Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Beijing recently for what turns out to have been the biggest triumph of his career. China has decided it has nothing further to fear from the Trump administration, and has decided to incorporate Iran into its One Belt, One Road plan with […]

Featured

Jason Greenblatt, who Screwed the Palestinians Royally, Resigns from Steal of the Century

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jason Greenblatt, the Trump organization lawyer (what does that tell you about him?) who was appointed to spearhead the Trump administration “deal” between Palestinians and Israelis, has stepped down after nearly three years of screwing over the Palestinians and Arabs, taking food out of Palestinian mouths, and annexing vast swathes […]

Donald Trump

Trump Pilfers Billions from cyber-security, Puerto Rico in Pentagon Budget for Great White Wall

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Zachary Cohen and Ryan Browne at CNN report that Trump is stealing $3.6 billion from 127 projects in the Defense Department budget that was constitutionally purposed by Congress, and using them unconstitutionally for 140 miles of his Great White Wall at the Mexico border. And remember, he promised Mexico would […]

Climate Change

Failing Breitbart Comes for Juan Cole on Climate History and it Won’t Go Well

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I understand that the far, far rightwing reused toilet paper that is Breitbart ran a hit piece on me today for daring question the record of Florida’s Saint DeSantis on doing nothing about carbon dioxide emissions that are sinking his state. Breitbart’s offices are in Los Angeles, which is itself […]

Featured

Bernie Sanders after Saudi Prison Massacre in Yemen: “We are Complicit in this Nightmare”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi fighter-jets bombed a makeshift prison on a college campus in Dhamar, Yemen, south of the capital of Sana’a eight times on Sunday, killing at least 100 prisoners according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.Dozens of wounded have been taken to Revolution Hospital and many are in critical […]

Featured

On Labor Day, US Workers are 1/3 poorer than in 2003 & Top 1% is 2x Richer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Labor Day, American workers have little to celebrate. That’s alright. The September Labor Day, while initially proposed by some workers in the 1880s, was backed by conservative President Grover Cleveland over May 1, which he associated with radicalism (i.e. with workers who would demand their rights). So it really […]

Donald Trump

Trump Gives away US Intel Sources, Methods with Photo of Iran Launch Failure

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump couldn’t contain his inner five-year-old when an Iranian satellite launch at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport went bad last Thursday. He had to taunt Tehran on twitter, as Passant Rabie at Space.com reports. (Iranians don’t have twitter, although some high officials use it for public diplomacy overseas.) He appears to […]

Climate Change

Hurricane Dorian: DeSantis & Trump haven’t curbed CO2 Emissions & Should Resign

Juan Cole

Hurricane Dorian has gathered strength from the freakishly warm waters of the Caribbean to become a category 4. It is already raging with 130 mph winds, but is expected now to become even stronger. It is menacing the Bahamas, from which tourists can afford to flee; but what about the people who live there? It […]

Featured

Yemen: Southern Secessionists Retake Aden after UAE Kills 300 in airstrikes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Yemen’s southern separatist movement announced Thursday that it had regained control of all of the Arabian Sea port city of Aden and its surrounding province, and was near to taking Abyan province and its capital, Zinjibar. This according to the Egyptian Newspaper al-Masry al-Youm (The Egyptian Today) and Agence France […]