Democratic Party

ABC provided a transcript of the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. I have some thoughts on the Middle East dimension: On Gaza, Harris said, “Well, let’s understand how we got here. On Oct. 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis. Many of them young people who were simply attending a concert. Women […]

Donald Trump

Facing a Smart, Confident Younger Black Woman Trump Is Running Scared

Tomdispatch

By Clarence Lusane | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – One of the nation’s best-known Black Republicans is former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In the twenty-first century (and perhaps ever), no African American woman rose higher in Republican politics than Rice, who served as President George W. Bush’s national security adviser and then his secretary […]

Climate Crisis

Tim Walz took Minnesota to 54% Clean Electricty and Annual Reductions of Carbon; Can he do it for the USA?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Democratic National Convention on Wednesday evening introduce Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, to the American public. It was a touching scene, with the enthusiasm of Walz’s family on full display, and his own folksy demeanor and common sense, along with a wry sense of humor, clearly wowed the […]

Climate Crisis

There’s only One Issue in the 2024 Election: The Survival of a Habitable Earth

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In mid-July, Nature Climate Change published a global survey of over 9,000 scientists. Its findings should be like the sirens for a 5-alarm fire to our ears. Scientists are trained to be cautious and to base anything they assert on firm empirical evidence and close analytical reasoning. They want to […]

Israel/ Palestine

Biden lost the Vote of this Pastor over Gaza. Harris must earn it Back

contributors

( New Jersey Star-Ledger ) – I cannot see President Biden without seeing 40,000 dead Gazans. He rightly stepped aside after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump, but he continues to lose a far more disastrous debate with Israel’s Prime Minister, weakening the basic principles of US foreign policy. Alongside his humiliating failure to achieve […]

Democratic Party

Walz called Gaza situation “Intolerable,” sought ceasefire, praised Uncommitted; Shapiro did not

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Presumptive Democratic Party standard-bearer Kamala Harris’ pick of Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate has widely been implied to have something to do with his stance on the Gaza genocide. That proposition is likely almost entirely untrue. Governors of states don’t usually have much to say about international […]

Donald Trump

Just how Traumatizing will Election 2024 Be?

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com) – Imagine my surprise when, nearly eight months ago, commenting on the state of the country as it approached the 2024 presidential election, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg noted that “Biden has set himself the task of trying to jolt the country out of its learned helplessness in the face of Trump’s […]

Featured

Did Netanyahu Rub Out Hamas’ Haniyeh to counter the Rise of Kamala Harris and Demands he negotiate with… Haniyeh?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israel’s assassination of Hamas civilian Politburo head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was a crime, and we all know from police procedurals that the investigator has to look for “means, motive and opportunity.” The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu certainly had the means and the opportunity. It has assassinated […]

Democratic Party

Kamala Harris denounces “Catastrophic levels of Food Insecurity” in Gaza, Calls for Permanent Ceasefire, in Pivot From Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Vice President Kamala Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, having had a convenient campaign event out of town that allowed her to be absent from his disgraceful address to Congress, which more than half of congressional Democrats also boycotted. In 1955, sociologist Will Herberg published Protestant, […]