By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Bloomberg released a new report this week with some startling findings about solar energy. To wit: * Solar energy can now be generated for about half the cost of coal. Coal had been the cheapest energy source, but it has now been overtaken by solar. That […]
Hard Truth: Aleppo Rebels weren’t defeated by Main Force but b/c they alienated Syrians
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syria was in a better position to attain peace last spring, when a ceasefire had unexpected success. It would have been better if the rebels had been able to keep East Aleppo and the rest of their territory, and the regime had been forced to dicker […]
Demonization of Putin as “Personally” behind Clinton Hack is old Propaganda Technique
Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The leaked allegations supposedly from the CIA that Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally” directed how hacked emails from the Clinton campaign should be treated with a good deal of skepticism. I have already said that the allegations of effective Russian interference in the US election do not […]
Why do GOP Presidents get to go Hard Right, and Dems are just GOP Lite?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat. After it was confirmed that Donald J. Trump will appoint former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson Secretary of State, the shape of the Trump cabinet and team has become clear. Neofascist Steve Bannon is White […]
After Aleppo, Russians prepare to defy Trump re: their Iran Alliance
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – the left-leaning Lebanese newspaper al-Safir [Ambassador] reports that the armed resistance to the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the East Aleppo pocket is finished. Reports from Wednesday morning say that the ceasefire that Russia and the regime signed onto in hopes that the few hundred hold-outs […]
Trump’s Triangle in E. Asia: a Force for Peace or a harbinger of War?
By Tim Shorrock | ( Tomdispatch.com | – – Despite the attention being given to America’s roiling wars and conflicts in the Greater Middle East, crucial decisions about the global role of U.S. military power may be made in a region where, as yet, there are no hot wars: Asia. Donald Trump will arrive in […]
Sorry, Garrison Keillor: Keith Ellison for President could have beaten Trump, and still Can
Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I am a fan of Garrison Keillor, of “Prairie Home Companion” fame. I am also a fan of Keith Ellison (D-MN), the prominent liberal representative from Minneapolis and happens to be a Muslim. Unfortunately for me, I have to choose between them because Keillor, deep in depression […]
Syria’s Aleppo Falling: The Government Russia actually Turned
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – By Monday morning Syrian time, the large and important district of Shaikh Saeed in southeastern Aleppo had completely fallen to the Syrian Arab Army and its allies among the Shiite militias of Lebanon and Iraq. (Orange in this map areas regime has taken in past 3 […]
Is Bruited Sec. of State Tillerson allied with Iran & at war with Iraq?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A couple of years ago an oil tanker showed up off the Texas coast with cargo from Iraqi Kurdistan. The problem? Iraqi Kurdistan is a province of Iraq, and the central government in Baghdad claims that petroleum discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan is under the control of […]
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