By Jonathan Fenton-Harvey for Informed Comment Iranian missiles raining down on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), targeting US military facilities but also hitting civilian areas and infrastructure, set an alarming precedent. The United States and Israel’s assault on Iran has dealt a severe blow to Oman’s efforts in Geneva last month to revive US-Iran talks. […]
Providing decent pensions in an ageing society, overcoming the affordability crisis driven by skyrocketing housing costs, and creating better-paid jobs for workers without university degrees are all essential to securing social peace and democracy. A compulsory, state-owned second-tier pension fund required to invest its capital exclusively in social housing can address all three challenges at [...]
Trump has brought the full extent of the war machine out into the open. Let’s channel public anger into organizing.
Without any clear message coming from the White House with regard to the purpose of the Iran war, U.S. military commanders have turned to Jesus, apparently telling American troops that the war is “biblically sanctioned.”The U.S. joined Israel in striking Iran early Saturday morning. By Monday evening, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, was “inundated” with complaints, receiving more than 110 grievances from U.S. military personnel stationed at dozens of sites across the Middle East, reported independent journalist Jonathan Larsen.One such note included an anecdote from a noncommissioned officer, who reported that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”The NCO’s complaint was lodged on behalf of 15 troops, including 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew, according to Larsen. The officer stated that such remarks “destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the [C]onstitution.”“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now,” the NCO wrote. “He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,’” the NCO continued. “He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy.”It wouldn’t be a stretch to blame some of the blatant constitutional violations on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has repeatedly evoked God and Christian nationalism in his time fronting the Pentagon. Hegseth has parroted the views of Douglas Wilson, a conservative theologian who advocated for Christian dominance over government and society. He has followed through in practice, instating regular prayer services at America’s military headquarters. He also entered office with several Christian symbols already emblazoned on his skin—a Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus vult”—in what Hegseth has described as emblems of the “modern-day American Christian crusade.”U.S. service members are afforded the religious liberty protections in the First Amendment. They also have a legal right to seek religious accommodations—and the MRFF told Larsen that it has been overwhelmed with complaints about commanders who are apparently tapping into the same sort of Christian nationalism espoused by the Pentagon chief.“These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new ‘biblically-sanctioned’ war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’ as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation,” MRFF president and founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House, told Larsen.“Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”
The YouGov poll reflects a seismic shift happening in UK politics after the Greens won a historic victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election last week.
The Trump administration is going to defend the president’s executive orders targeting law firms one day after apparently deciding to stop the fight in court. Administration lawyers asked an appeals court Monday if it could pull back from appealing its losses to the law firms. But the next morning, The New York Times reports, the Department of Justice suddenly flip-flopped, emailing the four law firms fighting the orders that it would file a motion to withdraw its dismissal. President Trump’s executive orders sought to prevent law firms that went against him from doing business with the government, and threatened their clients with the loss of government contracts. While some firms capitulated, such as Skadden and Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey decided to challenge the orders in court. The firms notched several victories, with judges ruling in favor of WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, Susman Godfrey, and Jenner & Block in multiple rulings. Until Tuesday, the administration was going to back down in the face of these losses, but then changed its mind. It’s not clear why the Trump administration decided to reverse course, or if the court will let the DOJ undo its dismissal. An unnamed administration official told the Times that the White House Counsel’s Office was discussing the next course of action. Did Trump himself personally intervene, or is the DOJ and White House not on the same page? This story has been updated.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem crumbled Tuesday when confronted about smearing Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot and killed by federal immigration agents earlier this year. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said that Noem calling Pretti a “domestic terrorist” was “one of the most hurtful things” his parents said they could ever imagine. “Do you have anything you want to say to Alex Pretti’s parents about their son?” Klobuchar asked.Rather than apologize, a wide-eyed Noem launched into a typical public relations response, claiming she’d relied on information from agents and couldn’t “even imagine” what Pretti’s parents had gone through. Klobuchar continued to press Noem to give a real answer. “Sir, I di—ma’am, I did not call him a domestic terrorist,” Noem replied. “I said it appeared to be an incident of.”Klobuchar scoffed. “I think the parents saw it for what it was,” she replied. Just hours after Pretti was shot and killed, Noem gave a press conference where she claimed he had committed an “act of domestic terrorism.” She also falsely claimed that Pretti had brandished a weapon, intending “to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” A surplus of video evidence and a review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection found that Pretti had done no such thing. A number of Trump administration officials quickly attempted to walk back the secretary’s baseless claims, but the damage was already done. Klobuchar wasn’t the only lawmaker to confront Noem with her false claims about Pretti: Louisiana Senator John Kennedy called out the secretary for trying to push the blame onto White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Kennedy read aloud from a January report by Axios that quoted Noem’s comments to a person familiar with her remarks. “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” the Republican recounted Noem saying. “Sir, I did not do that,” Noem claimed, and dismissed the comment because it came from an article that relied on anonymous sources. Little over a month after Pretti’s killing, and Noem still appears unwilling to take accountability for spreading dangerous misinformation.