By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised Those ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt. This year’s report from Transparency International puts the US on a par with Austria, which is ridiculous. All kinds of people from politicians […]
Thousands of US Citizens Jailed Over Debts as Small as US$28
TeleSur | – – One in three Americans has been reported to a private collection agency with the majority of cases affecting Latin American and African-American communities. The United States, where the streets are paved with gold and US$28 can send a young single mother or an 80-year-old grandmother to jail for a week or […]
Seas Rising ever Faster as Humans burn more Fossil Fuels (NASA Image)
Image via NASA NASA’s Earth Observatory writes: “Global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data. This acceleration has been driven mainly by increased ice melting in Greenland and Antarctica, and it has the potential to double the total […]
The Age of Total War in Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the most distressing take-aways of the Syria War since 2011 is that the United Nations does not work and all the hopes of the framers of its charter in 1945 have been dashed. World War II was a total war that polished off some […]
Turks Threaten al-Assad if he sends Army to Defend Syrian Kurds
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Rumors swirled on Monday that the Democratic Union Party in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria had made an agreement for Syrian government troops to come defend them from the current Turkish assault on them . Reports were circulating (some of them from the […]
Mass Shootings and Gang Murders have unrestricted Semi-Automatic Weapons in Common
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Revised Can anything be done about the phenomenon of “mass shootings?” These killings have plagued the US for decades. The problem is getting substantially worse over time. The first time I published a version of this column, in 2012, only 88 people were killed in mass […]
Despite Coal Lobby, Australia to Double Solar Energy in 2018
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Australia’s march to solar power is a reason for climate optimism because it is happening under adverse circumstances. Australia has a big and important coal industry that spends millions on lobbying and election campaigns, and the Australian government is in its back pocket. They, too, have […]
Russian campaign Interference looks like ISIL in Polarizing Techniques
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Mueller inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign has now brought indictments against specific Russian individuals and organizations, including the crony of Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s chef” because the Russian president throws his business large numbers of high level government […]
Let’s remember the Schoolchildren US & Russian bombs are killing, too
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen is keeping two million children out of school (Yemen is a country of 27 million). Worse, schools and schoolchildren have repeatedly been struck from the air by Saudi, UAE, Moroccan and Jordanian pilots using American-supplied planes and bombs, in a […]
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