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Juan Cole

Authoritarianism
Tragedies, Farces and Trump's Coup d'état: The History of an Idea

Tragedies, Farces and Trump’s Coup d’état: The History of an Idea

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amy Gardner at the Washington Post got the scoop. In an hour-long telephone call to Georgia officials, including the the secretary of state, Trump browbeat them and hinted around that he could arrange jail time for them or foment unrest or spoil the January 5 senatorial run-off unless they found […]

Donald Trump
Trump and Iran in Last 17 Days: Will they or Won't They?

Trump and Iran in Last 17 Days: Will they or Won’t They?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There is a lot of buzz inside the Beltway, most of it generated inside the Beltway, about possible hostilities between Iran and the Trump administration in the Mad President’s last 17 days in office. Some of this buzz is around today’s January 3rd, 2020, anniversary of Trump’s assassination of Gen. […]

Displaced and Refugees
The Apartheid Pandemic:  As 10% of Israelis get Covid Vaccine, Zero Occupied Palestinians have-- Will wait Months

The Apartheid Pandemic: As 10% of Israelis get Covid Vaccine, Zero Occupied Palestinians have– Will wait Months

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some ten percent of Israelis have already been given the coronavirus shot, showing what an efficient government can do for its citizens with the right medical and administrative infrastructure. The Trump administration has not been able to ramp up the actual shots in arms, despite shipping millions of doses of […]

Internet
Thanks to our Generous and Wonderful Readers

Thanks to our Generous and Wonderful Readers

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We’re pretty sure that when all is said and done, we made our fundraising goal again this year. We can’t thank our generous and wonderful readers enough. This is what it truly means to be a reader-supported site. Those of you who are expecting copies of The Rubaiyat of Omar […]

Books
New Year Bliss in Persian Poetry:  the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

New Year Bliss in Persian Poetry: the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – After the dark year of 2020, I thought it might be nice to talk about poetry and rebirth today. The quatrains or Rubaiyat attributed to the medieval astronomer Omar Khayyam (d. 1131), four-line Persian poems, are often about renewal, and some make special mention of New Year’s Day (Now-Ruz in […]

Climate Crisis
So long, Sucker!  Top 6 Reasons we Won't miss you, 2020, or Trump, either

So long, Sucker! Top 6 Reasons we Won’t miss you, 2020, or Trump, either

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My late friend Fernando Coronil once observed that in order to understand the people of the past we must also understand their own visions of the future. In the 2014 science fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, based on a Japanese young adult novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi […]

Donald Trump
The Arrogance of Superpower:  Trump will "Let" Iranians import Coronavirus Vaccine

The Arrogance of Superpower: Trump will “Let” Iranians import Coronavirus Vaccine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump has given Iran permission to buy the coronavirus vaccine, according to Sharif Nizam Mafi, the head of the Iran-Switzerland join chamber of commerce. Take a moment to let the enormity of this statement sink in. The United States of America will let Iran have the coronavirus vaccine? Iran has […]

Donald Trump
Biden to invoke Defense Production Act for Vaccine manufacture.  Trump?  Playing Golf at Mar-a-Lago

Biden to invoke Defense Production Act for Vaccine manufacture. Trump? Playing Golf at Mar-a-Lago

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Will Feuer at CNBC reports that Joe Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up the manufacture of more doses of the coronavirus vaccine. You may ask yourself, why has this not already been done? Trump said on December 9 that he “might” invoke the Korea War-era act, […]

China
How incompetent Boob Trump took down America and launched the Chinese Century

How incompetent Boob Trump took down America and launched the Chinese Century

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The twentieth century was dubbed “the American Century” in 1941 by Time magazine publisher Henry Luce. Luce hoped that Americans would abandon their isolationism and seek international allies, joining against the Axis in WW II. It was then more wishful thinking on his part than reality, but his wish arguably […]

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Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


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