Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia and Syria are preparing to enter into a wide-ranging trade and investment deal, according to RT Arabic. Sunday night, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov arrived in Damascus to meet with high Syrian officials. On Monday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived, meeting with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and his […]

Employment

On Labor Day, Trump’s mismanagement of Pandemic has left 27 mn Unemployed and Turning to Food Banks

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is a sad Labor Day, in the shadow of the Trump Pandemic. Over a fourth of workers are afraid of losing their jobs because of the pandemic, up from 15% last year this time, according to Gallup. That is, the anxiety over joblessness has almost doubled. Many are much […]

Featured

Revolutionary, Muslim-Majority Sudan Declares Separation of Religion and State

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) The transitional government of officers and civilian revolutionaries in Sudan has separated religion and state. In an agreement signed Thursday in Addis Ababa with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N), Sudan’s prime minister Abdullah Hamdok agreed that Sudan would not establish any particular religion. The agreement included the language, “The state […]

Donald Trump

Trump popularity with Military was already Cratering before Belleau-gate

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even before some whistleblowers among the generals went to the Atlantic magazine with their complaints that Trump disrespected US war dead, the president was in trouble with the military. I suspect that yesterday’s news will have caused Trump’s standing with the military to plummet further. A new opinion poll from […]

Donald Trump

What was the Battle of Belleau Woods, the Slain Marines at which Trump called “Losers” and “Suckers”?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic reported yesterday on what he was told by four members of Trump’s entourage about the president’s 2018 visit to France. He had been scheduled to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris, but it was raining and he made excuses. Goldberg’s sources told him that […]

Featured

With US AWOL, NATO Allies rattle sabers: Turkish Ruling Party says Greece is now a Rogue State

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Greece and Turkey have been having loud shouting matches this summer, with some pretty ominous language at times. The two are supposed to be NATO allies, but you couldn’t tell it from their bellicose rhetoric. A nationalist Turkish politician, Devlet Bahceli, is quoted as having said of said this past […]

China

China slams Trump Admin. as “Saboteur” on Iran Deal, “Making a Mockery of Int’l Law”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Iran nuclear deal was horse trading. Iran gave up 80 percent of its civilian nuclear enrichment program and was supposed to get in return the lifting of all sanctions. Instead, Trump maximized sanctions, in what is essentially a trade and financial blockade on the country. So it is like […]

Featured

Is the US missing the Boat on a Green Recovery from Covid? Every new Gigawatt of Renewables is 1500 Jobs

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The coronavirus is still running wild, causing over 40,000 new infections a day in the US, which has among the highest rates in the world. The US had an unemployment rate of over 10% this July, and the US economy is in the dumpster. Scientists warn that the fall could […]

Donald Trump

6 Million Stricken with Covid-19: Trump has turned the US into a Sh*thole Country

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US reported its six millionth coronavirus case, and deaths are headed toward 200,000. It is hard to explain just how bad the US death rate under Trump from the novel coronavirus is. Reuters: “U.S. coronavirus cases top 6 million” It isn’t only that it is worse than other industrialized […]