By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Associated Press did a useful fact check of Trump’s bizarre assertions on climate change in the interview with his friend Piers Morgan. Since Trump is not good with reading books and the like, it may be helpful to reply to his falsehoods with graphs. TRUMP: […]
In the Age of Big Climate Change we have to stop Farting Carbon
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This past year is what the era of Big Climate Change looks like. We are only at the beginning of the massive changes we are making to our environment by farting 41 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (a heat-trapping gas) into our atmosphere every year, […]
Blood oil: more than half of the oil traded across the world has been stolen
By Leif Wenar | (The Conversation) | – – Donald Trump tweeted something true recently. Responding to the protests in Iran, the US president stated that “The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered.” Trump’s point is correct: what vice-president Mike Pence called Iran’s “unelected […]
Many in Press fall for Trump’s non-apology on retweet of anti-Muslim Hate
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In the course of Trump’s softball interview with his friend Piers Morgan, he said he’d be willing to apologize for retweeting three tweets by a member of a British far right racist group, Britain First, which has about 1,000 members. Guardian: “‘I would certainly apologise’: Trump […]
In blow to Trump, Syrian Kurds call on al-Assad to Save them from Turkey
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The hopes of the Trump administration to use the Syrian Kurds as a wedge against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus may be rapidly fading. The liberal Lebanese newspaper Elbalad [The Country] reports that the Autonomous Administration of the Kurdish-majority Afrin region of northern Syria, […]
China surges with 52 Gigs of new Solar as Trump kneecaps US sector with 30% Tariffs
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Clean Technica reports that China blew the top off expectations for its solar installations in 2017, It put in 52.83 gigawatts. The incredible 2017 solar surge in China brought its total solar installed capacity up to 130 gigawatts. As a cursory look at these statistics makes […]
Countering Turkish Propaganda, Pentagon reports 150 ISIL Killed in Airstrikes
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The front page news today that US and coalition aircraft (mostly American joined by French and British pilots) struck last Saturday at an ISIL base in eastern Syria where hundreds of fighters had regrouped, killing 150 of them. There are lots of question marks about this […]
Jordan’s King Abdullah warns Pence-Trump of Major instability over Jerusalem
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Political scientist John Mearsheimer wrote a book on the tragedy of great power politics. While that subject is indeed shockingly depressing, imagine the tragedy of small power politics. Poor King Abdullah II of Jordan was forced to host Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, the world’s biggest […]
Top Trump officials, in Syria’s Raqqa, vow “Stabilization” w/out “Reconstruction”
Middle East Monitor | – – The US government’s aid chief, Mark Green, made an unannounced visit to Raqqa in Syria on Monday, the most senior US civilian official from the Trump administration to visit the war-struck northern city months after it was retaken from Daesh, Reuters reports. Green was accompanied by head of the […]
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