By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Having Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency is sort of like the plot of that Showtime thriller Dexter, where the police forensic technician trying to catch criminals is in his spare time a vigilante serial killer. Pruitt is Koch and ALEC. Pruitt actually […]
Archives for March 2017
Do Syria’s Kurds hold the Key to the future of the Middle East?
By Clemens Hoffmann and Can Cemgil | (The Conversation) | – – The Trump administration’s plans for the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) are at last becoming clear. And it seems his still-young government has chosen which ally to put first: the Syrian Kurds. On February 24, the US’s top commander in the […]
Middle East Studies Assn., joins Md. Suit to block Trump Muslim Ban
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2017 Groups Challenge Revised Muslim Ban BALTIMORE —- Civil rights and refugee groups today asked a federal court in Maryland to block the Trump administration’s revised executive order, arguing that it would cause irreparable harm for their plaintiffs. The order, which still maintains the suspension of refugee resettlement […]
To Counter Normalization, deflect Elite tactics to dampen Outrage
By Brian Martin | ( Waging Nonviolence ) | – – The Trump administration’s policies have already triggered public outrage and massive opposition. To understand the techniques that make opposition effective, it is useful to look at regular patterns of injustice and outrage. When powerful groups do things that might trigger resistance, they regularly use […]
Turkey’s Erdogan trolls Germany with “Fascist” Charge
By Joel Schalit | EURACTIV | – – Normally, the accusation is reversed. Erdogan undoubtedly knew that when he accused Germany on Sunday of “fascist actions” typical of the Nazi era, for cancelling rallies to drive support for an April referendum granting himself broad new powers. Yet, the significance of reversing the hackneyed War on […]
Syria: As 400 more Troops go in, What’s Trump’s Mission?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US had about 500 troops embedded with the People’s Protection Units (Kurdish acronym YPG) until this week, when another 400 were deployed, along with heavy artillery. It is rumored in the Arabic press that yet more troops, perhaps as many as 2000, will soon be […]
Why are Authorities treating DAPL enviro Protesters like Terrorists?
TeleSur | – – The legal activist group ACLU announced it has filed a motion to quash the warrant, which it argues violates free speech laws. A local police department in the state of Washington has obtained a warrant to search private information about a Facebook group used to share information related to the Dakota […]
Only the Israeli dead matter: Israel’s failure at investigating its bloody wars
By: Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – At a glance, Israel appears a true democracy. Take a closer look, and that facade of democracy will soon dissipate, turning into something else entirely. Tuesday, Feb. 28 was one of those moments. The chain of events was as follows: An official Israeli State Comptroller […]
Surging Trump’s America: What didn’t work in Baghdad won’t work in Washington
By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – The other day, I found myself flipping through old photos from my time in Iraq. One in particular from October 2006 stood out. I see my 23-year-old self, along with my platoon. We’re still at Camp Buerhing in Kuwait, posing in front of our squadron logo […]