"Gunfire and explosions" are probably the two last things you'd want to hear on the streets of a city that just survived an attempted coup, but that's what people are hearing in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou. It appears as though the effort to persuade Burkina Faso's presidential guard to disarm has shifted from talking to … Continue reading Not what you’d like to hear

Rand "No, Not As In 'Ayn Rand'" Paul is polling at a whopping 2.4 percent in the Republican primary, behind such other noteworthy People Who Will Never Be President as Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie. Next week he plans to "turn his attention" to raising money...for his Senate reelection campaign. And today we found out … Continue reading And another one is about to bite the dust

At LobeLog today, I look ahead to the possibility that Turkey's November 1 snap election, a do over for its inconclusive June election, will itself prove inconclusive, as recent polling suggests it will: Erdogan’s plan seems to be that, by increasing the violence with PKK, AKP can put together a new majority by peeling voters … Continue reading Looking forward to another inconclusive election

There were so many thinkpieces spawned yesterday about the big Putin-Obama UNGA meeting (OMG PUTIN AND OBAMA TALKED TO EACH OTHER) that I gave up reading them after about 4 or 5. Add in the detailed analyses of their dueling speeches to the General Assembly (OMG DUELING SPEECHES) and the whole news and analysis thing … Continue reading Obama and Putin talk past each other on Ukraine, Syria

If you were watching Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's speech to the UN General Assembly earlier today, you got to see him spend a relatively large part of his speech taking Saudi Arabia to task over last week's terrible Hajj stampede. The death toll from that disaster now appears to be well over 1000, despite initial … Continue reading This Saudi-Iran Hajj argument is turning ugly

Africa Is A Country's Oumar Ba and Daniel Eizenga have written a very useful summary of the failed coup in Burkina Faso that I highly recommend for anybody who's interested in that story. I find this story fascinating not because the coup failed, or even because it failed so quickly and so completely, but because … Continue reading What happened in Burkina Faso last week, and what comes next

You know, if listening to a bunch of self-serving speeches to the UN General Assembly is your thing, I can't blame you. Heck, Vladimir Putin is explaining about how he personally plans to make the world safe for freedom and democracy on my TV as I write this. But for my money, nothing any of … Continue reading OK, this is pretty damn cool

Maybe there's something about the "ex-CEO who wants to be president" personality type that just inherently makes one a liar, but Carly Fiorina is apparently taking the "Mitt" Romney "reality is subjective" route in the 2016 campaign. Here's a sample of her whoppers: She flat-out lied, and is still lying, about what she saw on … Continue reading Carly Fiorina and the truth are on a trial separation

It's not clear what's happening in eastern Ukraine, where the rebel "government" in Luhansk has ordered all UN aid agencies out of the province along with an unknown number of other international NGOs (Doctors Without Borders, for one, and it's not clear how many more). The "government" in Donetsk is reportedly considering a similar measure. … Continue reading Whatever it is, it can’t be good

Burkina Faso's coup is over, and the transitional civilian government is back in control of the country: The president of Burkina Faso was back in charge on Wednesday and said he would resume overseeing a transition to democracy, ending a coup by presidential guard soldiers who took him hostage last week. Michel Kafando addressed his … Continue reading Burkina Faso coup over, but questions remain