Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Yemeni news site Maarib Press headlines the news that Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced that he is authorizing the sale of $23 billion worth of F-35 Stealth fighter jets and other super-sophisticated weapons to the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates, a small federation of seven […]
Archives for November 2020
How the Israelis are Destroying Palestinian Jerusalem, One Institution at a Time
( Al-Shabaka.org ) – The Israeli state has actively sought to destroy Palestinian Jerusalem since its creation in 1948. Al-Shabaka’s Senior Palestine Policy Fellow, Yara Hawari, examines the July 2020 attacks on three Palestinian cultural institutions in East Jerusalem as part of the Israeli regime’s systematic destruction of the city’s Palestinian identity. She offers policy […]
Why is the Israeli Gov’t Rooting for a 2nd Term for Trump and his White Nationalist, anti-Semitic Allies?
By Bruno Beaklini | – ( Middle East Monitor) – As I write, the United States is going through two simultaneous processes: the formal victory of the Democratic Party oligarch, Joe Biden, the former Delaware state senator and the former vice president of Barack Obama (2008-2016); and legal appeals from incumbent President Donald Trump to […]
Climate change: Joe Biden could ride a wave of international momentum to break deadlock in US
By Richard Beardsworth and Olaf Corry | – Joe Biden’s presidency is likely to be dominated by “the three Cs”: COVID-19, China and climate change. Each one of these behemoths could make or break him. Despite wildfires and hurricanes, this was not the long-awaited climate election. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris campaigned on the […]
Pompeo’s touting of “Second Trump Administration” craters State Department’s Credibility on Democracy Promotion
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Nicole Gaouette, Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood at CNN report that secretary of state Mike Pompeo insisted there would be a smooth transition to a second Trump term. The statement, which appears to have been sardonic rather than in earnest, disgusted a lot of people, especially ambassadors. If it was […]
Did Peace just Break out in the Caucasus or Did Russia Strong-Arm Armenia into its Orbit?
Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – The war in Nagorno-Karbakh is over. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed an agreement that effectively ended hostilities between the two countries over the disputed mountainous region. The deal was brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who managed to preserve the role of the […]
Uh, oh: Oil field operations likely triggered earthquakes in California a few miles from the San Andreas Fault
By Thomas H. Goebel | – The way companies drill for oil and gas and dispose of wastewater can trigger earthquakes, at times in unexpected places. In West Texas, earthquake rates are now 30 times higher than they were in 2013. Studies have also linked earthquakes to oil field operations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and […]
State of Chaos: Can America Escape Trump’s Hellscape?
( Tomdispatch.com) – In 2016 as now, he was the candidate of chaos. Yes, he was a billionaire (or wanna-be billionaire or in-hock billionaire, not to mention a liar, a cheat, and a scoundrel), but from the beginning he appealed to the forces of order in America that were also, as it happened, the forces […]
Trump fires Mark “Yesper” Esper as SecDef; Was it over Afghanistan withdrawal?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and Nicole Gaouette at CNN report on the firing of secretary of defense Mark Esper on Twitter by Trump. Esper appears to have adopted a relatively mild demeanor with Trump for the past 18 months, though he was known gingerly to disagree with the president on […]