Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Laws have consequences. The Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Biden administration and the Democrats in Congress (with no Republican support at all) is already beginning to green and turbocharge the American economy. Abhik Mukherjee at Counterpoint Research calculates that if we look at both battery electric vehicle (BEV) and […]
Saudi Foreign Minister in Iran seeking $1 bn in Bilateral Trade, Security for Gulf Shipping, Justice for Palestine
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The London-based pan-Arab newspaper al-`Arab reports on the visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to Tehran, where he met with his counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, as well as with President Ebrahim Raisi. It was the first such visit by a high Saudi official since Iran and […]
Xi Jinping backs Palestine entry into Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as Beijing offers to Mediate Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas accomplished a great deal on his 4-day visit to Beijing, including a Chinese agreement to try to bring Palestine into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, if the other members agree. Chinese President Xi Jinping and he announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership. Some months ago Foreign Minister […]
Iran confirms it is Talking with the Biden Administration about Nuclear Enrichment, Prisoners and Regional Relations
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is coming out that the US and Iran have been talking privately in Oman about a range of bilateral issues, including prisoner exchanges and Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program. This news emerged, according to Barak Ravid at Axios in the form of a complaint from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin […]
The Trials of Donald Trump and Aaron Burr: 3 Similarities and 2 Differences
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Only three holders of the top executive offices in the country, the presidency and the vice presidency, have ever been tried in federal court. They are Aaron Burr (d. 1836), who had served as Thomas Jefferson’s vice president; Spiro T. Agnew (d. 1996), who served as Tricky Dick Nixon’s vice […]
With Two Damaging Trump Trials during the Campaign, did Joe Biden just become a Shoo-in in 2024?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s two indictments will likely throw the 2024 election to Joe Biden. Assuming Biden remains in good health and there isn’t a dramatic foreign policy reversal or a prolonged economic crisis, he is now a shoo-in. He may be a shoo-in no matter what, since the alternative will be so […]
Top 3 Crimes Trump should have been Indicted for besides Mishandling Documents
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although the saga of Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, as revealed in the 38-count indictment, is shocking to anyone who has ever been involved in government work, it is also darkly comic and trivial. Trump seems to have held on to the top secret documents the way a collector hangs […]
As Criminally twice-indicted ex-President, Trump joins Global Rogues’ Gallery of Disgraced former Heads of State
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Donald John Trump (the newspapers always give all three names of criminals) has been indicted on 7 counts having to do with espionage and obstruction of justice arising from his removal of classified documents from the White House and his refusal to turn some of them over when the government […]
Climate Crisis: North America gets its own Mideast-Style Khamsin, courtesy Freak Canadian Smokestorm
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Not only Toronto in Canada but New York, Washington, D.C. and other cities of the US northeast got a taste of the Middle Eastern Khamsin on Wednesday. Of course, we had our own, North American twist on it, since ours was not a sandstorm but a “smokestorm.” Some 400 wildfires […]
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