Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although former president Trump claims to have avoided starting any new wars, he in fact put the US on a war footing in the greater Middle East, and significantly increased the number of US troops in the region. He tried to strangle Iran economically and assassinated one of its foremost […]
Archives for January 2021
How will Biden react to Putin arresting Navalny in Russia?
Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – While the US remains preoccupied with the upcoming Joe Biden inauguration, Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months after he was allegedly poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. A Moscow judge has […]
An Admiring Review of Cole, ‘Muhammad: Prophet of Peace,’ in Algeria’s Echorouq
The Algerian newspaper Echorouq [al-Shuruq] has published a positive review of the Arabic translation of my book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires Available at Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor And Hachette And Barnes and Noble And Amazon Juan says: In turbulent era, I am most gratified that Muslim readers on the […]
The Rubble of Empire: Doctrines of Disaster and Dreams of Security as the Biden Years Begin
( Tomdispatch.com ) – How can you tell when your empire is crumbling? Some signs are actually visible from my own front window here in San Francisco. Directly across the street, I can see a collection of tarps and poles (along with one of my own garbage cans) that were used to construct a makeshift […]
“The Horror, the Horror.” An epitaph for Trump’s Nazi Presidency
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness, the imperial commercial agent Kurtz, who has committed horrible atrocities against Black Congolese for the monetary gain of white Europeans, whispers his dying words to riverboat captain Charles Marlow, “The horror, the horror.” When Marlow arrived at Kurtz’s camp in the jungle, he […]
Can Biden’s $15/ hr Minimum Wage begin restoring Working Class trust?
Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Watch CNN almost any time lately and one is inundated with scenes of the lethal riots in the Capitol. And in an era when every man or woman is their own video journalist new and often terrifying footage is released on a continuing basis. Along with footage […]
The Mall was 1/2 empty for Trump’s Inauguration, but the threat of his armed Militias Completely Emptied it for Biden’s
By Ryan Knappenberger | – ( Cronkite News ) – WASHINGTON – Four years ago, President Donald Trump claimed the crowd attending his inauguration was the largest in history, a claim widely ridiculed in the face of photos showing a half-empty National Mall. But when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in Wednesday, it’s safe to […]
How Trump’s language shifted in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot: Linguists can Tell
By Roger J. Kreuz and Leah Cathryn Windsor | – On Jan. 6, the world witnessed how language can incite violence. One after another, a series of speakers at the “Save America” rally at the Ellipse in Washington redoubled the messages of anger and outrage. This rhetoric culminated with a directive by the president to […]
Israel is increasingly an Apartheid State: What Martin Luther King Jr. Would have thought of that
Revised Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose activism we honor today, took stands far beyond Selma and Montgomery, and called on other capitals than Washington, D.C., to ensure a dignified life for human beings. Dr. King was an early and vigorous opponent of the white South African Apartheid (segregationist) […]