By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The death of Islam Karimov, the president for life of Uzbekistan who came to power in 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet empire had begun in 1989, has been confirmed. His stroke six days ago was a badly kept secret. I saw a headline from […]
Top 8 Syrian-Americans whom we’d miss If Trump had Kept them out
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his fiery speech demonizing immigrants to America on Wednesday night, Trump took a moment to deplore that the Obama administration has admitted 10,000 Syrian refugees in the past year (after admitting almost none after the crisis began in 2011). I talked here about why America […]
Florida: Politicians in Big Oil’s Pocket Beware, The People want their Solar
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Florida voters have overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, which exempts solar panels and solar equipment from extra taxes. Before this, if someone put up solar panels on their house in Florida, as we did in Michigan, and it caused the value of the house to increase […]
America’s Shameful Record on Syrian Refugees
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US government played a role in the collapse of Syria. It continually placed sanctions on this little country, including the 2003 Syrian Accountability act. By 2013 the CIA was apparently passing medium weaponry through Saudi Arabia to fundamentalist militias, the ideology of which cannot easily […]
US: Turkish-backed campaign against our Allies in Syria ‘unacceptable’
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Sunday evening, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally in Gaziantep, a city near the border with Syria, “We will make any kind of contribution to the work to clear Daesh [ISIL] from Syria.” This pledge should have been music to Washington’s ears, since Turkey […]
In Boon for EVs, Solar Panels, California will roll back CO2 Emissions to 40% Below 1990
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The California legislature worked on a carbon dioxide emissions reduction bill for a year, and is finally sending it to the governor for his signature. It is one of the more ambitious pieces of CO2 legislation by any US state, more resembling policies of the European […]
America’s Syria SNAFU: Pentagon’s Militias fight Turkey & CIA’s Militias
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Turkish incursion into Syria at Jarabulus was advertised as an attack on a Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) stronghold and smuggling station in conjunction with (fundamentalist) remnants of the Free Syrian Army. But the southern outskirts of Jarabulus had already fallen to the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, […]
French Court lifts Municipal Burkini Ban; & Why should you care what other people wear?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Nicolas Cadène, in an interview at L’Express analyzes the French court ruling issued Friday that struck down the ban by the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet on Muslim women wearing modest clothing at the public beach. The ban was on the burkini, invented by a Lebanese fashion designer […]
ISIL sends families out of Mosul as Kurdish, Iraqi Army Forces advance
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iraqi military forces have taken the strategic town of al-Qayarah near the major city of Mosul from Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). Mosul is the last major city in the hands of the apocalyptic, brutal cult as it has lost almost all the territory it took in 2014. […]
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