Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The BBC reports that a bitumen tanker, the MV Asphalt Princess, was boarded by nine men on Tuesday and hijacked. It cites unnamed “analysts,” presumably MI6, to the effect that the hijacking was the work of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The MV Asphalt Princess, owned by the United Arab […]
Living in the Dark: Palestinians in Gaza, besieged by Israel and deprived of Electricity, Can’t even Refrigerate their Food
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Committee of the Red Cross has released a detailed study of life for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip that is just as depressing as you would imagine. The electricity situation there has been touch and go for years, in large part because of the illegal Israeli civilian blockade […]
Palestinian Christians welcome U.S. United Church of Christ affirmation of right to Boycott Israel for Occupation of Palestinian Territories
Palestinians UCC BDS Occupation Israel
As Florida’s cases Spike to Unprecedented 21,683, Ron “Satan” DeSantis wants to Kill your Kids
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey S. Solocheck at the Miami Herald reports that Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Friday issued a royal decree forbidding school districts to require that pupils wear a mask and threatening to cut funding from any that defied him. DeSantis has also banned Florida municipalities from putting in renewed mitigation […]
Renewables for first time on Record generated more Electricity than either Coal or Nuclear in US in 2020: EIA
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Energy Information Administration, the primary authority in the federal government on energy numbers, concludes that renewables, primarily hydro, wind and solar, rose to become 21% of electricity generation in the US in 2020. This is the first time on record that renewables were the second-largest generator of electricity in […]
The U.S. Committed Cliocide (Destruction of History) in Iraq, and even Returning Gilgamesh Can’t Fix it
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US government has returned 17,000 archeological artifacts to Iraq, many of them over 4,000 years old. This, according to Al Jazeera The objects and tablets were looted from the country during the chaos of the Bush administration’s rule of that country and were smuggled into the U.S., then sold […]
Disruption — David Potter discusses Radical Change in History (Constantine, Muhammad, Trump) with Juan Cole on “Literati at Home”
At Home with Literati: David Potter & Juan Cole The book is David Potter, Disruption: Why things Change — order from Literati Bookstore. “How do things change? The question is critical to the historical study of any era but it is also a profoundly important issue today as western democracies find the fundamental tenets of […]
It is Time to Call Republican Rejection of Vaccines and Masks what it is: Selfish
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Washington Post reports that the rate of coronavirus infections is twice as high in Trump-voting counties as in Biden-voting ones. And ABC News reports that the US now has the highest average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the world.. Only about 57% of Americans ages 12 and […]
Yemen and the Prophet Muhammad: Abdulrahman al-Eryani interviews Juan Cole
Abdulrahman al-Eryani interviewed me on his InBoundTalk show on YouTube (link below) about 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 InboundTalk: Abdulrahman Al-Eryani interviews Juan Cole on his book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash […]