Juan Cole

Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He has written, edited, or translated 14 books and has authored 60 journal articles; He blogs on the contemporary Middle East at Informed Comment.

Natural Disasters Are Revealing The True Promise Of Green Energy

Following the devastation of Hurricane Irma, cities that used solar power were able to keep traffic lights and other essential services running after the huge storm had blown past.

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
Guy Morris, project manager for the Tampa Electric Company's Big Bend Solar Station, works on solar panels Friday, June 2, 2017, in Gibsonton, Fla. The panels at the station power about 3,000 homes in the area. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

After Hurricane Irma in Florida, millions have been without electricity. But those Floridians who had solar panels plus an inverter or a Tesla powerwall were able to recover electricity immediately. Likewise, cities used solar to power traffic lights and other essential services after the huge storm had blown past. Solar panels kept the lights

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Electric Car Drivers Are Not Trapped In Miami Beach With No Gasoline

Long lines and empty pumps have greeted many of the Florida residents fleeing north to escape the Hurrican Irma, but electric car drivers could make it Georgia on a single charge.

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
A motorist fills up containers with gas as he prepares for Hurricane Irma, Sept. 7, 2017, in Miami. South Florida officials are expanding evacuation orders as Hurricane Irma approaches, telling more than a half-million people to seek safety inland. (AP/Alan Diaz)

Some people in South Florida are finding it difficult to flee Irma because they cannot fill their tanks up with gasoline. Many gas stations are shuttered. Others have extremely long lines. But people with electric cars such as a Chevy Bolt or Tesla 3 do not need gasoline. At least until the hurricane hits, they have electricity and can fuel

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Trump’s Efforts To Find A Pretext For War With Iran Are Failing

The only reason that the Trumpies are demanding inspections of Parchin is that they know Iran will reject the demand. It is a sort of ultimatum, and the point of an ultimatum is to provoke a war.

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
A poster on the street with a portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump and a sentence referring to a quotation of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an annual rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 10, 2017. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

The warmongers in the Trump administration (you didn’t fall for that isolationism scam did you?) have been exploring ways to blow up the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has repeatedly castigated as “a very bad deal.” One ploy they’ve fixed on is to demand inspections of the Parchin military base, on the pretext that nuclear-related experiments

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How Trump Should Have Responded To London Attacks, If He Were Normal

Donald J. Trump 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue/ Mar-a-Lago Florida (Golf Course)   Dear Prime Minister May and Mayor Khan: I was devastated to learn that so many people were killed or wounded on London Bridge Saturday night. The special relationship between my country and the United Kingdom is such that your pain is our pain. We […]

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room at the White House, June 5, 2017, in Washington. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

Donald J. Trump 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue/ Mar-a-Lago Florida (Golf Course)   Dear Prime Minister May and Mayor Khan: I was devastated to learn that so many people were killed or wounded on London Bridge Saturday night. The special relationship between my country and the United Kingdom is such that your pain is our pain. We stand with

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It Is Comey Who Should Be Investigated

If you were looking for reasons for the black swan event of Trump’s election, Comey’s unfair actions toward Clinton and in favor of Trump would have to be at the forefront.

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
FBI Director James Comey pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March 20, 2017, before the House Intelligence Committee hearing on allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

FBI Director James Comey confirmed Monday that his agency has since last summer been investigating the circle of Donald J. Trump for their contacts with the Russian Federation during last year’s election campaign. He also denied Trump’s allegations that former president Barack Obama ordered wiretaps on him at Trump Tower last fall before the

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German Ambassador 1933: Hostility To Jews Aimed Mainly At ‘Immigrants’

The Trump regime’s exclusion or expulsion of refugees without regard to the danger awaiting them on their return to their point of origin has some resemblance to this Nazi callousness in expelling stateless people who had nowhere to go and who lacked proper passports, having only a laissez-passer from Geneva.

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
Expulsion from Reichsgau Wartheland. Poles are led to trains under German army escort, as part of the ethnic cleansing of western Poland annexed to the German Reich following the invasion. (Photo: Wikipedia / Wilhelm Holtfreter / CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Here are two newspaper articles from spring, 1933. They concern the issue of early Nazi policy toward Germany’s Jews. In the first, the German ambassador to the UK maintains that the issue isn’t Jews but Immigrants. In the second, it is clear that only a few weeks later German Jews with citizenship were nevertheless being forced out. Those Jewish

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Rep. Stephen King, White People And ‘Civilization’

At the GOP Convention in Cleveland, Republican congressman Steve King of Iowa declared that white people have contributed more to the advancement of human civilization than any other “sub-group of people.”

Juan Cole
By Juan Cole
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Rep. Stephen King objected to a comment during a cable news discussion at MSNBC that this will be the last election dominated by old white people. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) offered an unusual defense of the racial homogeneity of his party during a panel on MSNBC Monday evening. The group, led by Chris Hayes, was discussing the first day of the

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