BLOG Post #358: China’s COVID Uprising 4 Dec 20223 Dec 2022 Significant dissent in China reared its head for the first time since the Tiananmen uprising in 1989. In many of China’s major cities, protesters joined hands to denounce the COVID…
BLOG Post #356: A Post-Election Caution 15 Nov 2022 Reasons for Concern What a difference a day makes, as the old song goes. The day before Election Day, liberals and progressives feared the worst: a solidly MAGA takeover…
BLOG Post #353: Europe’s Far-Right Lurch 23 Oct 202222 Oct 2022 The struggle to save democracy is proving even more difficult in Europe than here in the US. Virtually every European country is bedeviled by rising conflict between traditional political parties…
BLOG Post #323 – Destroying Democracy: China in Hong Kong 11 Jan 202211 Jan 2022 An audio version of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/48006/32-destroying-democracy-china-in-hong-kong.mp3 On July 1, 1997 the United Kingdom formally handed Hong Kong over to China under an agreement that was supposed…
BLOG Post #321: Downhill from the Summit for Democracy 19 Dec 202125 Dec 2021 The just-concluded Summit for Democracy was intended to be a rallying point for democratic and nearly-democratic states, with pep talks on confronting rising authoritarianism and building democratic institutions. One hundred…
BLOG Post #313 – Donald J. Trump: Traitor 28 Sep 202127 Sep 2021 The audio of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/40623/20-donald-trump-traitor.mp3. The Coup Attempt “There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today,” President Biden said in Philadelphia on July 13.…
BLOG Post #304: Presidential Warmaking 14 Jul 202114 Jul 2021 A podcast of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/35072 Presidential Prerogatives Once upon a time, American leaders only went to war when, in accordance with the Constitution, Congress declared it. …
BLOG… Post #300: Saving Democracy in America 6 Jun 20216 Jun 2021 To the Reader: It seems only right and proper that I celebrate my 300th blog on a patriotic note, with a plea to save our democracy and quash the Big…
BLOG Post #275: Saving Democracy 24 Sep 2020 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,…
BLOG 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…
BLOG 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…
BLOG 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…
BLOG 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…
BLOG Post #265: Voting for the Human Interest: An Invitation to Readers 12 Jun 2020 We’re in a new and dangerous era now, described by Stephen Heintz, CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, as one in which capitalism, the nation-state, and representative democracy have all…
BLOG Post #264: America’s Tiananmen? 5 Jun 20206 Jun 2020 "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."--Sinclair Lewis Yesterday, June 4, is usually best remembered for the 1989 suppression in Beijing…
BLOG Post #263: Donald Trump’s Stealth Attack on America 2 Jun 20201 Jun 2020 Donald Trump has made the calculated decision to let the pandemic play out without need of a federal plan for disease treatment and economic recovery. Over 100,000 deaths mean nothing…
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 #254: India’s Failed Democracy 22 Jan 202021 Jan 2020 Citizenship Denied India is often billed as the world’s biggest democracy. But that title has worn thin: Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is becoming a nationalist state home to…
BLOG Post #246: Will Trump Leave Quietly? 24 Oct 201923 Oct 2019 On October 23, about two dozen unhappy Republican congress members stormed a closed hearing that was part of the impeachment inquiry, determined to show their loyalty to Trump (who knew…
BLOG Post #245: Overreach, the Achilles Heel of Autocrats 6 Oct 20196 Oct 2019 It Has Happened Here and Everywhere It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating the democratic wave sweeping Europe in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. It seems…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 