Donald Trump used to care what the world outside America thought of him. ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Before he ran for president, he was focused on turning his business into a global brand. The name “Trump” was supposed to connote all the luxury and success of the elite lifestyle. Trump hotels, Trump golf […]
The New Isolationism and the Distrustful Citizen: Covid-19 and the end of Geopolitics
( Tomdispatch.com) – I don’t trust you. Don’t take it personally. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a friend or a stranger. I don’t care about your identity or your politics, where you work or if you work, whether you wear a mask or carry a gun. I don’t trust you because you are, for the […]
The Attack of the Feds from the Deep: Autocratic Trump is Testing his Limits
( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Federal agents poured into Portland, Oregon this month to crack down on anti-racism protests. They beat up peaceful protesters and fired impact munitions at demonstrators, seriously injuring one of them. They drove around the city in unmarked vans pulling people off the street. Oregon officials at every level — […]
Trump wants to be on a New Mt. Rushmore– with Dictators Putin and Xi
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Donald Trump would dearly like to add his face to Mt. Rushmore as the fifth presidential musketeer. His fireworks-and-fury extravaganza on July 3 was the next best thing. Trump’s dystopian speech was almost beside the point. Much more important was the photo op of his smirking face next […]
In the U.S., the Second Wave of the Pandemic Is Already Here
(Foreign Policy in Focus) – If the United States had quick-thinking and efficient leadership, the pandemic would have infected about 100,000 people and killed only a couple thousand. That’s the experience of South Korea, times seven to account for the difference in population. If the United States had overwhelmed but reasonably sensible leadership, the coronavirus […]
What Will It Take to Defeat Trumpism? Learning Lessons from the End of the Confederacy, Nazi Germany, and Saddam’s Iraq
( Tomdispatch.com) – Let’s assume that Donald Trump loses the election in November. Yes, that’s a mighty big assumption, despite all the polls currently favoring the Democrats. If the economy begins to recover and the first wave of Covid-19 subsides (without a second wave striking), Donald Trump’s reelection prospects could improve greatly. The Republican Party […]
No, Racial Justice Protesters aren’t ‘Maoists’; Conservatives just aren’t Comfortable with Black Lives Matter
( 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 […]
© 2021 All Rights Reserved