By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Raqqa, the capital of the ISIL phony “caliphate” in eastern Syria, has completely fallen, according to a spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. It is just a matter of neutralizing a few remaining cells and defusing booby traps in the city. The SDF is primarily […]
Archives for October 2017
Trump told widow of slain Sgt., he “knew what he was getting into”
CBS News | (Video Report) | – – “U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson said that she was in the car when President Trump called the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in Niger. Wilson said Trump said Johnson “knew what he was getting into. Wilson spoke to CBS Miami about the […]
Justice Roberts used bad Data to end Voting Rights Act & other shoddy SCOTUS Mistakes
By Ryan Gabrielson | ( ProPublica ) | – – ProPublica review adds fuel to a longstanding worry about the nation’s highest court: The justices can botch the truth, sometimes in cases of great import. In 2007, a group of California Institute of Technology scientists working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory filed suit against the […]
“Tell me how this Ends”- Gen. Petraeus has decided Forever War Doesn’t
By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – It took 14 years, but now we have an answer. It was March 2003, the invasion of Iraq was underway, and Major General David Petraeus was in command of the 101st Airborne Division heading for the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Rick Atkinson, Washington Post journalist and military […]
3 ways Trump’s nuclear strategy misunderstands Iran’s Mood
By Nancy Gallagher | (The Conversation) | – – U.S. President Donald Trump has refused to tell Congress that the 2015 nuclear deal the Obama administration reached with Iran and five other world powers still serves U.S. national interests. This refusal, or decertification, went against top officials in his own government and the International Atomic […]
No, It Wasn’t Iran: Top 7 Reasons Baghdad took Kirkuk
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Iraqi Army and its Shiite militia adjuncts have taken Kirkuk city and raised the Iraqi flag over the state house, taking down the Kurdistan flag. They also have an army base and oil fields in Kirkuk province, which they are returning to the control of […]
France’s Macron slams Trump ‘Bad Policy’ by Mulling Iran Visit, Seeking Trade
TeleSur Macron’s visit to Iran would be the first by a French head of state or government since 1976. Widening transatlantic divisions are coming into focus as traditional U.S. allies are recoiling at U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the nuclear deal with Iran. The divide was underscored Sunday as French President Emmanuel Macron […]
Legal weed: An accidental solution to the opioid crisis?
By Stephanie Lake | (The Conversation) | – – . . . The opioid overdose epidemic is . . . [the] gravest public health crisis since the emergence of HIV in the 1980s. With its roots in the over-prescription of high-potency painkillers, sparked by the contamination of the illicit drug supply with fentanyl and related […]
Morocco’s Solar Power Revolution Sparks Jobs, High-Tech Investment
The World Bank | (Video News Report) | – – “Concentrating Solar Power, CSP, is huge in Morocco. Literally, it’s huge. Panels almost the size of tennis courts stretch across acres of desert at the 4 Noor plants in Ouarzazate, providing enough power to light up Marrakesh at night. Learn how it’s done, what it […]








