Juan Cole is interviewed. “We are living in an era of plague, economic depression, and civil unrest. We worry about our loved ones every day as tensions between the US and Iran increase, and coronavirus magnifies the impacts of US sanctions. In this context, what are the everlasting implications of multiple crises happening at the […]
Amid Pandemic Spike, Israel cuts Electricity to Palestinian Hamlets in Apparent Pressure to accept Annexation
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Palestinians are saying that Israel, the Occupation Authority, cut off their electricity last week. Akram al-Waraa at Middle East Eye reports that locals believe that the black out was intended to send the message that Israel controls their lives and they should not make trouble over the impending Israeli annexation […]
Trump, Convicted of University Fraud, wants to Defund the Universities to Stop People Thinking
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump notoriously set up a phony “university” to bilk prospective students of millions of dollars. He lost a civil suit to the outraged victims and had to pay them $25 million. Now the stable genius is coming for America’s universities. He wants to kick out all international students where their […]
For Trump, Schools are just a Pawn: He wants the Parents back at work for his Reelection Campaign
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump is insisting that schools must open normally in the fall or he will cut their funding. About 10 percent of US K-12 education funding comes from the Federal government but most of it is paid for by local taxes. The Federal portion is allotted by Congress and Trump doesn’t […]
How Trump lost Iran to China: 25-Year ‘Lion-Dragon Deal’ makes Iran part of One Belt, One Road
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 2015 nuclear deal signed by the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany with Iran had the potential to bring Iran into the world community economically and politically. Iran at one point intended to buy 80 Boeing civilian airliners, creating jobs in Seattle. A country with extensive […]
UN Special Rapporteur: US Drone Strike killing Iranian Gen. Soleimani was Unlawful
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Agnes Callamard, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has concluded in a new report that the Trump administration’s killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport on January 3 was unlawful. Callamard has the responsibility to report on killings by drone. Anna Germoni […]
Coal and Covid: Trump Facilitates both in a backward US as Europe makes strides against Both
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US management of the Covid-19 crisis has been horrible compared to Europe, as the famous chart makes clear. I don’t know if the bar-goers actually know how to read a chart, but that line going up is the US and that is bad, and the line hugging the bottom […]
Was February ’20 Peak Oil Demand? Petroleum might never Recover From Covid-19 and EVs
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Julien Mieville at AFP asks the big question: Has global demand for petroleum peaked? The meme of “peak oil” once referred to the notion that production would at some point peak and then fall, driving prices sky high, but that theory developed before the fracking revolution and was never very […]
When will Palestine have its Declaration of Independence?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Americans’ commemoration of the Fourth of July in 2020 was often a bit subdued, depending on where in the country you were, given the pandemic and its economic consequences. The subject of the celebration, however, was the foundation of a democratic republic that aspired to be made up of free […]
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