Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Josef Federman at AP reports that Israeli president Reuven Rivlin will offer Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White Coalition, first crack at forming a government, sidelining indicted Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu faces a corruption trial, but it has been postponed to May because of the coronavirus […]
With 3 more US Soldiers Wounded, Iraqi Joint Command urges Swift Departure of US Troops, Fearing Instability
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Three US servicemen were wounded, along with two Iraqi soldiers, during daylight hours on Saturday when some 33 katyusha rockets slammed into al-Taji Base north of Baghdad. Two of the US soldiers were seriously wounded and are in hospital in Baghdad. The rocket attacks were likely revenge for US air […]
Why Burning Fossil Fuels is to Today’s Pandemics as Fleas were to the Black Death
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sheri Fink at the NYT reports that Center for Disease Control scientific modeler Matthew Biggerstaff estimated in a conference call that the coronavirus pandemic could last for many months or as long as a year and could infect half to two-thirds of the population of the United States. Between 200,000 […]
As Trump stumbles in war on Coronavirus at Home, He Bombs Shiites in Shiite-Ruled Iraq
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – US fighter jets bombed bases of the Kata’ib Hizbullah (“Brigades of the Party of God”) militia in Iraq on Thursday in retaliation for a deadly attack on US troops that left two dead and killed a British soldier as well. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that Trump had greenlighted […]
In Ancient Greek Thought, Plagues Follow on Bad Leadership
By Joel Christensen | – In the fifth century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins “Oedipus Tyrannos” with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) As someone who writes about early Greek poetry, I spend a lot of time thinking about […]
Teachers with Macs: How to Film yourself Narrating your Powerpoint Presentation and Post it for Your Class
Update: The Macs don’t have a built in sound system that will work with the screen recording function in Quicktime, so it may be necessary to download Soundflower or the equivalent to make the below instructions work. If you still have trouble, I have found that Screenflick for Mac also works. You can just tell […]
Ghost of Soleimani: All Hell Breaks lose in Iraq, with 2 Americans, 1 Briton, Killed, as al-Sadr Blames Trump for Coronavirus
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tom O’Connor at Newsweek reports that 18 katyusha rockets slammed into al-Taji Air Base in Iraq on Wednesday, killing two Americans and one Briton, and leaving 12 other Coalition personnel injured. In response, US fighter jets conducted air strikes against the Haydariyun brigades of the Kata’ib Hizbullah, a Shiite Iraqi […]
Netanyahu devastates Israeli Tourism with universal Quarantine to Avoid highlighting Trump Covid-19 Failures
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration has become well known for caring much more about how the coronavirus outbreak might make Trump look than about actually avoiding the pandemic. The Chinese quick quarantines last fall should have given the administration time to prepare, but its practical steps in mid-March of 2020 are still […]
Behind the Turmoil: Russia Provoked Oil Price Fall to Protect its Markets from US Frackers, which could now Collapse
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last weekend, OPEC Plus, an expanded cartel of petroleum exporters, considered a plan for members to cut back on their oil production so as to support prices in the face of a slowing world economy owing to the novel coronavirus. The Russian Federation rejected the plan put forward by OPEC, […]
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