A further round of new Trump sanctions against Iran went into effect yesterday, but the president is failing to get buy-in from allies and rivals, who pledge to keep dealing with Iran. Chinese auto-makers are flooding into Iran to replace French car companies there. China has pledged to pay no attention to the Trump threats. […]
Manafort’s alleged Corruption is How America Works, not Deviance
Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, is being tried for money laundering, keeping some 15 illegal foreign accounts, and cheating the government out of the taxes he rightfully owed, among a host of other crimes. Manafort joined Trump’s presidential campaign in March, 2016, having offered to work for free, and tried to persuade delegates to […]
Saudi Arabia bullies Canada with Economic Threats for Criticizing its Horrible Human Rights Record
Saudi Arabia is attempting to bully Canada for criticizing the abysmal Saudi human rights record. (That is, if something as non-existent as Saudi human rights can be called abysmal). Riyadh has expelled the Canadian ambassador and has frozen all new purchases and investments in Canada. The Canadian foreign ministry had tweeted on Friday, “Canada is […]
Emolument? Saudi Stay in Failing Trump NYC Hotel Boosted Profits 1st Quarter
David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell at WaPo have revealed that the declining revenues at Trump’s hotel in New York City were turned around in the first quarter of 2018, with a 13% bump produced by the stay there of a Saudi retinue in connection with the visit to the US of Crown Prince Mohamed […]
Jared Kushner Tries to Strip Refugee Status, Aid from Millions of Displaced Palestinians
According to Jared Kushner and other hard line Zionists, the Palestinian people don’t exist. Ever since they ethnically cleansed the majority of Palestinians, the Israelis have been hoping that they will just go away. They look out on Galilee, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon, and ask, “why are you still here?” as though […]
Turkish Party Proposes Seizing Trump Towers to Retaliate for US Sanctions
The Turkish Press reports that the IYI Party is suggesting that the government seize the country’s Trump Towers and nationalize it. The threat shows the opposite of the emoluments problem– Trump is liable to economic blackmail because he refused to put his wealth in a blind trust. Turks are angered because the Trump administration placed […]
Did Tillerson lose his Job over Stopping a Saudi Invasion of Qatar?
Alex Emmons at The Intercept interviewed two former State Department officials and one intelligence official who confirmed to him that in early June, 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been on the cusp of invading Qatar, but were stopped by Rex Tillerson. Emmons suggests that Tillerson lost his job over his intervention, […]
Israel’s Druze Minority Furious over Apartheid Law, Given their Military Service.
Israel may never have been paradise for the some 20% of its citizens who are non-Jewish and Arabic-speaking. They did face de facto and sometimes even legal discrimination. But at least in the eyes of the law, they were full citizens. After the passage last week of the “nationality” law, Israel is no longer multicultural. […]
Love in the Qur’an: 19:96
Despite the negative messaging nowadays about the Qur’an (the scripture of the Muslims) among the haters, it is a book replete with love, mercy, warmth and peace (to the extent that Muslims are bewildered by the odd opinions of it among outsiders–most of whom have never read it). My new book, out October 9, explores […]
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