By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – We don’t need a Trump-nominated supreme Court justice. We desperately don’t need such a person. And there is no reason to have one. The Democrats in the Senate should just filibuster any nomination for the next four years. Now, you may say that a president deserves […]
Why do they Hate Putin’s Freedoms? Russian Ambassador assassinated in Turkey
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It is not entirely clear why Mevlut Altintas, a young policeman in, ironically, a counter-terrorism unit in the Turkish capital of Ankara, shot Andrei Karlov– the Russian ambassador to Turkey– in the back on Monday. Was he a lone wolf? Part of a far-right Muslim vigilante […]
Trump’s Jerusalem embassy Move an Invitation to Terrorism: 9/11 Provoked in part by Israeli Occupation
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Incoming President Trump has repeatedly pledged to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and he just proposed the appointment of a Zionist supremacist as ambassador to Israel, who equates American Jews who oppose squatting on Palestinian land in the West Bank as collaborators with the Nazis. […]
Sorry, Trump, you can’t bring back Coal when Solar costs half as Much
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bloomberg released a new report this week with some startling findings about solar energy. To wit: * Solar energy can now be generated for about half the cost of coal. Coal had been the cheapest energy source, but it has now been overtaken by solar. That […]
Hard Truth: Aleppo Rebels weren’t defeated by Main Force but b/c they alienated Syrians
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syria was in a better position to attain peace last spring, when a ceasefire had unexpected success. It would have been better if the rebels had been able to keep East Aleppo and the rest of their territory, and the regime had been forced to dicker […]
Demonization of Putin as “Personally” behind Clinton Hack is old Propaganda Technique
Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The leaked allegations supposedly from the CIA that Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally” directed how hacked emails from the Clinton campaign should be treated with a good deal of skepticism. I have already said that the allegations of effective Russian interference in the US election do not […]
Why do GOP Presidents get to go Hard Right, and Dems are just GOP Lite?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat. After it was confirmed that Donald J. Trump will appoint former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson Secretary of State, the shape of the Trump cabinet and team has become clear. Neofascist Steve Bannon is White […]
After Aleppo, Russians prepare to defy Trump re: their Iran Alliance
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – the left-leaning Lebanese newspaper al-Safir [Ambassador] reports that the armed resistance to the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the East Aleppo pocket is finished. Reports from Wednesday morning say that the ceasefire that Russia and the regime signed onto in hopes that the few hundred hold-outs […]
Trump’s Triangle in E. Asia: a Force for Peace or a harbinger of War?
By Tim Shorrock | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – Despite the attention being given to America’s roiling wars and conflicts in the Greater Middle East, crucial decisions about the global role of U.S. military power may be made in a region where, as yet, there are no hot wars: Asia. Donald Trump will arrive in […]
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