By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I argued that President Obama’s carbon-reduction plan wasn’t anything to write home about. He wanted to reduce our annual emissions from 5.4 billion metric tons of CO2 annually from the US to 4.7 billion metric tons by 2030. It isn’t an insignificant reduction, but it doesn’t […]
Archives for November 2016
How can Progressives get through the Next 4 Years? Organize!
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Anti-Trump demonstrations have broken out all over the country in the wake of his surprise victory on Tuesday. Latinos are afraid he will deport their undocumented relatives, breaking up millions of families. Women are afraid for their basic rights to control their bodies, a right Trump […]
Putin targets East Aleppo rebels; Did Trump’s Election doom them?
by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Some 2,000 rebel fighters, most of them Muslim fundamentalists, others remnants of the Free Syrian Army, are trying to break the Syrian regime’s blockade of East Aleppo. But they may soon face cruise missiles launched at them from Russian submarines in the Mediterranean, along with other […]
Israeli Minister: Era of Palestinian State is over, w/ Trump Victory
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli and Palestinian authorities reacted on Sunday to the victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential elections, with one Israeli minister expressing his hopes that Trump’s nomination would spell the end of efforts to establish a two-state solution. As of Wednesday evening, Republican candidate Trump won 289 of 538 electoral votes, […]
Trump may reset Russian ties but will the Mideast Stymie him?
By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | – – Mr. Donald Trump’s electoral victory has created shockwaves worldwide. It was as unexpected as it was unwelcome to many peoples, particularly in the Middle East. Most people in the region appear to be at a loss. Political commentators and pundits are projecting a series of hard […]
America’s Sisi: On What Has Been Lost, and What Must Be Done
David M. Faris | (Informed Comment) | – – “When the people love you, that is the most important thing for me.” So spoke General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the onetime savior and now iron-fisted tyrant of the Arab Republic of Egypt, days after he had seized power in a military coup in July 2013. Egypt’s […]
Israeli parliament moves to ban Boycott, Divestment Backers from entering Israel
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A bill preventing supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement from entering Israel was authorized on Monday for its first reading in the Israeli parliament, according to Israeli media. According to the Jerusalem Post, the interior committee of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, approved the bill, which was initiated by Knesset […]
Why the White Working Class Rebelled: Neoliberalism is Killing Them (Literally)
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Democratic Party has been the Establishment for eight years, and the Clintons have arguably been the Establishment for 24 years. Since the late 1990s, members of the white working class with high school or less have seen their life-chances radically decline, even to the point […]
Election Westworld? Bots were 20% of your Twitter News Feed
By Emilio Ferrara | (The Conversation) | – – Key to democracy is public engagement – when people discuss the issues of the day with each other openly, honestly and without outside influence. But what happens when large numbers of participants in that conversation are biased robots created by unseen groups with unknown agendas? As […]