By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A false alert was sent out by the state of Hawaii on Saturday to residents’ cell phones warning of an incoming North Korean nuclear strike, as Mary Papunfuss of Huffpost explains. That is a remarkable falsehood and symptomatic of the hysteria in the age of Trump, […]
Trumpist UK Thugs waving US Flags try to Apprehend London’s Muslim Mayor
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – London Mayor Sadiq Khan was about to begin a speech on gender equality to the leftist Fabian Society when he was interrupted by British Trumpist hooligans shouting that they intended to make a citizen’s arrest of the mayor. After a while, during which Khan leafed through […]
Did Trump just Paint a target on backs of US Diplomats & Businessmen?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The United States as a superpower is in competition with global and regional competitors for influence in the world. Its rivals and enemies will take advantage of Trump’s insult of Africa, the Caribbean and Central America to reduce US leverage there and to increase their own. […]
The US Role in Turning Countries into Shitholes and provoking Immigration
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump just can’t help letting the cat out of the bag. And boy does his administration have a lot of cats in bags. The line of the Republican Party right wing has been that voter suppression laws are necessary for the integrity of elections. In fact, […]
Nearly a year after Trump bombed Syria, al-Assad and Russia extend control
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian war limps along at the margins. It is over where it matters but continues in key demographic pockets. The two most significant are East Ghouta near the al-Assad-held capital of Damascus and the province of Idlib in the northwest of the country. East Ghouta […]
Iran’s Khamenei: Trump Unbalanced, Playing Crazy Games, but Iran policy will Fail
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s clerical leader, Ali Khamenei, gave a speech in Qom on Tuesday, in which he warned Donald Trump that his “crazy games” would not go without a response. Western news outlets such as the NYT tried to represent this speech as a threat, and some outlets […]
“Do Kids die, Mom?” Facing the Future With Trepidation in the Age of Trump
Frida Berrigan | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – As a mother and an activist, here’s what I’ve concluded as 2018 begins: it’s getting harder and harder to think about the future — at least in that soaring Whitney Houston fashion. You know the song: “I believe the children are our future, teach them well and […]
Iran’s Khamenei blames Early English Learning for Unrest, Bans Classes
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s government has apparently discovered the real reason for the protests that swept its small towns and working class neighborhoods during the past couple of weeks. English was being taught to third graders in some schools. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the clerical Leader of the country, has […]
White Nat’list Trump Adviser Miller Bounced from CNN after Sit-in
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Senior policy advisor for the Trump White House and notorious white supremacist Stephen Miller appeared on Jake Tapper’s Sunday show to defend Trump from the allegations in Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” Miller declined to leave after the train wreck of an interview, in which he […]