By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The dishonesty and bad faith of Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and general pose of hating Muslims is obvious to anyone who attends to his actual business ties. His hotels in Istanbul and Dubai did not spring up like mushrooms– they resulted from friendships with Turks and […]
Archives for July 2017
S. Africa ruling party will downgrade ties with Israel over Illegal Occupation
Ma’an News Agency | – – PRETORIA (Ma’an) — The African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party of South Africa, voted on Tuesday in favor of downgrading South Africa’s diplomatic representation in Israel in protest of the occupation. The decision, made during ANC’s National Policy Conference, was hailed as a “major victory for human rights […]
Can the Liberation of Mosul begin to free the Mideast from Fundamentalism?
By Balsam Mustafa | (The Conversation) | – – After an offensive lasting nearly nine months, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, walked through the streets of Mosul on July 9 after Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition airstrikes “liberated” the city from so-called Islamic State (IS). Abadi was there to congratulate security forces for […]
How Dangerous is Trump’s Flirtation with Violence?
By Ian Buruma | (Project Syndicate) | – – NEW YORK – Some people might have dismissed Donald Trump’s recent tweet of a video clip showing him punching the face of a man with a CNN logo on his head as yet another example of the US president’s vulgar buffoonery – unseemly, perhaps, but par […]
Hobby Lobby caught smuggling Iraqi Antiquities (TYT)
Cenk Uygur and Brett Erlich | (The Young Turks News Video) || – – “Hobby Lobby just got caught smuggling. Cenk Uygur and Brett Erlich, the hosts of The Young Turks, tell you what they were smuggling. “(CNN)Hobby Lobby agreed to forfeit thousands of artifacts from modern-day Iraq and pay a $3 million fine to […]
We have dire Problems: Don’t be distracted by Trump’s Twitter Cascades
By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – I don’t tweet, but I do have a brief message for our president: Will you please get the hell out of the way for a few minutes? You and your antics are blocking our view of the damn world and it’s a world we should be focusing […]
Iraqi Gov’t declares “mighty Triumph” over ISIL in Mosul, as Sunni Press decries Casualties
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Al-Mada reports that 24 hours after Mosul was completely liberated from the hold of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi visited it and walked around the city. Photos on his official Twitter site showed him in black military garb. Al-Abadi convened a meeting with leaders […]
G19 outmaneuvers climate Rogue Trump, ignores Donald & Ivanka
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – German Chancellor Angela Merkel ran rings around Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg, where pictures show Donald sitting alone and being ignored by other heads of state when he bothered to show up (he sent Ivanka to sit in for him at one session). Trump […]
Al Jazeera Defies Saudi Bloc’s pressure to close: ‘Journalism itself is under Siege’
AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain want Al Jazeera – including AJ+ – to be shut down. Here’s what Al Jazeera journalists think of that.” Al Jazeera Responds To The Qatar-Gulf Crisis | AJ+