Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Glen Carey and Vivian Nereim at Bloomberg report that the Saudi government has arrested former crown prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, his brother Nawwaf, and the brother of King Salman, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. They say their Saudi sources intimated that the three are accused of plotting to overthrow […]
How many Iranians will die of Coronavirus because of Trump’s Economic Blockade on that Country?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Babak Dehghanpisheh at Reuters reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Thursday that the coronavirus Covid-19 has spread to nearly all of the 31 provinces of the huge country (Iran is as big geographically as Spain, France and Germany combined, and its population rivals that of Germany at 81 […]
Netanyahu, failing to get a majority for the third time, Lashes out at Foes as “Arab Terrorists” and Jewish Terrorist-Lovers
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Arab48, a Palestinian-Israeli news site, reports that caretaker Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused the “Joint List” made up of 15 Palestinian-Israelis elected to parliament of being “terrorists” and put them out of consideration in the formation of a government. A minimum of 61 seats is needed to form a […]
The Real Losers on Super Tuesday: Urgent Climate Action, Medicare for All, Anti-Plutocracy
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Primaries can be long drawn-out affairs. The Obama-Clinton struggle of spring-summer 2008 went down to the wire, still being contested in June. As I write Tuesday evening, the delegate count for Super Tuesday is still not known, and the actual count for California could take a long time to nail […]
“The Triumph of Apartheid:” Did the Trump/Kushner Plan help Israel’s Netanyahu return to Power?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Three Israeli television news channels’ exit polls suggest that indicted prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s far-right racist Likud Party fell just short of a majority in Israel’s third parliamentary election in a year. The Likud, founded in the age of supremacist racialist parties of the 1930s and 1940s, was projected to […]
Russia backs Damascus as it closes Syrian Airspace, Threatens to down Turkish Jets
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkey shot down two Syrian fighter jets over Idlib province this weekend and Turkish drones and artillery took out armor on the ground, allegedly killing over a hundred Syrian troops, along with Lebanese Hizbullah fighters and Iran-supplied Shiite forces. Syria on Sunday announced that it was closing its air space […]
The Plutocracy Strikes Back: CNN Compares Bernie Sanders to Coronavirus
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday morning CNN host Michael Smerconish compared Sen. Bernie Sanders to the coronavirus, asking if anything could stop either one. So reports Tommy Christopher at Mediaite. CNN has apologized. Rational National: “CNN Compares Bernie Sanders To The Coronavirus” Smerconish is a lifelong Republican who left the party in 2008 […]
Clouds of War: Russia sends Warships as Turkey kills 45 Syrian Troops and blackmails Europe with Migration
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkey and Russia engaged in a tense dance of negotiation and threat on Friday in the wake of the killing of 34 Turkish soldiers in an air strike the previous day. Russian sources maintained that the Turkish troops were “where they were not supposed to be,” and were nested among […]
Turkey mobilizes for war with Syria and Russia as Nearly 3 Dozen Turkish Troops Killed
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera reports that nearly three dozen Turkish soldiers in a barracks in Syria were killed Friday by an air strike. Although most reports say that the bombing was carried out by the Syrian Air Force, some Syria experts suggest that it was instead done by the Russian Aerospace Forces, […]