Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

This blog will pay for itself.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Republicans in disarray!

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Giving up is unforgivable.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

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Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    jcricket

    You mean Juan Cole’s not the name you use when trying to pick up chicks in bars?

  3. 3.

    Clever

    I wouldn’t put too much weight on it…the guy got trashed in the comments. There were a few that agreed with him, but it was quickly painted as a “gotcha” piece.

    I pretty much see it as a “my sources are better than yours” argument.

  4. 4.

    Steve

    The genesis of it is a pissing contest between Cole and this guy Kramer. Most commenters in the diary thought Kramer’s criticisms of Cole were bullshit.

    A day or two later, Cole gave a shout out to dkos, and suggested maybe they could do some oppo research on Kramer to help him out. A few people did google searches and most just said “he can do his own fucking research.” So there is a limit, I suppose, to the adoration of Cole.

  5. 5.

    ppgaz

    Blogdom is always in danger of turning into Usenet. Here, it strays perilously close.

    Usenet is a little like the monkey cage at the zoo. Noisy, and lot of shit being flung around. A lot of personal flame wars.

    Cole (Juan, not John) is sort of out of place in the monkey cage. DKos, however, is, thanks to the ease with which its bandwidth can be set upon by chatterers, and the volume of the chatter, not the place I would go looking for help, even if I were looking for help, which I would not be. As a veteran of the Usenet wars, I know that “never let them see you sweat” is rule number one. DKos has become what Marcos himself is not, namely, high on attention-seeking and low on listening. They even had a “people aren’t listening” thread going over there recently. Got no traction; nobody was listening.

  6. 6.

    ppgaz

    Revising and extending my remarks …. Cole (Juan, not John) is a Middle East wonk.

    The Middle East is the world’s dogpile, AFAIC. Somehow, the idea that people who traffic in Middle Eastdom are going to get into a dogpile doesn’t seem all that odd.

    If you took oil out of the Middle East, what would you have there? I rest my case.

  7. 7.

    Clever

    If you took oil out of the Middle East, what would you have there?

    An oil company?

    Sorry, I live to snark.

  8. 8.

    Defense Guy

    IMO it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I often wonder if Juan Cole can find something that he is NOT willing to blame on the Jews or Israel.

  9. 9.

    Pam is a non stick spray

    Juan Cole is an arrogant, dishonest expert with whom I am in strong political agreement. I used to read his blog daily, but I became disillusioned with his processes after reading some of Tony Badran’s criticisms. Badran may be a confused right-wing partisan prone to impulsive judgements, but his facts seemed convincing, and Cole’s behavior in response to criticism does as little for his credibility as Karl Rove’s does for him. I still check in occasionally because Cole does a fairly good job summarizing and interpreting the news from Iraq, but now I’m always wary of his motives. The perks of being an influential expert blogger and academian can lead certain self-possessed individuals away from the very standards of good judgement, integrity and self control that got them to where they are. If Cole would show a little more humility and stop considering himself beyond reproach due to his status, he would be a much more valuable source.

  10. 10.

    SoCalJustice

    That Kos link appears not to be working – or maybe the whole site is down, but I was reading it a couple days ago, following all the stuff that Tony Badran had been writing on the topic, and yes, there was a Kos “diary” highlighting Cole’s ineptitude, but the “diarist” got hounded by the lion’s share of the posters as a “troll” for even trying to discuss Cole’s biases and failures.

    And Cole thanked the Kossacks for defending him and asked them to do some “oppo research” on Kramer, which they happily did the next day – although even some of the people defending Cole were offended by his request, saying they’re not some “left-wing hit for-request hit squad.”

  11. 11.

    SoCalJustice

    Whoops.

    Rather, “left-wing hit for-request hit squad.”

    Just a “slip of the keyboard” plus “I post late at night and sometimes am sleepy and make mistakes.”

    It happens to the best of us.

  12. 12.

    Steve

    A lot of that Kos post was devoted to showing that Cole had very mixed feelings about the war in Iraq despite saying well after the fact that he opposed it. Then it quotes a bunch of Cole pieces from the time which give the impression that Cole was inclined to oppose it (unless there was international legal backing) but thought that Saddam Hussein was a genocidal lunatic who the world would be better off without. I would have thought that you would have a lot of support for that stance, John, regardless of your feelings about Cole’s scholarship or Cole himself.

  13. 13.

    rs

    the Kos diary entry by mikepridmore on July 12 regarding Juan Cole and his neocon detractors provides more context

  15. 15.

    Jimmy Jazz

    I’m pretty much in agreement with Pam. I treat Juan Cole as a biased, partisan, but entertaining source who I usually agree with, but take with a grain of salt.

    I find the fact that Israel is treated as the holiest of sacred cows in our political culture to be more reprehensible than anything Juan Cole’s done or said.

  16. 16.

    anon

    Another anti-Semite heard from.

    By the way, I read on at least two blogs, atrios was one, that said you were the illegitimate half brother to this Juan Cole professor. Why do you deny it?

  19. 19.

    p.lukasiak

    Give me a break, John. Only two people recommended the diary that you cited, which pretty much tells you that the vast majority of Kos readers thought it was complete bullshit.

  21. 21.

    Randolph Fritz

    The criticisms of Juan Cole seem quite minor, really. And they’re coming from deeply partisan opponents, one of whom apparently draws a claim to intellectual authority from being a grad student, for heaven’s sake.

    One really has not won an debate if one exposes a minor error in one’s opponents argument.

  22. 22.

    Rick

    Shoot, plenty of comment folks here claim victories even with such puny successes. Like we’ve made big advances since USNET.

    Cordially…

Comments are closed.