Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Virginia Beach shooter killed 12 and put at least 4 others in hospital being operated on for their injuries. He shot up the municipal offices where he had been a utilities engineer until being fired recently. He had a long gun but appears to have done most of his […]

Arab World

Saudi King Salman calls at Summit for Int’l Condemnation of Iranian “Terrorism”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The emergency summit of the Arab league just held in Mecca had as it purpose to shore up pan-Arab support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their war on Yemen, in their conflict with Iran, and in their willingness to negotiate with Jared Kushner over his “deal […]

Constitution

A Wroth Mueller Comes for Nancy Pelosi: Rashida Tlaib is Right

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bob Mueller measures his words, but he is as Merriam Webster’s thesaurus has it, angered, apoplectic, ballistic, choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed (also enflamed), infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, livid, mad, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, […]

Featured

Why Israeli Gov’t May Fall: Like US, Secularists and Fundamentalists are Polarized

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We’ll know later today whether prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will succeed in forming a government. If not, Israel will have snap elections in September. In parliamentary systems, coalitions are often made after the election. In the US, the two big parties have already made their coalitions before the election. The […]

Featured

If Trump really only wants ‘No Iranian Nukes,’ then he should just rejoin the Nuclear Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in Japan that he is not looking for regime change in Iran. Trump said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister ABE Shinzo, “We aren’t looking for regime change – I just want to make that clear. We are looking for no nuclear weapons. I really believe […]

Featured

Yemen: On Memorial Day, Remember the 233,000 Dead in US-Backed Saudi War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Memorial Day should be rethought, as a day to mourn the death and destruction caused by war. Trump is using a legal loophole to declare an emergency in the Gulf and sell Saudi Arabia and its allies $8 billion in weaponry despite the opposition of Congress. Both houses of Congress […]

astronomy and outer space

No, Ben Shapiro, Science isn’t White

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In this clip via Twitter, Ben Shapiro, who is somehow touted as a serious thinker on the Right, alleges that the scientific method is peculiar to something he calls “the West.” He appears to think it consists of Greek empiricism mixed with what he terms a “Judeo-Christian” conviction that to […]

Donald Trump

No Fair! Iran Puts their Country Right next to US Military Bases in Gulf

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration made a grand and empty show Friday of announcing the dispatch to the Middle East of 1,500 US military personnel, allegedly to signal Iran not to attack US troops in the region. Update: Actually, it is 900 new troops and 600 having their deployment extended. I.e. nothing. […]

Featured

Jared Kushner is surprised he can’t get Palestinian Businessmen on Board with Promises of Prosperity

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Palestinian business groups accounting for 80% of Palestine’s gross domestic product say they are declining to attend a conference in Bahrain that is part of the roll-out of Jared Kushner’s “Deal of the Century.” The conference was intended to focus on “economic peace,” which is shorthand for investments in and […]