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Scotland is now getting 70% of its electricity from renewables (wind, solar, wave and hydro) and plans to be at 100% in 2020. In some months in 2018 Scotland’s renewables generated more 100% of the electricity the country uses. Scotland is innovating in tidal power, driven by the powerful currents in its seas, but onshore […]

Donald Trump

Pompeo’s US Jingoism and Anti-Iran Warmongering Rejected by Mideast Public

Juan Cole

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a major and extremely embarrassing foreign policy speech in Cairo on Thursday, which is probably inconsequential since his major talking points departed from the positions of his president, Trump. Also, aside from some generals and kings and princes, nobody in the region agrees with anything he said. Pompeo’s message […]

Donald Trump

Donald J. Mubarak? Why Trump Declaring a National Emergency over Wall is Very Bad

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s talk of declaring a national emergency so that he can build a border wall with Mexico is the most dangerous thing he has ever said after suggesting that Saudi Arabia should get a nuclear bomb. The 1976 law under which Trump claims he can declare a state of emergency […]

Acidification of Oceans

Wall or Watchtower? The real Threat is invasive Climate Crisis, and our Shield is Science

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In his story “The Wall and the Books,” the great Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote, “I read, in past days, that the man who ordered the construction of the nearly infinite Wall of China was that First Emperor, Shih Huang Ti, who likewise ordered the burning of all the […]

Featured

Senators Backing Israel anti-Boycott Bill are Betrayers of the Constitution

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The response of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to the proposed the Senate bill permitting state and local sanctions on persons and companies that boycott Israel was “They forgot which country they are representing.” They forgot what country they represent. This is the U.S. where boycotting is a right & part […]

Featured

President Bolton overrules Feckless Trump Tweet on Syria Withdrawal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Last Two Neoconservatives in the Trump administration, National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have swung into action to repeal Trump’s troop withdrawal from Syria. Bolton visited Israel to reassure prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the US will look after the interests of allies as […]

Democratic Socialism

Rashida Tlaib and Working Class Authenticity v. Trump’s Plutocrat Pretense

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Why does Donald Trump get a pass on speaking and acting obscenely but Rashida Tlaib is pilloried for calling him a Mofo? It is because US corporate media and political elites expect the wealthy to do bad imitations of working class profanity (so as to fool the rubes into voting […]

Featured

Trump’s Remark that Iranians ‘Can do what they want’ in Syria Mocked in Mideast

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Christian-owned Lebanese daily al-Nahar (The Day) mocked Trump’s remark this week that Iran can do whatever it wants in Syria after the US military withdrawal (“they can do what they want there, frankly”). A columnist for the newspaper, Monalisa Fariha, entitled her piece, “Iran will get out of Syria […]

Democratic Party

The First Muslim-American Women in Congress may get to Impeach Trump

Juan Cole

The most diverse House of Representatives in American history was sworn in on Thursday. The new Congress (including the Senate) is religiously diverse as well as diverse with regard to gender. Out of 534 members (one contest has yet to be decided), there are 34 Jews, 10 Mormons, 3 Hindus, 3 Muslims, and 2 Unitarian […]