By Carmel O’Toole | (The Conversation) | – – In the style of some thuggish boxing promoter at a weigh in, the US president-elect, Donald Trump, gave us a clear and unsavoury flavour of the style of White House press conferences to come. And it’s not tasting good. In brutal contrast to the elegant style […]
Archives for January 2017
The Russian Honeypot: Putin has had big plans for Donald Trump
By John Feffer | Foreign Policy in Focus | – – [I wrote this article about Russian efforts to cultivate Donald Trump as an asset last week for a Korean newspaper where it was published on Sunday. Little did I know that news would break this week of allegations that Russia has a file of […]
The Iranian Connection in the Age of Trump
By Rajan Menon | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – Stack up the op-eds and essays on the disasters that await the world once Donald Trump moves into the White House and you’ll have a long list of dismaying scenarios. One that makes the lineups of most pundits involves a crisis with Iran. So imagine this. […]
Trump does Poor imitation of Tin-Pot Dictator at “Press Conference”
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his first news conference in months, president-elect Donald J. Trump engaged in a series of petulant tirades. For anyone like myself, who has lived under dictators in the global South, his performance was unpleasantly reminiscent of their authoritarian publicity techniques. Instead of letting a wide […]
US Iraq-Afghanistan ‘Burn Pits’ – Poisoning America’s Soldiers
Reviewed by H. Patricia Hynes | (Truthdig) | – – “The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers” A book by Joseph Hickman They are called “this generation’s Agent Orange”—the open fire pits operated on over 230 US military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan during our wars there. Every kind of waste—plastics, batteries, old ordnance, […]
If Trump moves US Embassy to Jerusalem, all Hell will Break Loose
By Phyllis Bennis | (Institute for Policy Studies) | – – If the U.S. goes ahead with the GOP plan, says Phyllis Bennis, “all bets are off.” In of the very first moves as the U.S. Senate began its term in 2017, three Republican senators — including former presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio […]
Last Year the US Dropped 26,171 Bombs on 7 Muslim-Majority Countries
TeleSur | – – The countries include Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. In the waning days of the Obama administration, new research by the Council on Foreign Relations, CFR, has confirmed the militaristic legacy it leaves behind: the United States dropped at least 26,171 bombs in seven Muslim-majority countries in 2016. According […]
Climate Activists fear Tillerson, Call him Out for Lying About Warming During Hearing
By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | – – ‘Listening to his hearing, it would be easier to conclude Tillerson is under criminal investigation than under consideration for secretary of state’ Joined by 15 T-Rex dinosaurs, more than 200 people demonstrated mass public opposition to the appointment of former ExxonMobil CEO Rex […]
Informed Comment Fundraiser Success- with Profound thanks
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed during the annual IC Fundraiser! I’m bowled over by your generosity, and pledge to keep Informed Comment at the cutting edge of analysis of both foreign and domestic policy! Am enclosing a photo I took last fall in Istanbul […]