2019

Candidate Donald Trump saw the revolving door between government and industry as a problem.

Bolton & Trump’s Gerontocrats may drag us into Venezuela over Oil when they could just buy an EV

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There are many things wrong with National Security Adviser John Bolton, but the worst is his fixation on petroleum politics. His response to the complex crisis of Venezuela is to hope that US energy corporations can produce some of that country’s oil (“It will make a big difference to the […]

Feminism

Social Media Ridicule: Emirates’ Gender Equality Award Winners All Men

TeleSur

“Wow really nailed the diversity there. One of those dudes was wearing grey”

Iran

Syria and Iran Sign Strategic Economic Plan, including Tartus Naval Base

AFP

There was also rehabilitation of the ports of Tartus and Latakia as well as construction of a 540 megawatt energy plant

Afghanistan

Trump & Taliban Close to Deal on US Withdrawal, but Risk of Free For All

AFP

Trump decided last month to pull half of the 14,000-strong force from Afghanistan

Bahrain

Defying US, Bahrain Affirms Life Sentence against Shiite Leader “farcically” charged with Spying

Natacha Yazbeck

Dubai (AFP) – A Bahraini court on Monday upheld a life sentence for opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman for spying for Gulf rival Qatar, a ruling his party slammed as “political revenge”. Salman, who headed Al-Wefaq, a now-banned Shiite movement, was convicted by an appeals court in November in a decision rights groups called a […]

Featured

America’s 7 Racist Exclusions: From Muslim Visa Ban to 1930s Exclusion of Jews

Juan Cole

Revised.- ed. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The two-year anniversary of Trump’s Muslim visa ban and Holocaust Remembrance Day have arrived more or less together, and it is worthwhile reviewing how they reveal an ugly side to America. US history is replete with racism as public policy. It has been more often our history than […]

Climate Change