Global
In the high-stakes arena of modern American political power, performance art often threatens to eclipse substance. As the political machinery under federal executive leadership continues to reshape governance, public discourse, and institutional frameworks, critical observers are raising alarms about a troubling phenomenon: the persistent reliance on political spectacle, performative politics, and racialized tokenism to obscure systemic inequities and legal overhaul. This dynamic—where high-stakes policy decisions and constitutional principles are reframed as transactional entertainment—draws direct parallels to an enduring historical farce: The Minstrel Show.
Performative Governance vs. Institutional Reality
Fifth Estate reporting centers on holding state and federal power structures accountable. In evaluating current administrative moves, policy shifts, and public posturing, several distinct patterns emerge:
Today is the International Day of Peace. It arrives 10 days after September 11, which some have turned into a day of bigotry and willful ignorance.
After a quarter-century of calming down, it's now possible in some corners of this country to talk rationally about how massive, counterproductive U.S. militarism contributed to the horrific crime of 9/11/01 — without excusing or justifying it — and how doubling down on that militarism ever since has fueled greater hostility and violence.
Back then, adjusted for inflation, U.S. military spending was at $588 billion, and a bill in Congress now would explode it to $1.5 trillion.
When Dr. Mohammad Tawfiq left his medical practice in Egypt and traveled to Gaza in the middle of a devastating war, he knew he was entering a place where even the most basic medical care had become a struggle.
What he may not have known was that Gaza would change him forever.
Tawfiq, an Egyptian ophthalmologist, entered the Gaza Strip on May 1, 2024, before the Rafah crossing was closed. He stayed for 20 days, working under conditions few doctors would ever encounter.
There was an immediate problem: there was no operating room properly equipped for eye surgery.
So, he and the medical team did what they could. They searched for the necessary equipment, secured what was available, and worked to establish a functioning operating room so that patients could receive the surgeries they desperately needed.
Then, despite everything he had already witnessed, Tawfiq returned to Gaza for a second time.
Introduction
Trump set the stage for the war in Iran by withdrawing from an earlier agreement between the US and other states in which Iran allowed robust inspections of suspected sites and agreed, as Iran has consistently done, not to develop a nuclear weapon.
The terms of the agreement
The Arms Control Arms Control Association identifies some of the highlights of the agreement (https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheet/joint-comprehensive-plan-action-jcpoa-glance).
“The nuclear deal between Iran and the multilateral group of states known as the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 on July 20, 2015.
Iran’s compliance with the nuclear-related provisions of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) according to certain requirements set forth in the agreement.
In 1972, a small California law journal published professor Christopher Stone’s seminal article, “Should trees have standing?” Thirty-four years later, his thought experiment became legal reality when a rural community in Pennsylvania passed the first-ever rights of nature law in the western legal system, and by doing so sparked a global movement.
Twenty years ago this Saturday, on September 19, 2006, the Tamaqua Borough Council voted to adopt the Tamaqua Borough Sewage Sludge Ordinance which states that “residents, natural communities, and ecosystems shall be considered to be ‘persons’ for purposes of the enforcement of [their] civil rights.”
This marked the first time in the world that nature had enforceable legal rights within western law. Today, over 60 local governments and tribal nations in the U.S. and over 35 countries recognize the rights of nature in some way.
Dr. Bob and Dan-o Dougan play TV theme songs from their childhoods.
Listen live at 11pm Fridays, September 18 and 25, and Mondays, September 21 and 28 at 10am streaming at wgrn.org or on the radio at 91.9FM
and
Mondays at 2pm streaming September 21 and 28 at wcrsfm.org or on the radio at 92.7 or 98.3FM.
I attended an event last night at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard about Palestinian hostages held by Israel. The event was sponsored by Baladna, a newly established nonprofit organization that seeks to advance the Palestinian cause and promote Palestinian rights in Central Ohio.
The speakers were Ali Milhem, a Palestinian American, and Ahmad Aboukar, a Lebanese American attorney. The event was well organized and informative. However, there was no mention of Lebanese hostages held by Israel. For that reason, I would like to shed some light on this issue.
According to Lebanese human-rights organizations and other reports, Israeli forces have detained Lebanese civilians during military operations in and around southern Lebanon over the past several years. Israel has characterized some of those detained as combatants or security threats, while Lebanese officials and human-rights groups have disputed some of those characterizations and have raised concerns about the detention of civilians.
Harvey's comment at the
The New York Times
harvey wasserman | LA
While Newsom's concerns about AI are admirable & well-directed, we wish he would extend the same protections to the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors, which are effectively uninsured.
Their health & safety regulation is totally under the control of Donald Trump. And their horrific economics are responsible for the horrendous electric rates plaguing our state.
As with AI, the dangers with these reactors are complex and deep. We have more than enough renewable resources and battery back-up to avoid any further black/brownouts.
If the governor is genuinely concerned about the dangers of AI, he must extend that care to going totally post-nuclear as well.
There are some truly psychopathic ghouls in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, but as of today I am convinced that US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is the absolute worst of them.
As Israeli officials become more open about their plans for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip while the Macklemore controversy refocuses public attention on the abuses of Zionism, pro-Israel spinmeisters in both the mass media and the US government are falling all over themselves trying to regain control of the narrative.
During a frenzied ejaculation of propaganda on Newsmax about Macklemore and the pro-Palestine movement, Huckabee repeated long-discredited atrocity propaganda about the October 7 Hamas attack to explain why nobody should oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.