Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s rant against Iran on Sunday accused the leadership of that country of hoarding the country’s wealth, behaving like a mafia, and being hypocritical clergymen. While these allegations are not without basis in fact, Pompeo’s own record undermines the critique. The Trump administration is itself a government of billionaires, by billionaires […]
Trump and Iran’s Rouhani Threaten each other with the Mother of all Wars
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In remarks Saturday to the Iranian foreign policy establishment in Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani gave some warnings to Donald Trump. He said, “Mr. Trump, do not play with the lion’s tail. The only result of such a course will be profound regret.” With regard to Washington’s current attempts to sow […]
Haider Ali, Pakistan’s Truck Art, and Islam’s Message of Peace
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We have been honored to have with us in Ann Arbor the past few days the celebrated Pakistani truck artist, Haider Ali of Karachi. As his art has become celebrated, he has become a little itinerant, going off around the world to fulfill commissions or grace gallery and museum exhibitions […]
Iran’s Khamenei endorses Closing Gulf Oil Shipping if US Blockades
Iran’s clerical Leader, Ali Khamenei, spoke Saturday to a gathering of diplomats in Tehran. Speaking of the Trump administration’s full court press to put Iran under severe sanctions now that Trump has violated the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Khamenei said he approved of the threat made by President Hassan Rouhani on his recent visit […]
Surprise! On how Muhammad never preached “Jihad”
The word “jihad” has become pervasive in English. The Western Right wing is trying to use the term to replace the Communist Manifesto as the ultimate in the threatening Other. It figures prominently in FBI charges against militants. It is often glossed as “holy war.” People, especially those who dislike Islam, think that it means […]
With Nationality Law, Israel openly Declares Apartheid and Racial Supremacy
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel has for decades been running the occupied territories of Palestine–Gaza and the West Bank– with Apartheid tactics. As with black South Africans under Apartheid, most Palestinians have been deprived of citizenship in a real, recognized state. Their villages have been isolated by a network of what often amount to […]
Benedict Trump
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Donald Trump to let Russian security forces interrogate former US ambassador in Moscow Mike McFaul on US soil, and that Trump did not dismiss the request out of hand. He would, Sanders said, take it under consideration and […]
What exactly did Trump Promise Putin on Syria, START Nuclear Treaty?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There was a difference of opinion in the Russian press about whether the Putin-Trump Helsinki summit was contentless or whether new agreements were reached, especially on strategy and Syria. BBC Monitoring of the Russian press reports an editorial in the Vedomosti business daily on the Helsinki summit, which says that […]
DC Elites Shocked at Trump Bromance with Putin but Give Israel’s Netanyahu a Pass
The inside-the-beltway crowd was absolutely outraged and appalled by Trump’s performance at Helsinki. There, Trump violated all the principles of American hawkishness. He sat next to Vladimir Putin, leader of a rival power, signaling that Russia is a peer. He sided with Putin over the assessments of the CIA, the NSA and other US intelligence […]
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