By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Greg Jaffe and Adam Entous at WaPo report that Trump cancelled the CIA program to support the remnants of the Free Syrian Army a month ago. The decision was made in a meeting of Trump with CIA director Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser H. R. […]
Saudi, slamming Qatar for Extremism, arrests Model for wearing Skirt in Public
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Yaroslav Trofimov of WSJ said it all: Good luck to the Saudi PR campaign about how Qatar is the source of religious extremism in the Middle East. https://t.co/cgGW7ytMiu — Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) July 18, 2017 Saudi Arabia is leading a propaganda campaign falsely accusing […]
Unpopular: Trump’s low Polls one reason for Healthcare Defeat
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – For now, the second GOP attempt to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare has failed, with two more senators defecting (one saying the bill does not go far enough in getting rid of Obamacare.) There are lots of reasons for the failure of Trumpcare 2.0. A big one […]
Did UAE plant Fake News about Qatar to Fool Trump?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Karen DeYoung and Ellen Nakashima report at WaPo that anonymous US intelligence officials have decided to go public with what they know about the attempt of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to frame Qatar. The hacking attack on May 23 that planted fake news, […]
Turkey: Erdogan Marks Coup anniversary with more Crackdowns
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey commemorated on Saturday the anniversary of the failed coup in that country. The coup attempt was genuinely unpopular. Erdogan blames it on the Gulen movement, a shadowy cult-like organization that for years was allied with Erdogan. But in the aftermath, Erdogan […]
25% of Australian Homes have gone Solar and other Green Triumphs this Week
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Renewables continue to take the world by storm, which is good news for the climate. Because of less expensive and more efficient technology, about one quarter of all Australian households now have solar panels. This process is uneven, with a rush to put them up recently […]
Trump & Macron Consult on Syria Cease Fire in Shadow of Don Jr. Scandal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald J. Trump consulted on a number of bilateral issues on Wednesday, including cooperation in Syria and Iraq. Trump says he was in France to attend Bastille Day and commemorate the centenary of the entry of the US […]
Influence: Russia just Imitated the Rupert Murdoch/Fox Model
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Purloined Letter,” detective C. Auguste Dupin discovers a stolen letter in the thief’s own apartments after police searches had failed to turn it up. It was hidden in plain sight, on a card rack hanging from a ribbon, though it had been […]
Now they hate Universities: Trumpie anti-Intellectualism infects GOP
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A new Pew poll finds that 58% of Republicans now say that colleges and universities have a negative impact on the United States. But this finding is a very recent development. In 2015, 54% of Republicans held that colleges and universities have a positive influence on […]
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