On the face of it, Trump’s erratic behavior with allies and his violation of the 2015 accord on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program ought to give North Korea pause about negotiating with him. It does not. The Iran deal in particular was closely negotiated over the course of years. Iran gave up 90% of its […]
Shorter Pope Francis to Big Oil: You’re Going to Hell if You don’t Go Green
Pope Francis on Saturday forthrightly reminded Big Oil that climate change is a moral issue. The Pontiff quoted his Encyclical, Laudato Si, to representatives of ExxonMobil, Total, BP and many others, saying, “There is no time to lose: We received the earth as a garden-home from the Creator; let us not pass it on to […]
Anthony Bourdain: The Only Mensch on Gaza
Anthony Bourdain was the only major American celebrity who succeeded in depicting publicly the Palestinians as rational, caring human beings rather than as irrationally angry “inciters” to violence. He was the anti-Bernard Lewis. Lewis smeared the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims with the charge of “Islamic Rage” (as though large swathes of humankind are angry for […]
G7 Views Trump’s US as Rogue State, as France Threatens a “G6” Memo
Trump’s 17th century mercantilist trade policies are making the United States the skunk at the party at the G7 meet in Quebec on Friday. Trump will skip the session on climate change. Trump has been needling Justin Trudeau, the PM of Canada, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president. Macron is needling back: The American President […]
Is Trump’s Iftar Party for Muslim envoys an attempt to Sway SCOTUS on Muslim Ban?
Trump held an iftar dinner to break fast with Muslims on Wednesday. His guests, however, were not American Muslims but rather a select number of ambassadors to the US from pro-American Muslim governments. A survey of the Arabic press shows that this nuance is being ignored by the headline writers, who report that Trump invited […]
Is there Too Much Democracy in the Middle East?
In the Washington Post last week, historian of the US Yoav Fromer of Tel Aviv University published an article about how the problem with the Middle East is too much democracy and not too little. Fromer seems to take at face value George W. Bush’s policy of “democratization.” That was a slogan to cover the […]
“The Light of a Thousand Suns:” India has 5 of World’s largest Solar Farms, Plans Huger
Once upon a time, if it was big and it was a technological advance, I’d expect to hear it was happening in the United States. As Trump flushes the toilet on true American greatness (its intellectual capital, ability to attract talent from around the world, its open-mindedness and freedom for innovation, its commitment to the […]
Trump’s Roast of Muslims at his White House Iftar Dinner
Satire Mr. Trump: “Well, it is just great to see you all here. Actually, I’m surprised there are this many of you at my dinner. I thought I’d done a better job of keeping you out of the country! But I can’t blame you for getting past me. I mean, you’re from those shithole countries, […]
War Crimes: Israeli Snipers Kill Palestinian Nurse, Injure 100, at Gaza March of Return
Ma’an News Agency reports, “Israeli forces shot and killed a 21-year-old Palestinian woman paramedic on Friday, as she was treating injured protesters during ongoing demonstrations along the Gaza border with Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 21-year-old Razan Ashraf al-Najjar, from the Khan Younis-area town of Khuzaa, was […]
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