Democratic Party

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden plans to create a million auto-worker jobs by replacing the enormous fleet of some 650,000 vehicles owned by the federal government with electric cars. He specified EVs that emit no carbon dioxide, which suggests he wants the government to buy pure EVs like General Motors’ Chevy Bolt […]

Democratic Party

Biden’s own Moderates and Hardliners Battle it Out on reviving Iran Nuclear Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Two and a half days into the Biden administration, it is already clear that the Problem of Iran is going to loom large over its foreign policy. There are already hard liners and moderates in the Biden team, just as there are in Iran. The first few Biden appointments, Antony […]

Donald Trump

Can Biden roll back Trump’s escalation and end catastrophic Yemen War?

Reese Erlich

The Biden Administration has a chance to undo a disastrous label and open the door for peace. ( 48hills.org) – One day before the Inauguration, the Trump Administration added Yemen’s Houthi movement to a list of foreign terrorist organizations. It was just the latest, desperate attempt to hamstring President Joe Biden’s promise to end the […]

Donald Trump

Despite Uneventful Inauguration, US could face a simmering, chronic domestic terror problem

The Conversation

By Luis De la Calle | – After President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021 without any violent incidents, many in the United States and worldwide breathed a sigh of relief. The respite may be brief. The ingredients that led an incensed pro-Trump mob to break into the Capitol and plant pipe bombs […]

Climate Crisis

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the Coal Plants: How Joe Biden can save the Planet

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My title is from William Shakespeare’s Henry the VI. In the original, Dick “the Butcher” is speaking of ways to overthrow the king and improve the country, and he suggests killing all the lawyers first. Nowadays, carbon dioxide is the thing preventing us from improving the country. President Biden has […]

Joe Biden

Do Biden’s Foreign Policy Appointees signal new Cold Wars with Russia, China?

Danny Sjursen

( Tomdispatch.com) – Hard as it is to believe in this time of record pandemic deaths, insurrection, and an unprecedented encore impeachment, Joe Biden is now officially at the helm of the U.S. war machine. He is, in other words, the fourth president to oversee America’s unending and unsuccessful post-9/11 military campaigns. In terms of […]

Featured

Time for Biden to end the Forever Wars and bring Iran in from the Cold

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although former president Trump claims to have avoided starting any new wars, he in fact put the US on a war footing in the greater Middle East, and significantly increased the number of US troops in the region. He tried to strangle Iran economically and assassinated one of its foremost […]

Democratic Party

How will Biden react to Putin arresting Navalny in Russia?

Nikola Mikovic

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – While the US remains preoccupied with the upcoming Joe Biden inauguration, Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months after he was allegedly poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. A Moscow judge has […]

Joe Biden

The Rubble of Empire: Doctrines of Disaster and Dreams of Security as the Biden Years Begin

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – How can you tell when your empire is crumbling? Some signs are actually visible from my own front window here in San Francisco. Directly across the street, I can see a collection of tarps and poles (along with one of my own garbage cans) that were used to construct a makeshift […]