Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s crowds have started chanting “Send her back!” referring to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali-American who came as a refugee when a child and was naturalized. The idea that some citizens are less loyal or less patriotic or less deserving of residency than other citizens is not new in […]
Pew: ‘Israel is as Religiously Restrictive as Iran,’ as Ed. Minister backs LGBTQ Conversion Therapy
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Haaretz reports that the PewForum has found Israel one of the twenty most religiously restrictive countries in the world. Indeed, it rivals theocratic Iran on that measure. One of Pew’s criteria is whether a government explicitly favors a particular religion. Israel favors Judaism big time. It also takes account of […]
It isn’t just the Racism: Trump’s Stupid Trade Wars have Driven US Manufacturing into Recession
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It’s official. Trump has put US manufacturing, which is about 14% of the US gross national product, into recession, according to AFP. Recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline. The recession in manufacturing has many reasons, including a cyclical slowdown in the Chinese economy. But on top of […]
Top 4 Ways the Squad of young Congresswomen represent more Americans than Trump
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump is again making a spectacle of himself, quite deliberately, in attacking the four congresswomen known as “the Squad.” They champion progressive principles like the Green New Deal, describe themselves as socialists or don’t object to the term, and most useful for our neo-Nazi president, they are not white. Trump […]
UK Ambassador: Trump Breached Iran Deal to Spite Obama & was “Diplomatic Vandalism” driven by “Personality Reasons”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch alleged in a diplomatic cable that Trump’s motivation in breaching the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was motivated by nothing more than spite, according to the Daily Mail , which saw the text. In spring of 2018, then foreign secretary Boris Johnson came […]
Top 5 Trump Officials who Resigned because of Shocking Scandals
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The resignation of Trump’s Labor secretary, Alex Acosta, is only the most recent in a string of such scandals for Trump. In fact, what with all the things Trump himself has done plus those around him, his is surely the most scandal-ridden presidency in history. Let us just review the […]
Bipartisan House Vote Amends Pentagon Funding to forbid Trump to attack Iran
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ed Kilgore at New York Magazine reports that the House of Representatives has passed the National Defense Authorization Act with a number of riders. One, which passed 251-170, was an amendment forbidding Trump to launch a war on Iran without explicit Congressional approval, except in a case of clear self-defense. […]
Majority of US Veterans doubt Value of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria Wars: Pew
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A Pew Research Center opinion poll conducted among 1,284 veterans who had served since 2001 (which also polled 1,087 American civilians as a control), found that a majority of veterans holds that the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and the intervention against ISIl in Syria were not worth it. The results […]
Juan Cole on the Prophet Muhammad in War and Peace (Emir-Stein Center Video)
Emir-Stein Center | Juan Cole on Muhammad | – Click below to go to YouTube and watch a 7-minute video–with maps, historical graphics and animation– where I summarize my new book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires: Here’s the link for the video: Emir-Stein Center presents Juan Cole on the Prophet Muhammad […]