By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Joann Muller at Forbes, in a piece on Ford Motor Company’s plans vastly to expand its electric and hybrid offerings, puts her finger on something absolutely crucial. Ford and other American car companies really, really need electric sport utility vehicles in order to get through the […]
Archives for March 2018
Europe to finance $800 mn. for Indian Solar Industry
By Frédéric Simon | EURACTIV.com | – – A handout photo made available by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) showing the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and French President Emmanuel Macron (L) during the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi on 11 March 2018. [ISA] The European Investment […]
Pompeo’s rise at State will make Mideast war more likely
By Gregory Aftandilian | (The Conversation) | – – After U.S. president Donald Trump fired his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, many analysts have focused on how this high-level ouster took place: unceremoniously, on Twitter, not in a face-to-face meeting. As a former Middle East analyst at the State Department, though, I think the real […]
Can Democracy Survive Trump’s untransparent Forever Wars Abroad?
By William J. Astore | ( Tomdisptach.com ) | – – Overseas, the United States is engaged in real wars in which bombs are dropped, missiles are launched, and people (generally not Americans) are killed, wounded, uprooted, and displaced. Yet here at home, there’s nothing real about those wars. Here, it’s phony war all the […]
Happiness Index: From Immigrants to Health, how Trump & GOP are making America Sad (Sad)
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The World Happiness Index is out this year, and the United States is ranked only 18 for the years 2015-2017– lower than Iceland or Costa Rica, and not much ahead of places with real problems like Mexico and Brazil. And, the US has fallen 4 spots […]
CIA Cables detail New Director’s Role in Torture at Thailand Black Site (Redacted)
Correction: Trump’s Pick to Head CIA Did Oversee torture at Thai black site but Not of Abu Zubaydah On Feb. 22, 2017, ProPublica published a story that inaccurately described Gina Haspel’s role in the treatment of Abu Zubaydah, a suspected al-Qaida leader who was imprisoned by the CIA at a secret “black site” in Thailand […]
Did United Arab Emirates lobbying instigate Tillerson’s sacking?
Middle East Monitor | – – US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, one week after the BBC obtained emails revealing efforts by the UAE to have him sacked at “a politically convenient time.” Was this an unlikely coincidence? Should Americans not wake up to the power of lobby groups that […]
‘Algorithms of Oppression:’ How Corporations Reinforce Racism and Biases
TeleSur | – – “People think of algorithms as simply a mathematical formulation, but in fact, algorithms are really about automated decisions.” Through the book, “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism,” Safiya Umoja Noble, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, USC’s, Annenberg School of Communication, broke down how algorithms work […]
Pompeo, Big Oil and the attack on Iran Deal
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – All you need to know about Mike Pompeo, the four-term congressman from Kansas who is actually from California, is that most of his life he has been in business with the Koch brothers. His appointment as Secretary of State puts a seal on Trump’s withdrawal from […]