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27Nov 202027 Nov 2020

Post #282: Restoring Democracy, Strengthening the Right to Vote

As Americans look forward to a new era without Donald Trump, one thing stands out: the gap between the…

13Nov 202012 Nov 2020

Post #281: Trump’s Game

What is Trump’s game? In defying the vote numbers and urging rejection of a Biden victory, does he seriously…

Post #280: Biden’s Jobs 1-10

In the next several weeks, President-elect Joe Biden will be preoccupied with creating a 100-day action agenda. It might be…

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Post #278: Trumpism Has Brought Democracy to Its Knees

19 Oct 202018 Oct 2020

In what we can only hope is its terminal phase, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to make a mockery of American democracy. Friendly foreign observers bemoan the…

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Post #277: Our Deranged President

In 2016 America’s electoral college gave Donald Trump the presidency. Within a few months we came to realize that this man has serious mental problems. Within a year, some psychologists…

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Post #276: Trump Unmasked

3 Oct 20203 Oct 2020

"I just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight,” Donald Trump said Thursday night. A day later he was airlifted to Walter Reed Hospital, down…

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Post #273: Trump’s China Diversion

12 Sep 202011 Sep 2020

The Trump administration’s orchestrated attack on China is commonly assumed to stem from upset over China’s human rights violations and its aggressive behavior in the South China Sea and along…

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Excerpt from my new book, “America in Retreat: Foreign Policy Under Donald Trump”

21 Aug 202021 Aug 2020

[Note to the Reader: The following excerpt is from the final chapter of the book. It was written earlier this year, but I think everything that has happened since gives…

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APB: Derelict Leadership on Health Security

21 Mar 202021 Mar 2020

If one event shows both Trump’s flawed character and his ineptitude, it would have to be his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It is all about him, claiming superior knowledge…

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Post #257: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 2)

17 Mar 202015 Mar 2020

Getting to Zero Where are the Democrats? Why isn’t the present nuclear danger front and center in the Democrats’ presidential debates? I can think of a few reasons. First, Democrats…

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Post #256: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 1)

9 Mar 20208 Mar 2020

Overkill More is Better One of these days, national security policy will get a few minutes of campaign debate time. And when that day occurs, perhaps—just perhaps—attention will turn to…

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APB: Embarrassing Moments from Trump’s Visit to India

Donald Trump abroad never ceases to entertain with his ignorance and misstatements. As India’s leaders learned from Trump’s previous visits to Saudi Arabia and China, all it takes is pomp…

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APB: Thanks to Trump, Iran Has the Upper Hand

8 Jan 20208 Jan 2020

The assassination of General Soleimani is proving to be a resounding success for Iran. It accomplished what the ayatollah could not: common ground between Iran and Iraq, Iraq’s invitation to…

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Post #247: From President to Autocrat

6 Nov 20195 Nov 2019

An Autocrat Like All Others A recent special issue of Foreign Affairs is devoted to profiling some of the world’s most prominent autocrats: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,…

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Post #244: Listen to the Children

23 Sep 201922 Sep 2019

The Republicans are on the sidelines on the climate crisis. Government scientists are muzzled. Leading Democrats—though not all—are cautious. CEOs of some of America’s biggest corporations are pledging action while…

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Post #243: No War for Saudi Oil!

17 Sep 201922 Sep 2019

Even if US intelligence decisively shows that some of the drones and cruise missiles used in the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields originated in Iran, a decision to go…

Post #240: Our Racist President

31 Jul 201930 Jul 2019

"Donald Trump lost the election because he veered so far off course from what it means to be a decent person, to be a leader, and to be an American.…

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APB: The Caging of Human Rights

At a hearing yesterday (July 12) on the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia was appropriately livid: "I never thought as a member of Congress — as…

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Post #275: Saving Democracy

Friends call it “impotent rage.” I share it. How is it possible that the president of a democratic country can get away with announcing, well in advance of an election,…

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Post #274: Defeating a Demagogue: A Reminder from History

22 Sep 202021 Sep 2020

It may be small comfort as we watch Donald Trump try to cheat and bully his way to a second term, but a recent study of his demagogic predecessor, Senator…

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Post #272: The Election: Concerns, Confidence, Candidates

31 Aug 202031 Aug 2020

Five things that worry me about the election: • Biden’s declining support among Latinos; • Trump’s law-and-order appeal amidst violence and destruction of property in protest marches; • Domination of…

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Post #271: The Israel-UAE Agreement: Good for a Few, Bad for Most

26 Aug 202025 Aug 2020

The Real Deal Commentators evidently desperate for good news are touting the Israel-United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreement as a welcome path to Middle East peace. The agreement trades Israel’s promise…

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Post #270: The World Bank’s Poverty Illusion

12 Aug 202016 Aug 2020

What would you estimate is the minimum amount of money you need to get by every day? $100? $50? The figure, of course, depends very much on where you live…

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Post #269: Falling Behind: COVID, Climate Change, and Chaos

2 Aug 20205 Aug 2020

Multiple Crises, Multiple Obstacles COVID-19 and the protests for racial justice have drawn attention away from the mostly bad news about the environment. Yes, the skies in most parts of…

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Post #268: The Trump Nightmare

23 Jul 202023 Jul 2020

By now it is an established fact that Donald Trump may, or may not, accept the results of the presidential election. He will definitely accept a win, and he “will…

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APB: Trump’s Occupy Portland Gambit

17 Jul 202019 Jul 2020

Federal troops in camouflage, without identification, heavily armed, uncommunicative, roving in unmarked cars, seizing and incarcerating peaceful protesters without charging them. Acting without invitation. No reporting of this deployment to…

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Post #267: In China, Your DNA Belongs to the State

7 Jul 202019 Jul 2020

The roundup and incarceration of hundreds of thousands of people of a specific ethnic or religious group has all too many precedents in modern history. The fact that the group…

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Post #266: Banana Republic or Constitutional Democracy? The US Military May Decide

24 Jun 202023 Jun 2020

Donald Trump’s appearance at the West Point graduation ceremonies a few weeks ago reminded some observers of the Class of 1986. That one class included several Trump appointees: Mark Esper…

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