By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Lebanese Army has mobilized to clean out an ISIL enclave in a mountainous region on the border with Syria, Jurud al-Qaa and Jurud Ra’s Baalbak. Some 600 ISIL terrorists had controlled about 36 square miles in the hills, but already on late Saturday, one day […]
Trump fires Bannon: Who are the Winners & Losers Globally?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Steve Bannon by his own admission promoted the Breitbart webzine as a mouthpiece of white supremacism, in an attempt to create a new, well-educated and well-dressed version of seedy racism. The Republican Party had since the Nixon Strategy of the 1970s played on a soft version […]
Trump on Barcelona: Recalls US War on Spain, Brutal Occupation of Filipino Muslims
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A vehicular terror attack in Barcelona that left over a dozen people dead and 100 injured has been claimed by ISIL. Another terrorist attack in the small city of Cambrils was thwarted by Spanish police. The terrorist organization has repeatedly threatened Spain for its logistical and […]
German Politicians think Trump is dangerously close to Neo-Nazis, and they Should know
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The nation of Germany gazed with helpless horror at Trump’s disastrous Tuesday press conference, in which he tried to make a false equivalency between the neo-Nazis and the counter-protesters. Even before Trump’s wretched performance this week, only 11 percent of Germans said they trusted him to […]
Fascism in Charlottesville: Why it had a monopoly on violence & Intimidation
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his unhinged news conference on Tuesday, Trump equated what he called the “alt-Left” (which is not a thing) with the alt-Right. He characterized the latter as good people who were just protesting removing a statue of the traitor Robert E. Lee and wondered if statues […]
Why don’t People think Trump’s Denunciation sincere? B/c he Ran on Racism
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump finally came out, two days late, to denounce explicitly and by name the hate groups who organized an invasion, hundreds-strong, of little Charlottesville, VA (pop. 46,000) on Saturday. While the statement will take some of the political pressure off the president, it will be dismissed […]
Bannon must go, but after that, Protesters should listen to Bernie
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Steve Bannon ran, and is still likely pulling the strings at, Breitbart, the “Stormfront” in a business suit with a skinny tie. Bannon once characterized it as enabling what he called the “alt right,” by which he meant a slightly more presentable version of the skinheads, […]
Top 5 Ways White Terrorism means never having to Say you’re Sorry
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I’ve argued for some time that US media treats white terrorists differently than others. And, I noted recently that the US press seems to have been astonished when the governor of Minnesota branded the bombing of a mosque “terrorism.” We have more evidence today to make […]
‘Locked & Loaded’ Trump’s 1960s Cowboyism re: N. Korea & Venezuela
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – If you were away from news on Friday, you might like to know that in addition to hot wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen (and maybe Somalia and Libya), the Trump administration talks as though it is on the brink of opening new fronts in […]