By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Whether or not the new Trump Executive Order banning visas for citizens of 6 Muslim-majority countries for a 90 day period and likewise excluding all refugees for six months stands up in the courts, it is still a piece of sordid bigotry. The rationale for the […]
Dirty, Hot, Deadly: The Real Trump Scandal is What He’s done to the Environment
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I don’t think Trump creates Twitter scandals to deflect attention from his real scandals. I think his mind just works in an odd way. But the fact is that concentrating too much on the sound and fury issuing from Mar-a-Lago is counter-productive. Trump actually is changing […]
Trump covers Rockwell: Sometimes it Feels like, Obama’s Watching You
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump is angry at his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, this weekend. He says he discovered (from the digital toilet paper ‘Breitbart,’ apparently) that a FISA court ordered a wire tap of Trump Tower in fall of 2016, and that it continued even though investigators […]
Oppression in the Land of the Free: A Muslim Leader Speaks Out
By Edu Montesanti | TeleSur | – – An interview with Hatem Abudayyeh, head of Chicago’s Arab American Action Network, on the rising criminalization of Arab and Muslim life in the US. In September of 2010, American federal agents in Chicago unjustifiably raided the Jefferson Park residence of Hatem Abudayyeh, Executive Director of Arab American […]
“Media Vandalism?” Top 6 Russian reactions to Trump’s Russia Scandals
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – We’re hearing a lot about American reactions to news that AG Jeff Sessions met twice with the Russian ambassador and then lied about it in his testimony to the Senate. But what does the Russian press make of all this? It seems to admit Trump sympathy […]
From Bernie Sanders to Harel: Why is Acknowledging Israeli Apartheid a Shock?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – On Monday, Bernie Sanders gave a historic speech at J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby that still believes in a two state solution. The lying roll of soiled toilet paper that is Breitbart (Trump’s party organ) reported with horror that Sanders had addressed an “anti-Israel” group. […]
Is Trump right to doubt that Islam is a Religion?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka again declined to say on Wednesday in an NPR interview whether President Trump believes Islam is “a religion.” He also doubled down on calling Muslim radicalism “radical Islamic extremism.” In the end he clarified that the US is not at war with […]
Afghanistan: We Lost a long Time Ago, and are Still at War
William J. Astore | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – America’s war in Afghanistan is now in its 16th year, the longest foreign war in our history. The phrase “no end in sight” barely covers the situation. Prospects of victory — if victory is defined as eliminating that country as a haven for Islamist terrorists […]
Sorry, Trump, China’s cut-back on Coal Dooms Industry
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has said many foolish things, but his pledge to bring back coal takes the cake. Coal is the dirtiest source of energy. Not only does it produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide when burned, but releases other toxins as well, including mercury. Mercury is […]