By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu filled the ear of visiting UN secretary general Antonio Guterres with complaints about Iran and Hizbullah on the latter’s visit to the region. He complained that the UN border patrol, UNIFIL, in South Lebanon, has not reported the thousands of rockets […]
Top 5 ways Man-made Climate Change made Hurricane Harvey much Worse
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The images from Houston and its environs are heart-breaking and we at IC wish all those affected a speedy and safe return to normality. Extreme weather events are associated with climate change, and whenever they occur, they raise the question of their relationship to that process. […]
Iraq: Trump slams Iran, but Iran-backed Militias are key to taking Talafar from ISIL
by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Shiite popular mobilization units (Iran-backed militias) have played a key role in taking of the northern city of Talafar from ISIL. The ninth armored division of the regular army and the military’s counter-terrorism brigandes have also played an important role. A government spokesman said that only […]
Trump Exploits Harvey Victims in Stealth Pardon of Arpaio
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Eminent climate scientist Michael Mann of Penn State noticed not one but two horrible things about Friday evening. You never want to see a Hurricane that looks like this at landfall.I fear #Harvey will take a heavy toll. Be safe folks. pic.twitter.com/1r0CXvhghm — Michael E. Mann […]
Take that, Trump! 5% of California New Car Sales now Electric
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite Trump having pulled the US out of the Paris Climate accord, there is reason to think that the US will nevertheless meet its obligations to reduce deadly carbon dioxide emissions. Although Trump is blowing up the Environmental Protection Agency the way a terrorist would blow […]
Germany’s Merkel: A Selfish & Isolationist America isn’t “Great Again”
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In an interview with Handelsblatt , German Chancellor Angela Merkel took on Donald Trump’s philosophy directly. She said that Trump’s isolationism cannot make America greater. Turning inward and abandoning friends can only diminish America, she said: “An America that does not care about the rest of […]
Trump, the Magical WASP, Deepens Racial Divide again in Phoenix
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After another Stockholm Syndrome performance, on Afghanistan, where he gave the speech National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster wrote for him, Trump on Tuesday returned to form at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a week and a half after Trump discredited himself with two-thirds […]
Trump flip-flops on Afghanistan, opts for Years-long Quagmire
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The 16-years-long Afghanistan War has bedeviled Washington decision-makers since the US invasion of fall, 2001, which came in response to the attacks of September 11. In his speech on Monday night, Trump was primarily attempting to manipulate American domestic politics. He was trying to look presidential […]
Why no Eclipse Denialists? The Same Science predicts Global Heating
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Eminent physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s tweet pointing out that there are no eclipse denialists the way there are dedicated climate change denialists went viral: Odd. No one is in denial of America’s Aug 21 total solar eclipse. Like Climate Change, methods & tools of science predict […]
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