( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – In their effort to transform their discomfort with the current #BlackLivesMatter protests into a superficially sophisticated critique, right-wing “intellectuals” in the United States and Europe have latched onto a dubious historical analogy. When former congressman Newt Gingrich, the National Review’s David Harsanyi, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak, and other right-wingers […]
As Key GOP Figures and Generals Defect, Emperor Trump’s Clothes are Disappearing
(Foreign Policy in Focus) – A child exposing the nakedness of the emperor by speaking truth to power? Not these days. More than half of the United States — not just liberals and the left but also the mainstream media and some Republicans — has been shouting at Emperor Trump for months on end that […]
Trump’s ‘Uncreative Destruction’ of the U.S.-China Relationship
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Economists like to think of the wreckage caused by stock market downturns, widespread bankruptcies, and corporate downsizing as “creative destruction.” As it destroys the old and the dysfunctional, the capitalist system continually spurs innovation, much as a forest fire prepares the ground for new growth. Or so the […]
Trump keeps trying to Blame China for his Bungling on Coronavirus: Enough with the Conspiracy Theories
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Conspiracy theorists never let a crisis go to waste. When something truly terrible happens, the conspiracy theorist sets to work to determine the dark, hidden forces at work behind the scenes that have produced the crisis. Some people might see God or the Devil as the prime mover behind […]
Could Trump end up in Court over his Disastrous Mishandling of Coronavirus?
(Foreign Policy in Focus and Hankyoreh) – Donald Trump said that he would make America number one again. And now the United States leads the world in coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths. It is a dubious achievement. How could this have happened? The United States is supposed to have one of the best medical systems […]
With Trump gross Incompetence, Bookstores moving Post-Apocalyptic Fiction into Current Events Section
(Tomdispatch.com) – In retrospect, it’s no surprise that, after the election of Donald Trump in 2016, dystopian fiction enjoyed a spike in popularity. However, novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which soared on Amazon, would prove more horror stories than roadmaps. Like so many ominous sounds from a dark basement, […]
The World Can’t Afford Washington’s Pet Wars and Sanctions in a Time of Plague
(Foreign Policy in Focus) – During World War I, soldiers all along the Western front held a series of informal truces in December 1914 to commemorate Christmas. It was early in the war, and opposition had not yet hardened into implacable enmity. The military command, caught by surprise, could not impose complete battlefield discipline. An […]
Trump trying to Bolster his Far Right Agenda with the Pandemic, but will it Expose his Utter Incompetence?
The Politics of the Coronavirus
“Get it Yourselves!” – Trump’s ‘Every Man for himself’ Approach to the Covid-19 National Emergency
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – A crisis, according to self-help and leadership books, reveals much about a person’s character. The same can be said of a nation’s character. Since the latest pandemic began to spread out of China in 2020, countries responded in very different ways to the challenge. There was ingenuity, inflexibility, incomprehension, […]