By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkey’s historic referendum on Sunday will move the country from a parliamentary to a presidential system. Many observers are sounding a death knell for Turkish democracy as a result, but the move to presidentialism in and of itself isn’t the problem. Interestingly, Erdogan won with a […]
Archives for April 2017
Neoconservatives almost Giddy over Trump Syria Strike
By Jim Lobe | FPIF | (Originally published in Lobelog) | – – Many architects of the Iraq War openly hope Trump will go further in pursuing regime change in Syria — and then Iran. After the pre-dawn cruise-missile strike against Syria’s al-Shayrat airfield, neoconservative hawks, many of whom beat the drums for war in […]
Can a New Era of Progressive Protest Revolutionize our values in Age of Trump?
By Ira Chernus | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – You could hear the deep sadness in the preacher’s voice as he named “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.” With those words, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., launched a scathing indictment of America’s war in Vietnam. It was […]
Everyone could celebrate Easter in Jerusalem except Palestinian Christians
By IMEMC. | – – Thousands of Christian followers of the Orthodox and Catholic faiths from all over the world, gathering at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City, celebrated Easter Holy Saturday with the emergence of the holy fire from the location of the tomb believed to be that of Jesus […]
Why Population Exchange Fails: Over 100 Dead as Buses Bombed
by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Someone detonated a car bomb in the (rebel-held) Rashideen district of Aleppo Province Friday night, killing over 100 and wounding over 500. It targeted lead buses that had brought in evacuees from two Shiite villages being evacuated because their sectarian complexion makes them sitting ducks in […]
Turkey’s Referendum on Democracy vs. Illiberal Rule
By Natalie Martin | (The Conversation) | – – When the Turkish government announced its plans to transform itself into an executive presidency, no-one was particularly surprised. This plan, which has been described as “the most radical political change since the modern republic’s foundation in 1923”, is the culmination of a steady drift towards authoritarianism […]
After the Chemical Attack, It’s Time to Get Rid of the ‘Muslim Ban’
By Peter Certo | (Otherwords.org) | – – Now that he cares about the fate of Syrian children, I hope Trump will open up our country — not bomb theirs. When I saw footage of the alleged sarin gas attack in Syria, I felt ill. The whole episode, which killed up to 100 civilians in […]
1 million Palestinians detained by Israel since 1948: Joint statement
Ma’an News Agency | – – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli authorities have detained approximately one million Palestinians since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, according to a joint statement released Saturday by the Palestinian Committee […]
40% of California Grid Power from Solar, Sometimes Costs less than Nothing
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – For the first time, on the day of March 23, 40% of Californian grid power between 11 am and 2 pm was generated by utility-scale solar plants. This proportion was a seasonal effect but not a fluke, and it certainly points to what will be routine […]