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(Reprinted at Informed Comment courtesy Tomdispatch.com.) – These days, our global political alliances seem to shift with remarkable rapidity, as if we were actually living in George Orwell’s 1984. Are we at war this month with Oceania? Or is it Eastasia? In that novel, the Party is able to erase history, sending old newspaper articles […]

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Top 5 Reasons for Americans to Admire the Prophet Muhammad

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In his presidential campaign, Donald Trump notoriously said, “I think Islam hates us.” As is usual with this erratic, fact-free president, the assertion is not true. If we take Muslim-Americans, who at about 3.4 million persons constitute some 1.1 percent of Americans, over 90% say they are proud to be […]

Climate Change

Fate of 190,000-years-old Human Race depends on Massive Greening Effort over just 30 Years

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It strikes me as darkly humorous that we, the most intelligent species ever to have evolved on earth, homo sapiens (evolved circa 190,000 years ago), were so clever that around 1750 we started burning so much wood, coal and later on oil and natural gas that we started changing our […]

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Plutocratic Coup: Top Six Ways a Kavanaugh Court will Take us back to the Dark Ages

Juan Cole

Despite the considerable cloud over his head, Brett Kavanaugh was put on the Supreme Court on Saturday, in what may best be described as a plutocratic coup by the ruling-but-minority Republican Party. Since Kavanaugh succeeds Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often served as a swing vote on those occasions when a decision veered to the left, […]

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Irony: Nobel Peace Prize for anti-Rape Activist, as US Senate puts Alleged Abuser on Highest Court

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – If the allegations of Professor Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh are true, then he was a juvenile criminal. He and a friend plotted out how to get girls inebriated, force them into an upstairs side room, turn up the music to drown out screams, jump on top of them, […]

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If Brett Kavanaugh were African-American, Would he be Going to Jail instead of to SCOTUS?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Brett Kavanaugh may or may not be an attempted rapist, but one thing is clear. The Republican senators are according him all the honors of white privilege. That includes a presumption of innocence that statistically speaking, white juries do not accord African-American defendants. One in every six women in the […]

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Trump Humiliates, Squeezes Saudi Ally: ‘Pay up–you wouldn’t last 2 Weeks w/out US Army’

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump, speaking at a rally in Mississippi on Tuesday night, went out of his way to humiliate Saudi King Salman, his close ally in his attempt to corral Iran. “We protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say they’re rich? And I love the King, King Salman. But I said, ‘King – […]

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New Shiite-led Gov’t in Baghdad: How Iran won the Iraqi Elections & Frustrated Trump

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Shiite politician Adil Abdul Mahdi has been appointed prime minister by new Iraqi president Barham Saleh, bringing to a close months of gridlock in Iraqi politics after the parliamentary elections in June failed to produce a clear winner. Parliament in the past couple of weeks has finally been able to […]

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Top Five Signs Kavanaugh might have been a mean, Black-out Drunk Capable of Anything

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – George W. Bush is supporting Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. But Bush is more honest than the judge. He was asked by journalists during one of his campaigns if he had ever used cocaine. He made waves when he declined to answer the question. He later admitted that the reason he did […]