US politics

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 […]

Featured

Semi-Automatic Guns à la Dr. Seuss: Would you like One on the Road, Would you Like one in a School?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – WLKY: “The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office says shots were fired on Interstate 75 near London, Kentucky. Deputies are looking for Joseph A. Couch, 32, as a person of interest. According to officials, five people were shot and three people were injured in car crashes connected to the incident.” The shooter […]

Arab Americans

How Campus Protests exposed the Flaws in Higher Education diversity Initiatives

Nancy A Khalil

( Middle East Eye ) – As the school year begins, universities across the United States are confronting their policies on free speech, protest and freedom of assembly. Some are revising these policies to include swift consequences for those who dare to follow what have been student protest norms for decades. Similar threats loom for […]

Featured

4 Dead in Mass Shooting in Georgia dominated Media; 42 dead in Mass Bombardment in Gaza Ignored

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The ongoing carnage wrought on ordinary Americans by this country’s bizarrely permissive gun laws dominated the cable news networks for hours on end on Monday, as a 14-year-old shooter killed 4 persons and wounded 9 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Two of the dead were also 14-year-olds, destined […]

Donald Trump

Trumptopia and Beyond: Is Reality the Biggest Fiction of All Today?

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) Yes, long ago, I dreamt of being a novelist. Two ancient manuscripts packed away in a distant corner of my closet attest to that (ir)reality, as does one novel focused on the world of publishing (in which I’d been an editor) that made it into print, even if it was barely noticed. […]

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 […]