Liberals hate Trump, no question about it. He’s the definition of illiberal: authoritarian, racist, sexist, and downright nasty. Not only that, he’s a living repudiation of the liberal delusion that America runs on meritocracy. But you want to know a dirty, little secret? In back alleys, encrypted group chats, and off-the-record conversations, liberals will still… Continue reading Why Liberals Will Give Two Cheers for Trump
Wars can end practically overnight. Just look at Syria, which was locked in a civil war for a dozen years. Having survived a succession of uprisings, Bashar al-Assad seemed on track to become a tyrant for life. Then, in the space of a couple weeks, his allies effectively deserted him, his army melted away, and… Continue reading Assad Gone, Trump Coming: What is Ukraine’s Future
The industrial revolution depended on fossil fuels. The current transition to clean energy aims to leave coal, oil, and natural gas behind. But this transition is also heavily dependent on critical metals like copper, lithium, and nickel. It’s also not clear whether the earth contains enough of these metals to support all the solar installations,… Continue reading Can Recycling Save the Clean Energy Revolution
Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election was surprising in a number of ways. He won every swing state as well as the popular vote, which a Republican candidate hadn’t done in two decades. He led his party to a congressional sweep, with the Republicans maintaining control of the House of Representatives and seizing… Continue reading Surviving the New Trump Era
Donald Trump’s presidential win is a vivid refutation of two adages: cheaters never prosper, and might doesn’t make right. These are not just comforting words that parents say to their bullied children. They are, or at least ought to be, the letter of the law. From community ordinances all the way up to international agreements,… Continue reading Planet of Bullies
In Philadelphia this past weekend, I met a number of people who’d given up on democracy. They railed about politicians who make promises they don’t keep. They spun conspiracy theories about the government. A number of those who answered the door told me that they weren’t going to vote. Then there were the grim young… Continue reading The Plot Against Democracy
Twenty years ago, when I first heard about “dog poop girl,” I thought, “Well, that’s just South Korea.” In 2005, a young woman took her dog onto the Seoul metro where it promptly did its business. The owner refused to pick up after it. She was scolded by her fellow passengers. In an earlier age,… Continue reading The Cruelty of Crowds
The richest man in the world is trying to buy the U.S. presidential election in order to bestow it, like a burnt offering, upon his preferred candidate. Multi-billionaire Elon Musk is not only pouring $75 million of his own money into Donald Trump’s campaign. He is now offering payments to voters in swing states in… Continue reading Billionaires vs Democracy
The dream of Korean reunification is now over 80 years old. This year, the notion that the two halves of the Korean peninsula could be stitched back together has become so feeble that it entered hospice. The children of this dream of reunification are responsible for putting it into the intensive care ward. The northern… Continue reading The End of Reunification?
No one wants a nuclear reactor in their backyard. It’s an eyesore and a health hazard, not to mention the hit to your property values. And don’t forget the existential danger. One small miscalculation and boom, there goes the neighborhood! In the 1970s, in the southwest corner of Germany, the tiny community of Wyhl was… Continue reading Getting from NIMBY to YIMBY
Israel has assassinated the leader of Hezbollah and killed many of its members by way of booby-trapped pagers and walky-talkies. After a blitzkrieg bombing campaign, Israel once again invaded Lebanon this week to escalate its campaign against the paramilitary-cum-political party. Meanwhile, it continues to wage war against Hamas in Gaza. It has bombed various locations… Continue reading Target: Iran
The immigrants were arriving on children’s bicycles and sometimes even in wheelchairs. According to Norwegian law, immigrants couldn’t cross the border by foot. So, in 2015, they were traveling from Russia to the far north of Norway on any conveyance they could find. It was an odd choice of a place to cross into the… Continue reading Weaponization of Immigrants
The numbers are clear. The temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in November last year resulted in the release of 109 hostages. Compare that to Israeli military operations, which have managed to rescue 8 hostages while killing three by accident. The military has also recovered the bodies of another 34 hostages, including six killed shortly… Continue reading A Ceasefire Is Not Enough in Gaza
For the first time since the end of World War II, a far-right party has won a state election in Germany. This most recent success for the Alternative for Germany (AfD)—it won one-third of the votes in the eastern state of Thuringia—has generated a swirl of questions both inside and outside the country, such as:… Continue reading What the Heck Is Going on in Germany?
In one country, the increasingly autocratic leader of 15 years has up and left after being forced out of power by a student-led opposition. In the other country, the increasingly autocratic leader of 11 years has refused to give up power in the face of protests after he rigged recent elections to give himself a… Continue reading When Do Autocrats Give Up?
They were all buddy-buddy for the cameras, going for a joy ride in a deluxe limo and toasting each other at a gala dinner. In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was determined to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin in grand style on his first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years. A red carpet, flowers,… Continue reading Revenge of the Sovereignistas
Cynics and conspiracy theorists believe that everything is planned behind the scenes. They think that an assassination, even if it seems to be the work of a crazed loner, is actually stage-managed by a cabal. An accidental fire is no accident. Nothing is ever a surprise. But there have been three major surprises related to… Continue reading Electoral Surprises
Approaching the consequential elections of 2024, the United States faces a stark debate over the role of the country in international affairs. The media has generally presented the two positions as the internationalism of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris versus the isolationism of Donald Trump. The current team in the White House touts the importance… Continue reading The Double Crisis of U.S. Foreign Policy
The conventional Artificial Intelligence doomsday scenario runs like this. A robot acquires sentience and decides for some reason that it wants to rule the world. It hacks into computer systems to shut down everything from banking and hospitals to nuclear power. Or it takes over a factory to produce a million copies of itself to… Continue reading AI Might Kill Us All, But Not the Way You Think
The Right is resurgent! The Left is Back! The Center is on the march! It’s always tempting to declare, on the basis of a few elections, that a political tendency is on the ascendant. I should know: I’ve done it myself. But the only commonality in the most recent consequential elections—France, the UK, and Iran—is… Continue reading What Do Voters Want?
The recent meeting of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in North Korea marks a new stage not only in their alliance but in their ideological convergence. This is no mere marriage of convenience. The two leaders have become so much closer in their political and economic sympathies over the last two decades that they… Continue reading Putin and Kim: A New World Order?
Poland is supposed to be one of the politically sane places in Europe right now. The far-right Law and Justice Party lost national elections last year to a centrist coalition and exited power after eight long years of democratic repression. Donald Tusk, who’d previously been the president of the European Council, once again became the… Continue reading You Think Trump Is Bad?
Imagine you are a country in the Global South. You suffer from a heavy debt burden. You’ve been trying for decades to catch up to the richer countries, but unsuccessfully, in large part because of that debt hanging around your neck like a giant millstone. And you are spending more and more of your precious… Continue reading The Global South’s Three Body Problem
The Wedding Jester written and performed by John Feffer directed by Josh Perlstein Date: Sunday, February 23 Time: 2:00 p.m. ET (doors open at 1:45 p.m.) Location: Yiddish Book Center (1021 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002) Tickets: $12 member/student admission; $15 general admission. Available here Accessibility: The Yiddish Book Center offers ADA-accessible parking spaces and… Continue reading The Wedding Jester
Ukraine can now use U.S. weapons to strike at targets inside Russia. That permission comes with numerous asterisks. The targets are geographically restricted to the northeast region across the border from Kharkiv, for instance, and Ukraine has only received the go-head to use short-range missiles. Other Ukrainian allies are less cautious. The Netherlands has authorized… Continue reading A Slippery Slope to World War III?
Benjamin Netanyahu’s face may soon be on Wanted posters around the world. In Israel, the prime minister has been charged with various counts of corruption. But now that the International Criminal Court has requested a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest on war crimes, he may become a global outlaw as well. It’s not a done deal.… Continue reading He Fought the Law – Will the Law Win?
Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. This quip by the American essayist Charles Dudley Warner applies to fossil fuels as well. Everyone talks about ending fossil fuel production, but almost no one is doing anything about it. Take the example of the Biden administration. It has launched the most ambitious… Continue reading The Race to End Fossil Fuel Production
If Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November, all sorts of hell will break loose. Mexico will face a huge border crisis. China will be hit with a new wave of tariffs. Ukraine will begin preparing itself for abandonment. And Milorad Dodik will tear apart Bosnia. Perhaps you’ve never heard of Milorad Dodik.… Continue reading Europe Braces for the Next Ukraine
The process of crafting congressional legislation is often likened to sausage-making. Best not to look behind the scenes at the mechanics of the process, which is a bloody mess. But the analogy is not apt. Sure, sausage-making can be ugly. The end product, however, is presentable and usually quite tasty. The legislation that emerges from… Continue reading Ukraine, Israel, and the Incoherence of U.S. Foreign Policy
Haiti has descended into chaos. It’s had no president or parliament — and no elections either –for eight long years. Its unelected prime minister Ariel Henry resigned recently when gang violence at the airport in Port-au-Prince made it impossible for him to return to the country after a trip to Guyana. Haiti is the poorest… Continue reading Haiti Today, America Tomorrow?