( Tomdispatch.com ) – It was one of the fabled rivers of history and the Marines needed to cross it. In early April 2003, as American forces sought to wrap up their conquest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and take strongholds to its north, the Marine Corps formed “Task Force Tripoli.” It was commanded by […]
Turkiye’s Erdogan Urges NATO membership for Ukraine, but Stiff-Arms Sweden over Kurdish Issue
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan invited Ukraine’s leader, Volodomir Zelensky, to Istanbul for consultations. Zelensky arrived late on Friday and met for two and a half hours with Erdogan at the Vahidettin Palace, the old residence of the last Ottoman emperor. In remarks after the meeting, Erdogan deplored the continuing war […]
Average Earth Temperature this week was Highest in at least 120,000 Years, When Modern Homo Sapiens was a Young Species
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The earth is getting especially hot this year, as record after record falls. Seth Borenstein at AP reports that three times this past week, the average temperature of the earth topped anything ever recorded. Thursday’s average 62.9 °F. (17.18 °C.) broke the record yet again. You don’t break all those […]
Jenin and Sharpeville: Systemic Colonial Violence in Apartheid Israel and South Africa
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The relationship of the Jewish-dominated Israeli state to the Muslim and Christian Palestinians of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and the Gaza Strip has been characterized in many ways. Israeli sources depict the Palestinians as irrationally violent, as inveterate “terrorists,” and characterize Israeli military operations in these territories as counter-terrorism. […]
On this 4th of July we need to Declare a War of Independence from Fossil Fuels and Climate Change
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, kicked off the Revolutionary War in earnest, which the Continental Army only finally won seven years later, in 1882. The Revolutionary War was a rare conflict for the United States, in that it was fought on our own soil, such that every […]
Electric Car Revolution: Tesla Sales up 83% Year on Year in Q2, as BYD does even better at 98% Surge
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tesla sales surged 83% in the second quarter compared to Q2 2022, and were up 10% over the first quarter. So reports Alan Ohnsmann at Forbes. And Benziga reports that the Chinese car maker BYD out produced Tesla in the first two quarters of this year, rolling out 1,255,637 new […]
Will US-Iran talks in Oman allow the two Countries to avoid War?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Late in 2022, the Biden administration announced that it had given upon on negotiating a restoration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), which Donald Trump destroyed in May 2018 by ripping it up and slapping what amounts to a financial and trade […]
Muslims are understandably Protesting Qur’an Burning in Sweden, but the Qur’an itself urges them to do so Peacefully
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Swedish police permitted the burning of the Muslim scripture, the Qur’an (Koran) in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, on the grounds that previous attempts to stop such acts have been overruled by the courts on freedom of speech grounds. Hate acts targeting minorities are not actually free […]
SCOTUS Ruling on Race and College Admissions: We’ve already Seen this Movie in Michigan and it Doesn’t End Well
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Conservatives in the United States have a stealth function of supporting white supremacy, even if they deny it. Maybe some do not even realize that is what they are doing. People focus on process and not outcomes when thinking of fairness, but what they think of as fair processes don’t […]
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