but a strategic failure.”

Articles referred to or pertinent to this interview:

Biden’s Top Middle East Adviser ‘Torched The House And Showed Up With A Firehose’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mcgurk-biden-middle-east-adviser_n_628f97a4e4b0933e73705793

THE UNSEEN SCARS OF THOSE WHO KILL VIA REMOTE CONTROL https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/drones-airstrikes-ptsd.html

War in Afghanistan Isn’t Over — It’s Taking the Form of Illegal Drone Strikes https://truthout.org/articles/war-in-afghanistan-isnt-over-its-taking-the-form-of-illegal-drone-strikes/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=85e66ca2-fcf5-49a4-a3d3-bbcfa2db97a9

A Dam in Syria Was on a ‘No-Strike’ List. The U.S. Bombed It Anyway. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/us/airstrike-us-isis-dam.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=US%20News

IN RE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20210920a80

Second Circuit Reinstates Insurers’ Suit Against Saudi Bank Stemming from 9/11 Terrorist Attacks https://www.law.com/insurance-coverage-law-center/2020/09/11/second-circuit-reinstates-insurers-suit-against-saudi-bank-stemming-from-911-terrorist-attacks/?slreturn=20210826182432

My father was brutally killed by the Taliban. The US ignored his pleas for help https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/27/father-killed-taliban-us-ignored-pleas-daughter-afghan-president

Support for Nuclear Ban Treaty Is Rising. Nuclear Nations Are on the Defensive. https://truthout.org/articles/support-for-nuclear-ban-treaty-is-rising-nuclear-nations-are-on-the-defensive/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4ed37bf3-fa8f-40c4-94b4-932aea3990de

Stop Calling the Military Budget a ‘Defense’ Budget https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/10/05/stop-calling-military-budget-defense-budget?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

Fewer Democrats This Year Supported a 10 Percent Cut to the Defense Budget https://truthout.org/articles/fewer-democrats-this-year-supported-a-10-percent-cut-to-the-defense-budget/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=85e66ca2-fcf5-49a4-a3d3-bbcfa2db97a9

Are the Motives of War Profiteers Driving Us to the Brink of a New Cold War? https://truthout.org/articles/are-the-motives-of-war-profiteers-driving-us-to-the-brink-of-a-new-cold-war/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4ed37bf3-fa8f-40c4-94b4-932aea3990de

Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/afghanistan-us-foreign-wars-congresswoman-barbara-lee

Barbara Lee Offers Amendment to Reduce Pentagon Budget by $25 Billion https://truthout.org/articles/barbara-lee-offers-amendment-to-reduce-pentagon-budget-by-25-billion/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=9dd7dc3c-f6d6-4669-87fd-a5b2f6b00948

Nearly 50 Groups Demand Passage of Amendments to Cut Pentagon Budget https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/22/nearly-50-groups-demand-passage-amendments-cut-pentagon-budget?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

Carrie Krause – Baroque Music Montana

Carrie Krause is the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra’s Concert Master, as well as the Founder/Director of Baroque Music Montana.

She founded The Second String Orchestra in 2010 for amateur musicians.

She teaches young people in her studio of about 25 students.

We spoke with Carrie on September 30, 2021 about Baroque Music Montana’s historic performance at Gallatin High School’s Auditorium on October 9, 2021, which is the first public performance there. This event, “Amadeus: The Concert,” also features our wonderful high school chamber ensemble, Kamarata.

Todd Miller Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders

Returning to Forthright Radio is Izzy Award winning Todd Miller. He was our guest in 2017, when the book that won the Izzy Award, STORMING THE WALL: CLIMATE CHANGE, MIGRATION, AND HOMELAND SECURITY, came out. Last Spring of 2021, City Lights published his latest book, BUILD BRIDGES, NOT WALLS: A Journey to a World Without Borders. We spoke with him on August 30, 2021.

Building Bridges his his fourth book on border issues.

“As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The broadcast ended with this piece by David Shuster, Trump’s Border Wall WRECKED By Storms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F81SPqWNO0c

Supreme court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/24/supreme-court-biden-trump-remain-in-mexico-migrant-policy

Federal Judge Debunks Greg Abbott’s COVID-Fighting Rationale, Blocks Texas Governor’s Ban on Transporting Migrants https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pandemic/federal-judge-debunks-greg-abbotts-covid-fighting-rationale-blocks-texas-governors-ban-on-transporting-migrants/

The wall Trump built for a fake crisis just got washed away by floods from a real crisis https://www.mic.com/p/the-wall-trump-built-for-a-fake-crisis-just-got-washed-away-by-floods-from-a-real-crisis-84116464

Repression Without Borders https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/opinion/sunday/repression-human-rights-china-turkey-russia.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Editorials

The Housing First Village in Bozeman https://forthright.media/2021/08/26/housing-first-village/

Thom Hartmann – The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You & Makes Others Insanely Rich

Thom Hartmann has had a very interesting life, campaigning for Barry Goldwater at the age of 13 with his father in Michigan, and a few years later protesting the war in Vietnam with Students for a Democratic Society, SDS. He’s an ordained Minister with Coptic Fellowship International. In the 1970s, He founded numerous businesses from an herbal products company to The New England Salem Children’s Village. He founded International Wholesale Travel & subsidiary in 1983. He moved to Germany with his family to work with Salem International, a relief agency. He founded the advertising agency, The Newsletter Factory. In 1996, he sold that company and retired to Vermont.

From 1968 to 1978 he worked as a DJ and news director at Lansing Michigan radio stations. In 2003, he started a radio show on a local station in Vermont, which was quickly picked up by IE America Radio Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. He moved to Oregon in 2005, and in addition to continuing his national show, he co-hosted a local talk show in Portland. And he’s also done a tv program.

By my count, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICAN HEALTHCARE: WHY SICKNESS BANKRUPTS YOU AND MAKES OTHERS INSANELY RICH is number 31.

Some articles by Thom Hartmann or pertinent to this interview can be found here:

When Will We Stop Letting Our Presidents Lie America Into Wars? https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/17/when-will-we-stop-letting-our-presidents-lie-america-wars?

Neoliberal economics have failed, and everyone knows it. But are the Democrats strong enough to seize the moment? https://www.salon.com/2021/08/15/the-crisis-of-neoliberalism-america-arrives-at-one-of-historys-great-crossroads_partner/

Don’t blame Russian trolls for America’s anti-vaxx problem. Our misinformation is homegrown https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/18/facebook-fazze-russian-trolls-anti-vaxx-misinformation

American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/17/american-chief-executive-pay-wages-workers

We Must Fight Privatization of Medicare and Medicaid to Win Single-Payer https://truthout.org/articles/we-must-fight-privatization-of-medicare-and-medicaid-to-win-single-payer/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=94218a9b-fb8d-4f5c-ad48-b0ec4766802b

‘Your child will wait for another child to die.’ Amid Covid-19 surge, Dallas County has no pediatric ICU beds left, county judge says https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/13/us/dallas-county-no-pediatric-icu-beds-left/index.html

No one wanted to read’ his book on pandemic psychology – then Covid hit https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/19/book-psychology-pandemics-steven-taylor

The Real “Cancel Culture” Scheme By Republicans Revealed https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2021/03/real-cancel-culture-scheme-republicans-revealed

America is full of ‘democracy deserts’. Wisconsin rivals Congo on some metrics https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/america-is-full-of-democracy-deserts-wisconsin-rivals-congo-on-some-metrics

Tens of Thousands Sign Petition Calling for Ron DeSantis (Death Sentence) to Be Recalled https://truthout.org/articles/tens-of-thousands-sign-petition-calling-for-ron-desantis-to-be-recalled/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=c2c4a910-3cf5-40b1-8599-85bbf788c2db

Santa Claus Is About To Drop a Bomb On Biden https://hartmannreport.com/p/santa-clause-is-about-to-drop-a-bomb

Alexander Hinton IT CAN HAPPEN HERE: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US

Alexander Hinton is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University. 

He is the author of over a dozen books including the award-winning Why did they Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide; Man or Monster? The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer; and The Justice Facade: Trials of Transition in Cambodia. His new book is It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US published by NYU Press.

He was an expert witness in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia Genocide Trial. Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two, Nuon Chea, was ultimately convicted of charges of genocide. He died in prison on August 4, 2019 at the age of 93.

At the end of the interview, we quoted Ulysses S. Grant:

“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.”

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine? A human rights expert looks at the warning signs https://theconversation.com/is-russia-committing-genocide-in-ukraine-a-human-rights-expert-looks-at-the-warning-signs-180017

A Voice of Hate in America’s Heartland https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/ohio-hovater-white-nationalist.html?searchResultPosition=1

The South Must Teach Its Children the Truth https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/opinion/South-slavery-Confederacy-curriculum.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Opinion

A Fight Over Zoning Tests Charlottesville’s Progress on Race https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/us/charlottesville-va-zoning-affordable-housing.html

Fourth Police Officer Who Responded to Jan. 6 Attack Dies By Suicide https://www.huffpost.com/entry/officer-kyle-defreytag_n_61089f3de4b038cedb36e4ae

Tucker Carlson TO Speak at Hungarian Far-Right Conference https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-orban-hungary-far-right_n_6108bbd1e4b038cedb36fa71

Want to Make Jim Jordan Sing About the Capitol Attack? Ask Jefferson Davis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/02/want-to-make-jim-jordan-sing-about-the-capitol-attack-ask-jefferson-davis

Malignant normality: The psychological theory that explains naked emperors, narcissists and Nazis https://www.salon.com/2021/08/12/malignant-normality-the-psychological-theory-that-explains-naked-emperors-narcissists-and-nazis/

Jan-Werner Müller – DEMOCRACY RULES: Liberty, Equality, Uncertainty

Jan-Werner Müller is a German political philosopher and historian of political ideas at Princeton University, where he has taught political theory and the history of political ideas since 2005.

His books, which have been translated into numerous languages, include What Is Populism? (2016), Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth Century Europe (2011), Constitutional Patriotism (2007) and others.

His latest book is Democracy Rules: Liberty, Equality, Uncertainly, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2021.

In addition, he writes opinion pieces for The Guardian, New York Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, as well as others.

This edition of Forthright Radio concludes with a poem by Dan Roberts, “Holy Card for Greta Number 3.” You can find out more about Dan’s work including The Shortwave Report, Rhythm Running River, and the award winning Youth Speaks Out, as well as his photography and paintings here: http://outfarpress.com/

Articles pertinent to this interview include:

America’s famed ‘checks-and-balances’ governance system is failing https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/16/checks-balances-failing-trump-supreme-court

Is barring Trump from office undemocratic? Let’s assess point by point https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/is-barring-trump-from-office-undemocratic

President Biden finally is sounding the alarm about democracy. Good https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/10/president-biden-finally-is-sounding-the-alarm-about-democracy-good

The American right is whitewashing Hungary’s nasty, autocratic regime https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/24/the-american-right-is-whitewashing-hungarys-nasty-autocratic-regime

Madison Cawthorn backed the Capitol attack. Will he be barred from office? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/07/madison-cawthorn-backed-the-capitol-attack-will-he-be-barred-from-office

Populism and the People https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n10/jan-werner-mueller/populism-and-the-people

‘It’s chilling what is happening’: a rightwing backlash to Biden takes root in Republican states https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/19/joe-biden-republicans-polarization-us-politics-texas

They Rejected Democracy. They Lied. And They Spent July Fourth Calling Themselves Patriots. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-overturn-presidential-election-capitol-riot-july-4_n_60e4793ee4b0e01b6b233fc3

Abolishing the filibuster won’t lead to a ‘tyranny of the majority’. It’s quite the opposite https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/22/filibuster-senate-joe-manchin

Enchaining democracy: The now-transnational project of the US corporate libertarian right https://mcusercontent.com/cca23739793ff131bae0a457f/files/7855428a-b505-762c-0032-c336e7bb5222/MacLean_The_Now_Transnational_Project.pdf

Guest column: Eroding public schools’ role as the great equalizer https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-eroding-public-schools-role-as-the-great-equalizer/article_aeff6b67-daef-5cd9-a797-fa93b0aff737.html

Athens: The Truth About Democracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPnUK176AR0

Tamim Ansary GAMES WITHOUT RULES: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan

This edition of Forthright Radio from February 6, 2013, features an interview with Afghan-American author, Tamim Ansary, discussing his book, GAMES WITHOUT RULES: THE OFTEN INTERRUPTED HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN, published by Public Affairs. As the United States and allies withdraw troops after 20 years of occupation and warfare in Afghanistan, it is well worth hearing again, because it speaks to the evolving situation there.

Tamim Ansary was born in Afghanistan in 1948, as a very young boy, he fell in love with history, and when Arnold Toynbee came through his hometown of Lashkargah, someone told him of a history loving 9 year old little bookworm, and he invited Tamim to tea. The rest, as they say, is history.

Tamim Ansary moved to the United States in 1964. He worked on textbooks for the Texas school system, out of which experience came his book, DESTINY DISRUPTED: A HISTORY OF THE WORLD THROUGH ISLAMIC EYES. Among his other books are WEST OF KABUL, EAST OF NEW YORK, as well as numerous books for children of different ages and reading levels. He has written a monthly column in Encarta. com, and has published essays in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Alternet, TomPain.com, Edutopia, Parade, and the LA Times.

The Guardian published a piece by him on July 12, 2021 headlined:

History shows us that outsiders can never bring peace to Afghanistan https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/12/afghanistan-us-british-withdrawal-biden

In numbers: Life in Afghanistan after America leaves https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57767067

Armed Afghan women take to streets in show of defiance against Taliban https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/armed-afghan-women-take-to-streets-in-show-of-defiance-against-taliban