Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 70th anniversary of NATO was commemorated with a low-key meeting rather than a summit and was not the united show of success hoped for by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, reports Al Jazeera. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made waves. And a CBC camera crew caught some NATO leaders, including Canada’s Justin […]
An Illustrated Guide to the Impeachment of Donald Trump
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a nearby place and very recently, Donald J. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and Mike Pompeo among others hatched a plot against Joe Biden, whom they fingered as the likely Democratic standard bearer in 2020. The plot was to make sure Biden was smeared as a corrupt […]
Tucker “Kremlin” Carlson Comes out for Putin
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Fox white nationalist pundit Tucker Carlson asked last night what is so bad about Putin. Kremlin Carlson had provoked a firestorm the previous week when he said that he took Russia’s side against Ukraine in the current low-intensity war between the two. When criticized, he said he was joking. Russia […]
Turning point in Climate Activism? Germans Block Coal Mines with their Bodies
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Deutsche Welle reports that that more than 1,000 green activists made their way past police lines and blocked trains at 3 important coal mines in eastern Germany on Saturday. A few clashes took place between police and protesters. The environmental group End of the Road claimed more like 4,000 people […]
Back to Jim Crow under Trump: ‘Lynch her’ is Republicans’ Big Idea to Deal with Rep. Ilhan Omar
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Liz Sawyer at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the Twitter account of Danielle Stella, the Republican challenger to Ilhan Omar has been shut down after she called for her opponent to be lynched. Stella managed to combine the worst excesses of Jim Crow punitive policies toward the African-American congresswoman with […]
Iraqi Crowds Erupt in Joyous Celebrations as PM, elected under Bush Constitution, Offers to Resign
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP Arabic reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdulmahdi said Friday he would tender his resignation this weekend after five weeks of massive protests throughout Iraq. Huge crowds of demonstrators throughout Baghdad broke into raucous celebrations at the news, the local stringers for AFP report. Some interviewees among them, however, […]
Trump, who supports War Crimes, is losing War, and Wants to quit Afghanistan, Gaslights Troops in Kabul
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump showed up in Afghanistan, or rather on the US Bagram base in Afghanistan, on Thanksgiving, where he gave one of his typical Long Lies of a speech. Katie Bo Williams writes at Defense One that this year, 17 US troops have been killed and 124 wounded in action, the […]
Syrian Kurds, abandoned by Trump, Face War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing at Hands of Turkey’s Fundamentalist Proxies
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Human Rights Watch reports that the fundamentalist Arab fighters Turkey brought with it to the Kurdish regions of northeast Iraq are guilty of war crimes. In the area Turkey has militarily occupied, which it is pleased to call a “safe zone,” the Arab fighters stand accused of shooting down civilian […]
On Thanksgiving, Let’s Be Thankful we Can Still Address our Climate Emergency: And then Do It
Revised for 2019 By Juan Cole | — The popular story about Thanksgiving is an environmental parable that we would do well to remember today. It was a harvest festival in 1621, participated in by the 50 (out of 100) survivors at Plymouth Plantation and 90 Native Americans. Some of these latter, such as Squanto, […]