Today, the classiest candidate in the Republican field declared that if when if he's elected president, he won't even take a salary. What a guy! If the latest CNN poll is to be believed, the Republican primary is a four person race at the moment (Trump, Fiorina, Carson, and Rubio, with JEB just hanging around), … Continue reading The Trump Primary

Over at LobeLog, I take a look at recent developments in Syria. In response to the continued deterioration of Bashar al-Assad's position, Russia has been dramatically ramping up its engagement in support of Assad over the past 2-3 weeks: Assad’s position in Syria has never looked more tenuous than it does right now. After losing … Continue reading What’s Russia up to in Syria?

As snap elections approach in Turkey on November 1, President Tayyip Erdoğan appears to be attempting to regain his Justice and Development Party's (AKP) recently lost parliamentary majority while simultaneously doing everything he can to purge the party of anybody he deems insufficiently loyal. I mean, I don't know what else you'd call this: During … Continue reading Taking the band apart

Tensions have been high around the Al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem all week., culminating in a violent clash between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces earlier today in which "dozens" of people were injured. It's gotten bad enough that the U.N. Security Council chimed in on the subject today: The council statement says Muslims at … Continue reading Al-Aqsa’s very tense couple of weeks

Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, is still the scene of clashes between forces loyal to the military junta that just toppled the country's interim government and those who are protesting said coup. To you and me and most other outsiders, this obviously looks bad, right? And, you know, it is; people are dying in the streets … Continue reading The problem with protests

The immediate cause of recent coups and coup attempts in Burkina Faso and Burundi has been moves by presidents in both countries (ex-President Blaise Compaoré in Burkina Faso and current President Pierre Nkurunziza in Burundi) to set aside their national constitutions and run for a third term as president. Several African nations instituted new or … Continue reading Third term-itis strikes the DRC and Rwanda, maybe elsewhere

Amid the coverage of Europe's refugee crisis has emerged a counter-criticism: why won't those rich Gulf Arab states take in any Syrian refugees? Now, to a certain extent, this question is deliberately misleading and intended to steer the conversation away from the shamefully inadequate response to the refugee situation. The Gulf states have taken in … Continue reading Hard to get a straight answer

Burkina Faso's last military coup, in October-November 2014, left the country under the control of a new interim "civilian" government whose (acting) prime minister just happened to be the lieutenant colonel, and former deputy commander of the presidential guard, who had come out of the coup on top of the pile. Well, you know how … Continue reading Another coup in Burkina Faso

I spared myself most of last night's low-budget remake of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie marathon Republican debate, but the conventional wisdom seems to be coalescing over a couple of related points: Donald Trump was the night's big loser, in part because Carly Fiorina was the night's big winner Now, the media that appears to … Continue reading Full credit for faking it