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The Multipolarism of Fools

Donald Trump hates Antifa. He hates late-night TV hosts, Democratic-controlled cities, and anyone who has ever challenged him in court. As of October, he officially hates the Nobel committee for not giving him a peace prize, despite his efforts to strong-arm its members into voting for him. The president has gone after everyone he thinks… Continue reading The Multipolarism of Fools

Trump’s Pacific Pivot

Donald Trump loves to pivot. He is restless, he has some form of attention deficit disorder, and he likes to keep his enemies and adversaries guessing. Sometimes he pivots so many times, as he has on the war in Ukraine, that he completes a full circle with his pirouette. This week, Trump is pirouetting through… Continue reading Trump’s Pacific Pivot

America’s Disappeared

The Trump administration aspires to deport a million people in its first year of office. The president has also spoken of the more ambitious goal of deporting 15-20 million undocumented people overall, even if that category probably covers only 14 million folks. The discrepancy of a couple million people shouldn’t bother Trump. He’s happy to… Continue reading America’s Disappeared

Gaza: Deal or No Deal

All the living hostages held by Hamas returned to Israel this week. The 20 men have been reunited with their ecstatic families. It’s extraordinary that they are still alive, more than two years after Hamas and its allies seized them along with around 230 others after the attacks of October 7. They survived two years… Continue reading Gaza: Deal or No Deal

Is American Carnage About to Spread to Venezuela?

Every autocrat needs an enemy who threatens the country—preferably from both sides of the border. Such an enemy can serve as the reason to suspend the rule of law and boost executive power. For Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it’s been the Kurds. For India’s Narendra Modi, it’s been the Muslims. For Russia’s Vladimir Putin, it… Continue reading Is American Carnage About to Spread to Venezuela?

Trump at the UN: The Braggadocio of Evil

World leaders meet every September for the UN General Assembly. There have been plenty of weird moments over the years: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table in 1960 to stop the leader of another country from criticizing him, Fidel Castro going on for more than four hours in a speech that… Continue reading Trump at the UN: The Braggadocio of Evil

Trump: It’s Not Funny Anymore

Jesters once had considerably more leeway than the average person to make fun of the king. If otherwise loyal subjects made light of their leader, they could lose their head. Jesters, however, could test the limits of the possible with relative impunity—until they crossed the line and lost their heads as well. Donald Trump hasn’t… Continue reading Trump: It’s Not Funny Anymore

Slow-Motion Authoritarianism

In military coups, the generals take over from one day to the next. Civilian presidents, when they declare martial law, assume emergency powers and start immediately ruling like dictators. But the more common method of destroying a democracy these days is through death by a thousand cuts. Elected leaders only gradually undermine democratic institutions and… Continue reading Slow-Motion Authoritarianism

The Geopolitics of the “Great Man”

The Trump administration is currently attempting to rewrite American history by whitewashing the country’s negative legacy and scrubbing out references to anything connected to multiculturalism or diversity. Gone is Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship and Bea Arthur’s contributions to the Marine Corps from a Pentagon webpage. The administration attempted to remove Harriet Tubman… Continue reading The Geopolitics of the “Great Man”

Is a State the Reward for Genocide?

Most Israelis are too focused on the atrocities that Hamas committed on October 7 to acknowledge, much less denounce, the atrocities their government is committing on an ongoing basis in Gaza. The Israeli public is desperate to save the 20 or so remaining Israeli hostages that are being hidden somewhere in that besieged strip. Israelis… Continue reading Is a State the Reward for Genocide?