Overturning Roe, and More

"Overturning Roe: The GOP sees an opening," The Week, January 17, 2020.
"The [Supreme Court] struck down an 'indistinguishable' Texas law just four years ago,' said Mark Stern in Slate.com. " ' In a remarkable act of chutzpah,' Republicans are saying the Texas ruling left states confused how to define an 'undue burden' on abortion rights, so the court should simply overturn its precedent and remove the right to abortion altogether." "In most red states, Roe 'has long been more concept than reality,' said Katie McDonough in NewRepublic.com. "Although 77 percent of Americans say they support Roe, abortion rights have been under assault for decades, as states made it 'more expensive, more time consuming, and more humiliating to access.' "

Gabriel Winent, "No Going Back," The Nation, February 3, 2020.
"He [Matt Stoller, the author of "The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy"] insists that almost all of American history can be understood in terms of the struggle between the forces of monopoly on the one hand, and democracy on the other." "Unshackled from regulatory restraints, big-box retail spread across  small-town America while banks and more exotic financial firms began to reassert themselves, growing in size and power."

"Stoller is, of course, correct that the Democrats failed utterly to channel the miseries of neoliberalism into a political challenge and instead have served as handmaidens to increasing inequality." "The idea [is] that our economy has acquired a predatory, parasitic stratum at its top than needs to be stripped off, allowing the underlying system to work as intended."

Jennie Wilson, "Undercover," The Nation,February 3, 2020.
"For as long as it operated, the CIA made itself abundantly clear where it stood on questions of racial equality and black self-determination, trying to undermine the Black Panther Party and Martin Luther King's Poor Peoples' Campaign, and having a hand in Nelson Mandela's arrest." "The failure of his [Obama's] administration to push for bold agendas on issues like the racial wage gap, and mass incarceration spurred conversations about the limits of representation and neoliberal uses of identity."

Robert L. Borosage, "The Way Out," The Week, February 3, 2020.
"He [Trump] exhibits all the hallmarks of petulant adolescence: revolt against authority, juvenile posturing, thoughtless risk-taking, and trying to cover his crack-ups by lying, blaming others, and tweeting tantrums."

"He [Trump] seeks credit for ending the wars in the Middle East,while dispatching an additional 17,000 troops to the region." "Indeed, rather than seek negotiations, he promised even more punishing sanctions, ratcheting up the tensions in the region."

Eric Alterman, Where Power Lies," The Nation, February 3, 2020.
"This willingness to play Republican patsy has turned America's most important news sources into willing participants in Trump's war on truth."Too few outlets have pointed out that, in reparation for his Senate trial, Trump has showered cash contributions on the same Republican senators who will be on his jury."

Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, has said: "Any senator who accepts cash from a real Donald Trump before the impeachment trial is guilty of accepting a bribe and should go to the slammer."

John Nichols, "Economic Warfare," The Nation, February 3, 2020."
"As we continue to evaluate options to Iranian aggression, the United States will immediately impose additional sanctions to the Iranian regime. 'These powerful sanctions will remain until Iran changes its behavior, Trump says." Rep. Ilha Omer (D-Minn.) replied: "This makes no sense. Sanctions are economic warfare.. They have already caused medical shortages and sanctions. This is not a measured response."

Rachal Nolan, "Language Barrier," The New Yorker, January 6, 2020.
"Guatemala has a population of fifteen million people, forty per cent of them indigenous, according to the most recent census. In the past year, two hundred and fifty thousand Guatemalan immigrants have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. At least some of them are Mayans, and many speak little or no Spanish."

"Credibility is a official factor in a judge's assessment of an asylum claim. And much can be lost on the phone. The  U.S. government claims to provide proper translation at all point in the immigration process, but in practice, rarely offers Mayan-language translation at the border or in holding cells." "The indigenous population is likely the least able to understand their rights and may therefore have been susceptible to losing their children, and waiving away their asylum rights."

"Briefly Noted," The New Yorker, January 13, 2020.
The week before Ruth Marcus published her account of the confirmation battle over Bret Kavanaugh, President Trump took to Twitter, calling her book "a badly written & and researched disaster." "In fact, with meticulous reporting, Marcus reveals the high-level plotting that preceded Trump's politically fraught pick and probes the drama that followed it."

ADDENDUM:
* Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U., reported in mid-January that six children had died in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security since Donald Trump took office.