By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – When Trump issued his executive order halting immigration from seven countries, suspending the refugee program, and banning Syrian refugees indefinitely, I wrote that he might well get away with it, since the judiciary tends to defer to the executive on issues of national security and on […]
Trumpworld Fake News: Iran attacks US Navy, Iraqis Massacre Bowling Green
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – So I was watching Chris Matthews’ Hardball on MSNBC Thursday evening and Matthews had Kellyanne Conway on to defend Trump’s disastrous first two weeks. For some reason, Matthews declines to challenge her when she flat-out lies, although he is quick to get in the face of […]
Trump’s 5th Bankruptcy: Budget-Busting Trillions to US Department of War
By William D. Hartung | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – At over $600 billion a year and counting, the Pentagon already receives significantly more than its fair share of federal funds. If President Donald Trump has his way, though, that will prove a sum for pikers and misers. He and his team are now […]
Here we go Again: Trump Admin Threatens Iran
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – National Security Advisor Mike Flynn came out on Wednesday to make a brief statement putting Iran “on notice.” Flynn complained about Iran’s ballistic missile tests, about a Yemeni Houthi attack on a Saudi naval vessel in the Red Sea (maintaining that it was ‘Iran-backed’) and about […]
Trump Can’t Make America Great Again without Immigrants
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In 2016, the US birthrate fell to 59.6 births per 1,000 women, the lowest ever recorded. Birth rates rise and fall over time, so the rate may not stay stuck at that level. It seems clear, however, that white nationalists like Trump’s evil genius Steve Bannon […]
Trump’s Alt-Reality: White Terrorism against Mosque justifies Muslim Ban
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump staffer Stephen Miller, an arch-conservative, defended Trump’s Muslim ban on television Monday by pointing to Europe, where he alleged there were Muslim ghettos that bred radicalism over generations. While a tiny number of Muslim Europeans deriving from poor neighborhoods have become radicals, they don’t actually […]
German Ambassador 1933: “Hostility to Jews Aimed Mainly at ‘Immigrants'”
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Here are two newspaper articles from spring, 1933. They concern the issue of early Nazi policy toward Germany’s Jews. In the first, the German ambassador to the UK maintains that the issue isn’t Jews but Immigrants. In the second, it is clear that only a few […]
The Sadism of Racist Exclusion: Courts Temporarily Block Trump
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Picking on immigrants and refugees is the act of a sadistic bully, since they are the one fairly large group of residents of the United States whose constitutional rights are disputed. The executive order Trump signed late on Friday suspending entrance to the United States for […]
Trump Visa Denials target same countries Bush vowed to Overthrow
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump’s shameful halt to the admission of refugees for 6 months and his 3-month pause in allowing entry to the US from seven countries is being advertised as driven by security concerns. The countries targeted are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen. What is […]