BLOG 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…
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…
BLOG Post #221: Weaponizing Humanitarian Aid 13 Dec 201813 Dec 2018 Long ago, US foreign aid programs honored the principle that humanitarian aid should be treated separately from economic and military assistance to governments. Public Law 480 (popularized as “Food for…
BLOG Post #217: Waiting For Hitler 11 Oct 201819 Oct 2018 If there is one thing I have learned as a political analyst, it is that there is no such thing as "never again." Use of weapons of mass destruction against…
APB Another Week Under Trumpocracy 21 Aug 201820 Aug 2018 Some takeaways from another week under He Who Would Be Emperor: “All politics is local.” Speaking to local issues rather than echoing the official mantra may be the only way…
BLOG Post #213: While Rome (and Most Everywhere Else) Burns 3 Aug 20182 Aug 2018 By now we’re accustomed to learning that every year brings record high temperatures around the world. Extreme weather, says Prof. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, “is the face of…
BLOG Post #150: The Honeymoon is Over 14 Feb 201727 Feb 2017 President Trump is often depicted as “unconventional” and his actions “unprecedented.” But his novelty exposes him and his administration to closer scrutiny than any previous presidency. Turns out the emperor…
American Politics and the World… Post #149: Fighting Back 7 Feb 201727 Feb 2017 Since Inauguration Day, the streets of US cities have been filled with protesters. Major demonstrations are being planned to follow up on the hugely successful Women’s March. Environmental, science, human…
BLOG… Post #128: The Dark Side of United Nations Peacekeeping 15 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs) involve over 125,000 soldiers deployed in sixteen countries, with a total budget of nearly $8 billion. Their missions range from interposing themselves between combatants…
BLOG… Post #49 – “I’m Not a Scientist, But…” 13 Oct 201427 Feb 2017 The People’s Climate March in New York City and (so it was declared) in 155 other countries has come and gone. Climate change, unfortunately, parades on. While people marched—an estimated…
BLOG… Post #28 – What Works? Saving Young Lives 17 Jun 201427 Feb 2017 While living in Tokyo back in 2001, my attention was captivated by a US public television program on a cardiovascular surgeon in Phoenix who was making annual trips to Sri…
