By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The debate over whether Donald Trump or Rex Tillerson has the higher IQ, provoked by a Trump tweet that he now says was a joke, actually raises a serious question. Why would someone deliberately sabotage our air, water and climate? The science needed for understanding that […]
Trump and the Faustian Bargain of Corker and the GOP
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Republican Establishment doesn’t want much in life, just for the wealthy to have ever lower taxes, for polluting industries to have ever less regulation, and for the health and welfare of the nation’s poor and workers to be someone else’s responsibility, preferably that of the […]
Gerrymandering is about Race even when it seems just “Partisan”
By Olga Pierce and Kate Rabinowitz | ( ProPublica) | – – The Wisconsin case before the Supreme Court claims to be about partisanship. But race is a factor in this case and many others nationwide. The Wisconsin voting rights case before the Supreme Court has been cast as the definitive test of whether partisan […]
Former US Allies peeling off under Trump: Turkey halts US Visas
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US and Turkey have ceased processing non-immigrant visas for one another’s citizens. That’s right. If you’re an American and were planning to visit Istanbul this fall, unpack your bags. In a world of abnormal goings-on, this one is really weird. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has […]
Top Ten Renewable Energy surprises in New IEA Report
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A new International Energy Agency report contains some startling findings about solar energy dominance and its future. !. Renewables comprised 66% of all new net electricity capacity additions in 2016. Two-thirds of added capacity, in other words, consisted of photovoltaic solar cells, wind turbines and biofuels. […]
Plummeting in Polls, will Trump ‘Wag the Dog’ with Iran, N. Korea?
Why did president speak of ‘calm before the storm’?
Was Ayatollah Khamenei right about Washington? Trump Reneges
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump appears likely to attempt to derail the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA]), next week. The deal curbs Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and prevents it from using the program to do more than create fuel for power plants. Trump will argue […]
Top 5 signs Donald Trump might be an effing moron
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Carol E. Lee at NBC reported Wednesday that last summer Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, called Trump a “f*cking moron.” The remark came after a number of incidents in which Trump had contradicted Tillerson on policy, and directly after Trump made salacious remarks to a […]
Germany and the Rise of a ‘Fascist International’
John Feffer | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – Germany funds foundations for its political parties. If the far right gets one, we’re one step closer to globalizing the alt-right. Germany got its very own electoral shock this week when the far right won 13 percent of the vote in country’s parliamentary elections. […]