The New York Times reports that deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein talked about wearing a wire to record Trump’s insane prattering, and spoke of invoking the 25th amendment, which allows the cabinet to remove the president if he is incapacitated. Rosenstein’s office says that the remarks were facetious. They were recorded in memos by former […]
The GOP is after Kerry for Iran Meetings, but has a Long History of Covert Foreign Scandals
Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and now Florida Senator Mario Rubio this week attacked former Secretary of State John Kerry for meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif this past winter and spring for conversations about ways of preserving the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). Former secretaries of […]
Annual State Dept. Report on decline of Terrorism forgets to Thank Iran and Hizbullah
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The annual State Department report on terrorism says that terrorist attacks were down by 23% world wide in 2017. The report attributed this decline in some large part to the defeat of ISIL in Iraq and Syria. (Obviously, they haven’t disappeared there, and pockets continue to offer resistance, but let’s […]
Who was High Israeli Official in Manafort Ukraine Corruption Case?
I wrote in my column on Sunday, “Manafort’s Plea Deal is a Constitutional Crisis, we Just don’t Know it Yet:” Manafort has to give to the Federal government over $40 million in ill-gotten gains. Manafort has been convicted of lobbying for pro-Russian politicians and interests in Ukraine, of not registering as a foreign agent, and […]
Trump’s China Tariffs on Solar backfire; American Natural Gas hurt, as US PV sales Soar
(Informed Comment) – President Donald Trump’s 30% tariff on Chinese-made solar panels turns out not to have had as severe an impact on the industry as had been feared. Trump was attempting to slow renewables growth in favor of Big Carbon–natural gas and coal, but he failed spectacularly. As it turns out, the Chinese are […]
US, having created 4 mn Refugees in Iraq, Slashes Immigrant cap to 30,000
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that the Trump administration would slash refugee admissions to 30,000 in 2019, down from 45,000 in 2018 and from 85,000 in fiscal 2016. Refugees come in numbers to the US when there is a crisis in their own country. At the same time, US policies toward refugees in […]
Kavanaugh: Dr. Christine Blasey seeks to Forestall a Trauma to the Nation that was Inflicted on Her
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Christine Blasey Ford, a professor of Psychiatry at Palo Alto University and an affiliate at Stanford University, gave a harrowing interview in the Washington Post Sunday accusing a young, drunk Brett Kavanaugh of having attempted to rape her. He tore, she alleges, at the bathing suit she was wearing under […]
The Logos of Abraham in the Qur’an and Universal Salvation for all True Religions
The Qur’an castigates the Jews and Christians of the early 600s AD for their exclusivist theories of salvation. Alan Race and John Hick have identified three possible stances by one religion toward the prospects of going to heaven for members of other religions. Exclusivism is the position that only members of your own religion are […]
Top 7 Signs Willie Nelson Might not be a Republican (That’s ‘TeaPot Party,’ not Tea Party)
“Christians everywhere should be up in arms,” Nelson said about Trump border family separation policy