Politics

Listen to this as a podcast Strip away the political messaging, and America’s tariff strategy has little to do with national security; it’s a mechanism for power consolidation and discreet wealth transfer to the elite. These tariffs are doing a lot of harm without much good, and the evidence suggests they are not achieving the American administration's publicly stated objectives. History indicates that when limited, targeted, and temporary, tariffs can be useful in certain specific contexts. Historically, broad-spectrum tariffs like the ones being imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump have caused immense harm.  Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, and...

"A republic, if you can keep it"  -Benjamin Franklin Listen to this as a Podcast The doomsayers were right about Donald Trump, aided and abetted by a feckless GOP Trump’s second presidential term has already eclipsed the malfeasance of his first.  Trump’s bid to enrich himself and entrench his power is accelerating the erosion of America’s core values and threatening the Republic. Trump is making people poorer, tearing the social fabric, shutting down democratic institutions, eradicating political norms, and wreaking environmental ruin. After just 100 days in office, Trump earned the ignoble distinction of being the most unpopular president in...

"The less talent they have, the more pride, vanity, and arrogance they have. All these fools, however, find other fools who applaud them." - Erasmus, 1509 Donald Trump did not emerge out of the ether; he is a creation of the Republican Party. The GOP is complicit in Trump’s malfeasance, but even more damning, they are the ones who groomed the American public to make it possible for such a presidential candidate to be construed as viable. Republicans crafted the cynical strategy that gave rise to Trump, and now they bow before the monster they created. Most rightly expected that...

“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.” -Turkish Proverb. American President Donald Trump’s first term in office was an unprecedented disaster, and his second term is proving to be even worse, so why did Americans vote for him?  Trump’s bid for the presidency in 2016 began with him breaking campaign finance laws, and his first term ended with a coup attempt and an insurrection.  There were lots of reasons to reject Trump in 2016, more in 2020, and even more in 2024, yet despite a clear and compelling body...

The choice between former president Donald Trump’s dark vision of America and Vice President Kamala Harris’ optimistic campaign could not be starker. With more than 60 elections in 2024, this is a critical year for democracy, but no vote is more consequential than the contest in the United States. The outcome of this election will have repercussions that will reverberate around the world. We are at a hinge moment in history, and the stakes could not be higher. This electoral decision will determine the future of Democracy in America, so the fate of the American experiment hangs in the balance....

January 24, 2022, is a day that will live in infamy. This is the day that the Russian Federation led by President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked war against the peaceful, democratic people of Ukraine. While many have reported on Putin’s criminality and imperial nostalgia, this report assesses his prospects and the implications for climate as seen through the lens of energy. Governments around the world have condemned Russia and companies from automakers to tech firms are leaving the country in droves. International sports organizations and governing bodies are excluding Russia to prevent Putin from using athletics as an instrument...

Memorial Day honors soldiers who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. Millions have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of democracy and freedom . In the revolutionary war, they fell fighting the tyranny of British Rule, in the Civil War they fell trying to free slaves from the scourge of slavery, In World War ll they fell liberating Europe from Nazi despotism, and in the pacific, they fell fighting imperial Japan. Now the US faces a different threat, one that is coming from within. The former president's coup attempt and the insurrection he led on the Capital Building...

U.S. President Joe Biden has rejuvenated hopes that the U.S. will once again lead the world in an ambitious bid to tackle climate change. The Biden administration has put climate change at the center of U.S. foreign policy and national security. Biden's climate plan seeks to eliminate emissions from the electricity sector by 2030 and economy-wide by 2050. Biden won the presidential election of 2020 with the most ambitious climate platform in American history. On inauguration day he immediately went to work enacting his bold climate action plan by rejoining the Paris Agreement, halting efforts to pursue drilling on public lands (including the Arctic National...

Corporate America has come to the realization that it cannot afford to ignore the wave of voter suppression bills in Republican-controlled states. The CEOs of some of the most well-known American brands are speaking out against restrictive new state voter laws that kick people off voter rolls, make voting more difficult, and give more electoral power to Republican legislatures.  The GOP's voter suppression efforts have been compared to the Jim Crow laws that prevented Black people from voting for over a century. They cannot ignore the systemic racism that was stoked by the former president and supported by his party.  The Black Lives...

On Earth Day President Joe Biden is convening a historic two-day virtual climate summit that heralds the return of the United States to the forefront of the climate fight. On April 20-22, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will come together with 38 other world leaders to discuss global efforts to address climate change. The summit will include all 17 leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate who together are responsible for about 80 percent of global emissions and GDP. It also includes the heads of countries that are especially vulnerable to climate...