Juan Cole

@jricole.bsky.social

6.6K followers 1.4K following 4.7K posts

Historian, essayist: Middle East, South Asia, Islam, Social History, Foreign Policy, Environment, Culture, Progressive Politics;
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John Ricardo Irfan "Juan" Cole is an American academic and commentator on the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment (juancole.com). .. more

Political science 68%

Sociology 17%

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Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · Oct 26

Gaza Yet Stands: Juan Cole’s New E-Book

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Many observers have complained that our understanding of the current Mideast War too often begins with the horrendous Hamas attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023. Historian, here, hand up. I’ve not only studied the history…

dlvr.it

Reposted by Juan Cole

Locus Magazine @locusmag.bsky.social · 1h

Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson: Review by Alexandra Pierce locusmag.com/review/...

Reposted by Juan Cole

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 1h

Paraphrasing a bit, Levi said at the last ACIP meeting that “people can go to see a doctor at urgent care when they are sick if they don’t have a doctor. So they can just go there to get a prescription”.

Sure sure sure. I wonder what the repercussions of that would be?

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 2h

Vanishing Future? The Arab World Faces 2x Global Heating, Corruption and High Tech Divide www.juancole.com/2025/11/vani...

Vanishing Future? The Arab World Faces 2x Global Heating, Corruption and High Tech Divide

By Jasim Al-Azzawi ( Middle East Monitor ) - The Arab world is standing at a precipice. Climate change is accelerating at twice the global average across the region. Water scarcity threatens to erase ...

www.juancole.com

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Juan Cole, Robert Black , and 4 more Brendan Nyhan, Juan Cole, Robert Black, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, Scott A. Imberman, Aviel Roshwald, David Darmofal

Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 2h

Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 2h

Bakari Sellers refuses to admit that Israel is occupying the Palestinian Territories

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 3h

Murder is an offense under Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. With respect to civilians, they have to contend with the federal criminal laws punishing murder on the high seas (18 U.S.C. § 1111) and conspiracy to commit murder outside the United States (18 U.S.C. § 956).

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 5h

Stephen Miller’s Wife @katiemiller : “Can you cite the statute that makes the boat bombings illegal?”

@bakarisellers.bsky.social : “The due process
clause in the constitution.”

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 3h

I thought the line was that people had to vote for Trump because Democrats are warmongers dragging us into foreign wars. Is it Oceania this week?

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 6h

More saber rattling.

There are good reasons that the U.S. Constitution does not leave the decision on whether to go to war to the whims of one man.

To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 3h

muqarnas

Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 3h

Our essays for this week are:

Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence
by Tanvir Ahmed

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

NON-FICTION

Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence
by Tanvir Ahmed

Quote
"Faced with scale and silence, we need a cosmography of Anglophone SFF that captures the codes by which orientalism is animated today. That cosmography would be part of the greater archive exploring SFF as colonial fantasy of the twentieth century..."

24 November 2025
Strange Horizons

Reposted by Juan Cole

Strange Horizons @strangehorizons.bsky.social · 3h

Our essays for this week are:

Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence
by Tanvir Ahmed

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

Reposted by Will Jennings, Juan Cole, Gerald Friedman , and 1 more Will Jennings, Juan Cole, Gerald Friedman, Greg Linden

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 3h

The president is about to start a war for no real reason. All of the things he has blamed on the country he’s targeting — fentanyl distribution, “emptying the asylums” and sending patients to the U.S., alignment with Tren de Aragua— are provably, obviously false.

Lots of people are going to die.

Reposted by Juan Cole

Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social · 3h

Israel's insidious war crimes have not subsided just because Trump succeeded in convincing Western public opinion that the genocide in Gaza has paused. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Israel has ‘de facto state policy’ of organised torture, says UN report

Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimes

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Zeteo @zeteo.com · 3h

“To my horror, I found that every member of my family [in Israel]... they were all racist.”

Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos talks to Mehdi about what drove him to pro-Palestine activism.

Watch the full interview: zeteo.com/p/holocaust-...

Reposted by Juan Cole

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 3h

Reup: We know that Afghan counterinsurgency veteran Rahmanullah Lakanwal passed multiple vettings before he allegedly murdered Sarah Beckstrom. The Afghan counterinsurgency veteran who FAILED his subsequent vetting, before murdering, is Whiskey Pete Hegseth.

www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/29/m...

Murder - emptywheel

We don't know why Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly targeted two members of West Virginia's National Guard, just like we don't know the real reason Pete Hegseth keeps targeting boats for murder in the Ca...

www.emptywheel.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 3h

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 5h

Stephen Miller’s Wife @katiemiller : “Can you cite the statute that makes the boat bombings illegal?”

@bakarisellers.bsky.social : “The due process
clause in the constitution.”

Reposted by Juan Cole

The Japan Times @japantimes.co.jp · 3h

Japan’s dragons aren’t like the fire-breathing beasts of European folklore. Instead, temples and natural sites far to the south of Kyoto show the “reality” of these mythological deities.

Chasing dragons across the temples of Nara

In two rural prefectures, dragon myths — and a cave that purports to host some — make for a unique way to explore the Japanese countryside.

ebx.sh

Reposted by Juan Cole

Matt Henry @menrywy.bsky.social · 3h

Heads up - our daughter requested parental approval for apps on her Kindle listed as "FREE." A few months later, we realized we were getting charged for them weekly, between $9.99 and $19.99. Fine print suggests the download was free but the app usage was wildly expensive. Be careful!

Reposted by Juan Cole

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 3h

"Michael Mann To Bill Gates: What World Are You Living In?" by Carolyn Fortuna for @cleantechnica.bsky.social: cleantechnica.com/2025/11/29/m...

Michael Mann To Bill Gates: What World Are You Living In? - CleanTechnica

Mann offers a roadmap against an "ecocidal agenda" driven by plutocrats, polluters, petrostates, propagandists, and much of the press.

cleantechnica.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 3h

Tunisia arrests prominent opposition leader to enforce jail sentence - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tunisia-arrests-prominent-opposition-leader-enforce-jail-sentence

Tunisia arrests prominent opposition leader to enforce jail sentence

Chaima Issa was sentenced to jail along with dozens of other opposition figures on Friday

www.middleeasteye.net

Reposted by Juan Cole

Rebecca Colesworthy @rcolesworthy.bsky.social · 6h

It remains not only so shameful and such a profound betrayal but also just so EMBARRASSING that universities are signing things that are like:

"Men" and "Women" are defined the way President Buttface said in his Big Fancy Statement.

Signed,
The Leader of an Actual Institution of Higher Education

k. "Sex," "female," "male," "women," and "men" are defined in Executive Order 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Jan. 20, 2025), and related executive orders.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders, Juan Cole, Ann Bartow

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 6h

More saber rattling.

There are good reasons that the U.S. Constitution does not leave the decision on whether to go to war to the whims of one man.

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 12h

Syrian FM: Israel’s deadly Incursion against Islamic Group a ‘War Crime’ after 13 killed

appeared to be more democratic compared to other political parties when it comes to their internal administration

dlvr.it

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 14h

A 40-year Fight against Cluster Bombs offers Lessons to stop the US-Israel Weapons Pipeline

The effective use of art at Honeywell Project events was the kindling that ignited many to join the movement

dlvr.it

Reposted by Juan Cole

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 14h

Because they are not friend. They are foe.

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 18h

How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?

"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

Northwestern University Nears Deal to Resolve Its Conflict With the White House

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Juan Cole

Bob Mackey @bobservo.bsky.social · 20h

loved the hell out of Wake Up Dead Man but now i fear every used bookstore is soon going to be picked clean of John Dickson Carr novels

Juan Cole @jricole.bsky.social · 20h

Dexterocracy

Reposted by Juan Cole

CNN @cnn.com · 21h

Airbus found intense solar storms, like solar flares, could cause pilots to lose control of the Airbus A320 series of planes, including A319, A320, and A321s. About 6,000 of the single-aisle planes, which are the bestselling passenger aircraft in the world, need the repairs. https://cnn.it/4phBeeb

Reposted by Juan Cole

Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · 22h

#Tunisia: Harsh sentences were issued in the notorious "conspiracy case" following sessions marred by serious violations. While some defendants were acquitted, other sentences included 45 years in prison.

👉 Tunisian authorities should revert these unjust sentences & release all political detainees.