Embedded Files
The Debate Debacle
The Debate Debacle
POSTED OCTOBER 1, 2020
Tuesday night's spectacle did not tell us much more than what we already knew. Trump's blatant disregard for the agreed rules of the debate had him interrupting, goading and talking over Joe Biden at every opportunity and ignoring Chris Wallace's attempts to maintain some control. The non-partisan commission that organizes the presidential debates announced that it is considering "additional structure to the format" for the remaining debates. Perhaps they should install an audio kill switch on Trump's mike for the next debate. Even more odious than Trump's overall behavior were his refusal to denounce white supremacists and his refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the election...READ
Middle East Headlines
Middle East Headlines
POSTED OCTOBER 5, 2020
Some headlines from the third quarter. Israeli annexation threat, Beirut explosion, US/Iran, Yemen, more...
READ MIDDLE EAST
Fixing a Broken America: what a Biden presidency might accomplish
Fixing a Broken America: what a Biden presidency might accomplish
POSTED OCTOBER 9, 2020
Here at home, the United States is more divided than it has been since the days of the Civil War. On the international stage, the United States has never been more isolated. While Donald Trump's fear-mongering divisiveness and cruel policies have brought us to this point, our broken country will not suddenly be healed if he loses the election. Nor will our country immediately regain the respect of the world. What will it take to make our way back to a "more perfect union", a country admired for its generosity rather than despised for its bullying and contempt for international law? READ
The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
POSTED OCTOBER 14, 2020
This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations' World Food Programme "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict." Noting that the "coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world" and that in some countries, "the combination of violent conflict and the pandemic has led to a dramatic rise in the number of people living on the brink of starvation" the Nobel Committee praised the World Food Programme in demonstrating "an impressive ability to intensify its efforts". The Committee warns that the "world is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the World Food Programme and other food assistance organisations do not receive the financial support they have requested." ... READ
The Most Immediate Threat Posed by Amy Coney Barrett
The Most Immediate Threat Posed by Amy Coney Barrett
POSTED OCTOBER 17, 2020
A 6-3 majority of conservative ideologues with an antipathy for civil and voting rights on the Supreme Court does not bode well for the long-term future of American democracy. The nomination hearings for one of those ideologues, Amy Coney Barrett, is sailing through the Republican-controlled Senate, as it holds controversial hearings on the nomination while holding up action on a coronavirus relief bill. For all the discussion of what this conservative super-majority on the court will do over the next several decades, there is one threat that stands out as immediate and dangerous: SCOTUS will throw the election to Trump if they have the chance. Barrett's non-answers to softball questions regarding the election and the rule of law give us even more reason to work for a Biden landslide and prepare for resistance to a Trump coup. ... READ
Elections 2020: October Update
Elections 2020: October Update
Part I - The paths to a Trump second term
Part I - The paths to a Trump second term
POSTED OCTOBER 20, 2020
Two weeks until Election Day. With the imminent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the stage has been set for a third path to a second Trump term. The presidency being handed to Trump by the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court by means of numerous "Florida 2000" rulings now joins the other paths - a Trump electoral college victory obtained by voter suppression and intimidation and a Trump coup. READ
Elections 2020: October Update
Elections 2020: October Update
Part II - The Polls
Part II - The Polls
POSTED OCTOBER 21, 2020
In this final pre-Election Day update, we take a look at the poll numbers as they stand less than two weeks out and some of the ballot initiatives to be decided on November 3.
Democrats may lose seats in the House but are not likely to lose their majority, Senate control is still undecided, and the Electoral College vote for the Presidency remains too close to call with Biden needing a clear win in Pennsylvania to prevail. READ
Latin America Update: Ending the Monroe Doctrine
Latin America Update: Ending the Monroe Doctrine
POSTED OCTOBER 25, 2020
For more than a century, the US has intervened in the internal affairs of Latin American nations with only the occasional gesture – such as FDR's “Good Neighbor Policy” and Obama's rapprochement with Cuba - towards acknowledging their rights as sovereign nations. The Trump administration openly calls its Latin America and Caribbean policy the “Monroe Doctrine 2.0.” The Monroe Doctrine - asserting U.S. geopolitical control over the region - served as a pretext for over 100 years of military invasions, support for military dictatorships, the training and financing of security forces involved in mass human rights violations and economic blackmail, among other horrors. That is why it is encouraging to see the open letter sent to candidates Biden and Trump by 100 organizations working on Latin American and Caribbean issues. The letter urges the next President “to adopt a broad set of reforms to reframe relations with our neighbors to the south...READ
A very narrow window of opportunity
A very narrow window of opportunity
POSTED OCTOBER 29, 2020
Over the past forty years, Democrats have held control of the House, Senate, and Presidency for a total of just four years - the first two years of the first terms of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. If Democrats regain control of Congress and if Joe Biden wins, they may have just two years to pass legislation. It's a very short time frame and requires ending the filibuster in the Senate. It will also require an effort reminiscent of FDR's "first 100 days"...READ
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”
POSTED NOVEMBER 2, 2020
Election Day approaches and the pandemic continues. The machinations of Trump and his allies in the Republican Party, on the far-right, and on the courts are more and more coming to resemble a fascistic power grab...Considering recent events, I am having a hard time answering Marcus Aurelius's centering question, "Is this present thing any good reason for my soul to be sick and out of sorts?" True, my life won't be changed in any significant way no matter who wins the election. I am not an immigrant worried about ICE raiding my home. I am not a father who has to give “The Talk” to his son or daughter. I do not worship in a synagogue or a mosque and subject to hatred from the far-right. Still...READ
7 takeaways from the 2020 Elections
7 takeaways from the 2020 Elections
POSTED NOVEMBER 7, 2020
Our long national nightmare appears to be in its death throes. Pennsylvania just finished its vote count and its 20 electoral votes put Biden over the necessary 270, denying Trump a second term. Seven takeaways from the election...READ
70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump. Why?
70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump. Why?
POSTED NOVEMBER 9, 2020
While we and the rest of the world will be glad to be rid of Donald Trump in 72 days, more than 70 million Americans are lamenting his departure. After witnessing his epic failure in confronting the pandemic, the cruelty of his immigration policies, his racist fear- and hate-mongering, his reckless nuclear weapons policy, the lawsuit to end the ACA in the midst of a pandemic, his rollback of environmental regulations, what is it that anyone could have seen in this man or his policies that would allow them to vote for him? READ
Armistice Day
Armistice Day
POSTED NOVEMBER 11, 2020
"I wonder how foreign policies would look if we...thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never...wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children." - Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States
During the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, an armistice was signed between Germany and the Allied Powers that put an end to fighting on the western front in the Great War. The Great War/World War I was one of the most inexplicable and horrific wars in history. By the time it was over in 1918, "The Great War" claimed more than 16 million lives, including 7 million civilians. The trenches, machine guns, chemical weapons, and the use of airplanes made this war different - more horrific and more deadly than previous wars. The Treaty of Versailles, by severely punishing the Germans as if they were solely responsible for the war, laid the grounds for the rise of Hitler and World War II, with its even greater death toll. The "war to end all wars" did no such thing...READ
The perilous last weeks of the Trump Presidency
The perilous last weeks of the Trump Presidency
POSTED NOVEMBER 18, 2020
There are still two months left in Trump's presidency. I don't expect that Trump will act decently in his remaining days in office. It's more a question of how much damage he and his Administration will do on the way out. Three areas to watch in the coming weeks: democracy, the pandemic, and Iran...READ
Final acts of cruelty: the Trump administration's execution spree
Final acts of cruelty: the Trump administration's execution spree
POSTED NOVEMBER 25, 2020
In July, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the federal government intended to restart executions. No federal prisoners had been executed in 17 years. The announcement was criticized by corrections officials, religious leaders, conservative commentators, former state and federal judges, prosecutors, law enforcement and corrections officials, and family members of homicide victims. To no avail.
In July, 2020, after appeals had failed, the Federal Government executed three men in the span of four days. The federal killing spree had begun. Over the following months, the Federal Government put to death five more. The most recent execution on November 19, that of Orlando Cordia Hall, was the first execution by a lame-duck administration in 131 years...READ
Israel suspected in assassination of top Iranian scientist
Israel suspected in assassination of top Iranian scientist
POSTED NOVEMBER 27, 2020
President-elect Biden's chances of repairing the rift with Iran caused by the Trump Administration and re-entering the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) suffered a serious blow today when Iran's top nuclear scientist was assassinated, apparently by Israeli agents...The killing comes two weeks after President Trump asked his advisers about options for a US strike on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment facilities and five days after a not-so-secret meeting between Secretary of State Pompeo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump's request for military strike options came days after he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, who has pledged to act quickly to re-enter the Iran nuclear agreement that Trump violated in May of 2018...READ
Prolonging war and increasing misery
Prolonging war and increasing misery
POSTED DECEMBER 1, 2020
The casualty figures of the Yemen Civil War are daunting for a small nation with a population of less than 30 million... With 50 days left in his presidency, as part of his administration's failed "maximum pressure campaign" on Iran and its allies, Donald Trump is re-stoking the flames that led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis by preparing to designate the rebel Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. The impact of an FTO designation would be twofold - it would disrupt ongoing negotiations for a nationwide ceasefire and would make delivery of critical humanitarian aid to Houthi-controlled areas nearly impossible as Yemen teeters on the brink of the worst famine in decades...READ
Trump's efforts to overturn election results have officially failed...but he has succeeded in damaging our democracy
Trump's efforts to overturn election results have officially failed...but he has succeeded in damaging our democracy
"Donald Trump is ending his presidential term as he began it: with disdain for the institutions of American democracy..." - Brennan Center for Justice
POSTED DECEMBER 6, 2020/updated DEC 8
California certified its presidential election December 4, and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the electoral college majority needed to win the White House...Trump's non-stop baseless accusations have gained credence among his supporters with more than 70% of Trump voters considering Trump the winner of the election. Trump and his Republican enablers have damaged many people's trust in the electoral process. They are also setting the stage for another round of voter suppression tactics...READ
Trump's coup enters round three: is Trump inciting violence or stoking terrorism?
Trump's coup enters round three: is Trump inciting violence or stoking terrorism?
POSTED DECEMBER 18, 2020
Earlier this week, the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as the next president of the United States...What I referred to as Round Two of the Trump coup in an earlier post - Congress caving in to the demands of Trumpists and disrupting the certification of the Electoral College vote - appears to be whimpering to its pathetic conclusion. The same cannot be said for Round Three - the Trump coup moves to the streets. It is not difficult to imagine violence from Trump's more deranged supporters as he rants for the next month. Since Election Day, Trump's lies have "stirred his most extreme supporters into menacing public officials, election workers, and his Democratic and Republican critics alike...and recent gatherings by far-right groups in support of Trump’s efforts to reverse his election defeat have led to beatings, stabbings and a shooting." Some national security experts are calling Trump's tactics a form of terrorism...READ
Is the cult of Trumpism here to stay?
Is the cult of Trumpism here to stay?
POSTED DECEMBER 21, 2020/update Dec 30
After engaging in an unprecedented effort to overturn the election on baseless accusations of voting fraud, Donald Trump has not conceded and may never do so. His attempted coup - his assault on the basic institutions of democracy - has failed, but the divisions and wreckage Trump leaves behind as the legacy of his presidency will be with us for years to come. He continues to lie about the election, and the lies live on in the minds of his followers. After 60 or so losses in the courts, after Trump's appointed attorney general and appointed election security chief declared the election secure and free of any significant fraud, why do Trump's followers still believe his lies? The most likely answer: Trumpism has become a cult. If we are to reverse his malign influence and prevent it from taking permanent hold of our nation, we need to understand this and use it as our starting point. Otherwise, we will be faced with his malicious legacy - "a nihilistic political culture, one that is tribalistic, distrustful, and sometimes delusional, swimming in conspiracy theories, with Americans disoriented and frustrated, fearful of and often enraged at one another." READ
Latin America Update
Latin America Update
POSTED DECEMBER 28, 2020
News briefs from Latin America - Covid-19, hurricanes, the end of the Pinochet-era constitution, Bolivia, Biden and Mexico, Venezuela...READ
Google Sites
Report abuse