David Faris | (Informed Comment) | – – As the sun rises on the 11th full week of the disgrace-riddled Barnum & Bailey dystopia known as the Trump Administration, revelations about the Russia scandal continue to do fresh damage. From Michael Flynn’s failure to note his status as a lobbyist for the Turkish dictatorship to […]
Archives for April 2017
Is Trump really a Fascist?
By David Prochaska | (Informed Comment) | – – The “highly unusual,” “unprecedented” Trump administration is leading us into “uncharted territory,” but where exactly? Since last November’s election, some commentators trying to understand what happened have used the “F” word, fascism, but without defining it. Many more have avoided it altogether as too toxic and […]
Iran is Back: With Int’l Sanctions lifted and Putin Friendly, Tehran is on a Roll
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iranian petroleum sales to its top four Asian customers rose nearly 60% year on year in March, and total exports have reached nearly 3 million barrels a day. Just four countries accounted for over 2/3s of the total exports– China, India, South Korea and Japan. South […]
The White House Wouldn’t Post Trump Staffers’ Financial Disclosures. So We Did
by Ariana Tobin and Derek Kravitz | (ProPublica) | – – In a remarkable Friday night news dump, the Trump administration made dozens of White House staffers’ financial disclosure forms available. But they did it with an extra dose of opacity. These are important disclosures from the people who have the president’s ear and shape […]
Israel knicks 25 Acres Of Palestinian Lands In Salfit for Colonial Purposes
IMEMC | – – The Israeli government is planning to illegally confiscate 25 acres of Palestinian lands, in Salfit district, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank, to build a college and many colonialist units, in addition to planning two railroad lines. Jamal al-Ahmad, the coordinator of the Committee for Defending Salfit Lands, […]
Mosul: ISIL Deploys Ideological Booby Trap As It Retreats
David Patrikarakos | ( RFE/RL ) | – – The coalition battling to take the Iraqi city of Mosul from the extremist [so-called] “Islamic State” group (IS) is closing in. Earlier this year, coalition forces captured eastern Mosul (the city is bisected by the Euphrates River) and are now squeezing the city’s western half. According […]
Putin joins ranks of Climate Denialists in support of Trump
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian President Vladimir Putin has abruptly become a climate-change denialist, apparently under the influence of key figures in the Trump administration, which Putin likely helped install. The spread of anti-intellectualism and the war on science has been a worrisome feature of the American right wing for […]
Iraqis Weigh in on Airstrike That Killed Hundreds In Mosul
Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – There is plenty of speculation about how hundreds of non-combatants were killed in Mosul, all apparently by accident. US and Iraqi forces have admitted partial culpability. But there are other causative factors at work. The dramatic and tragic events in Mosul on March 22, that saw […]
No, supremacists, the Vikings wouldn’t have put up with “Teuton” Donald Trump
By Keith Ruiter | (The Conversation) | – – It has been suggested that Donald Trump “may get his assertive rather than passive manner from his alleged Viking ancestors”. Or so says Russian genealogist Aleksey Nilogov, who has been finding some traction for his beliefs on nationalistic eastern European news sites such as the Estonian […]