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Archives for November 2020

China
China beat the coronavirus with science and strong public health measures, not just with authoritarianism

China beat the coronavirus with science and strong public health measures, not just with authoritarianism

The Conversation

By Elanah Uretsky | – I live in a democracy. But as Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself longing for the type of freedom I am seeing in China. People in China are able to move around freely right now. Many Americans may believe that the Chinese are able to enjoy this freedom because of China’s […]

Climate Crisis
One last Time, Trump lies to the International Community about the Climate Emergency and Green Energy

One last Time, Trump lies to the International Community about the Climate Emergency and Green Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – DW gives a clip of Trump’s unhinged video rant to the G20 summit against the Paris Climate Accord on Sunday, which is being held virtually this year. Trump said, according to Kevin Liptak at CNN, “The Paris accord was not designed to save the environment, it was designed to kill […]

Democracy
America's not-so-Model Elections:  So much for Exceptionalism

America’s not-so-Model Elections: So much for Exceptionalism

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Following weeks of speculation and worry about the possibility of violence and/or crasing technical systems the United States executed a largely flawless presidential election. At least that was how the major media portrayed the events of early November. Once again American exceptionalism provided the opportunity to sing […]

Bill of Rights
Presidents are Paid Public Servants, Not Aristocrats above the Law:  Lessons from Rousseau, Jefferson and Tang China

Presidents are Paid Public Servants, Not Aristocrats above the Law: Lessons from Rousseau, Jefferson and Tang China

Martin Powers

Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment) – “Let the constitution of a government be what it will, if there is but one man in it exempt from the laws, all the other members must necessarily be at his discretion.” Perhaps we should thank Donald Trump for demonstrating the truth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s insight. No sooner […]

Joe Biden
Can Progressives Push Biden to take on Washington's Sacred Cows: Foreign Policy and the Pentagon?

Can Progressives Push Biden to take on Washington’s Sacred Cows: Foreign Policy and the Pentagon?

Danny Sjursen

In this mystifying moment, the post-electoral sentiments of most Americans can be summed up either as “Ding dong! The witch is dead!” or “We got robbed!” Both are problematic, not because the two candidates were intellectually indistinguishable or ethically equivalent, but because each jingle is laden with a dubious assumption: that President Donald Trump’s demise […]

Donald Trump
As Daily Cases climb toward 200K, "Trump is Playing Golf" (to the same accompaniment as "Whitey on the Moon")

As Daily Cases climb toward 200K, “Trump is Playing Golf” (to the same accompaniment as “Whitey on the Moon”)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The G-20 summit, attended virtually by the leaders of the 20 countries with the largest gross domestic products, was orchestrated this year from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That is a scandal in itself, since the Saudi regime is responsible for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and […]

Islam
Lady Zeinab: A British Aristocrat embraces Islam in the Shadow of European War

Lady Zeinab: A British Aristocrat embraces Islam in the Shadow of European War

Shalom Goldman

Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment) – In 1934, Lady Evelyn Cobbold, a Scottish aristocrat and traveler, wrote that with the tightening of Nazi rule over Germany, many in England sensed that a European War was looming. Among the British elites ‘rumors of war’ were discouraged; the trauma and losses of the 1914-18 World War, […]

Donald Trump
Trump’s Parting Shots for Israel

Trump’s Parting Shots for Israel

Asa Winstanley

( Middle East Monitor) – At the start of this year, in this column, I argued that the annexation of the West Bank was coming, one way or another. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip were the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine left for the Palestinians in 1949, after the ceasefire between […]

Donald Trump
Has Trump’s last-minute Purge of Defense Agencies Put America in Danger?

Has Trump’s last-minute Purge of Defense Agencies Put America in Danger?

The Conversation

By Arie Perliger | – President Donald Trump’s recent firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper and subsequent resignations from the department of four more top civilian officials – either in protest or under pressure – are raising alarms in Washington. All were replaced by people with questionable qualifications. One defense official described the situation to […]

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