BLOG Post #349: Brazil’s Election and the Future of the Amazon 4 Sep 202217 Sep 2022 (The podcast of this and all other blogs is athttps://wordpress.com/post/melgurtov.com/2247.) The Candidates: Worlds Apart On October 2 we will have a presidential election in Brazil of enormous consequence for the…
BLOG Post #347: The Great Energy Game in Europe 12 Aug 202214 Aug 2022 The audio of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/67441/56-the-great-energy-game-in-europe.mp3 The Politics of Russia’s Energy Exports It won’t be long before winter descends on Europe. Before it does, most European countries…
BLOG Post #337: It’s “Now or Never” on Climate Change 17 May 20226 Jun 2022 The audio version of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/59656/45-its-now-or-never-on-climate-change.mp3 On Track for Disaster The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group report gives us until 2030 to stop…
BLOG Post #332: Big Oil’s War Bonanza 6 Apr 20224 Apr 2022 The audio of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/55789/41-the-war-a-bonanza-for-big-oil.mp3 In case you haven’t noticed, a major consequence of the Ukraine war is the bonanza it has provided for the oil and…
BLOG Post #316: Dim Prospects for Climate Mitigation 30 Oct 2021 An audio version of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/42834/23-dim-prospects-for-climate-mitigation.mp3. Just in time for the COP26 UN climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the Biden administration has released the National…
BLOG Post #309: Game of Thieves in the Amazon 19 Aug 202127 Aug 2021 Here is the audio version (broadcast August 17, 2021): The UN-appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a new report, based on the latest scientific findings, that once…
BLOG Post #301: The Pentagon’s Untouchable Budget 11 Jun 20215 Jul 2021 This post is also available as a podcast at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/33010 Did you really think that electing Joe Biden would mean major reductions in military spending and the shift of Pentagon…
BLOG Post #294: Ending the Race to the Bottom in Corporate Taxation 12 Apr 202112 May 2021 Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has proposed that the US and other countries that host multinational corporations (MNCs) impose a “global minimum corporate tax rate” that would help pay for Biden’s…
BLOG Post #293: The US-China Dialogue of the Deaf in Alaska 30 Mar 202128 Mar 2021 Rules-Based Order? Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he knew, going into the first face-to-face meetings with China’s top two foreign affairs officials on March 17, that “we are fundamentally…
BLOG Post #289: United We Fail 4 Feb 2021 Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the…
BLOG Post #288: A Progressive Agenda for Biden’s Foreign Policy 27 Jan 202126 Jan 2021 (Note to Readers: This overview of the challenging issues faced by the new administration will be followed by other blogs that examine US policy in greater detail, starting with the…
BLOG Post #287: The End of American Exceptionalism 9 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 Sedition Whatever you want to call the violent assault in Washington on January 6, 2021—a mob action, a siege, a coup attempt, a riot, domestic terrorism, an insurrection—the fault clearly…
BLOG Post #286: Biden and the World: A First Look at His Foreign Affairs Team (Part 2) 31 Dec 20202 Jan 2021 In the previous post, I introduced the president-elect’s team: a group of serious professionals dedicated to halting and reversing America’s retreat from the world. But, I asked, will they…
BLOG Post #285: Biden and the World: A First Look at His Foreign Affairs Team (Part 1) 27 Dec 202024 Dec 2020 Dream Team? President-elect Joe Biden has introduced his foreign policy and national security team, and it is certainly a far cry from the haphazardly organized group assembled under Donald…
BLOG Post #280: Biden’s Jobs 1-10 8 Nov 2020 In the next several weeks, President-elect Joe Biden will be preoccupied with creating a 100-day action agenda. It might be called "Operation Renewal." Here are my top-10 choices, in no…
BLOG 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…
BLOG Post 260: The Coming New World Disorder 3 May 20202 May 2020 After the demise of the Soviet Union and the US intervention that crushed Saddam Hussein’s attack on Kuwait in 1991, President George H. W. Bush pronounced a new world order.…
BLOG Post #242: Trump and the Climate Crisis–A Crime Against Humanity 22 Aug 201921 Aug 2019 The President of the United States is a criminal. I’m not referring to the twenty-odd investigations of him currently underway for violations of the Constitution, obstruction of justice, and collaboration…
APB APB: Trump’s Nightmare Budget 14 Mar 201913 Mar 2019 Two things can be said with certainty about Trump’s 2020 budget request: It is DOA, dead on arrival, in the House; and it is a political document, catering to his…
BLOG Post #227: Game Over? Report Card on Our Planet’s Environment 24 Feb 201923 Feb 2019 Unrelenting Warming The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report for 2019 indicates that most experts point to environmental problems as being the most serious threats to global stability—just as they…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 