3 days agoSeven reasons the US peace movement skews so aged — and what to do about itI’ve been mulling for a while over why the U.S. peace movement these days skews so geriatric. No ageist bias is intended here: I myself am 70 years old. …World12 min readWorld12 min read
Sep 15Polycrisis: Climate crisis entwined with governance crisesLanguage matters. If we talk only about “global warming” or “climate change”, those terms don’t convey anything like the scale of the devastation that the climate crisis is already inflicting on humankind. So let’s call it what it is: A very present climate crisis. Figuring out how to respond to…World9 min readWorld9 min read
Sep 8‘As long as it takes’: Washington’s dangerous trap for UkrainePres. Joe Biden’s avowals that the United States will back Ukraine’s campaign to push the Russian military out of its eastern provinces for “as long it takes” have become a mounting chorus over recent months. (He has seldom if ever spelled out the precise nature of the “it” in question…Ukraine War18 min readUkraine War18 min read
Aug 11A global resource crunch little understood by AmericansThe crisis that our climate is in is now evident to all. It reminds us of the extreme risks humankind ran by failing to rein in our emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Many of us have long understood that fossil fuels that exist in limited quantities — and…World13 min readWorld13 min read
Aug 5The global risks of a U.S. governance collapseWith this week’s unveiling of yet more indictments of former Pres. Donald Trump and the defiant (Trump-stoked) reaction of his supporters to the indictments, the U.S. governance system now looks closer to suffering a major, systemic collapse than it has been at any point since 1787. Given the United States’…World6 min readWorld6 min read
Jul 28Global South resists Washington’s anti-Russia campaignBiden administration officials and their supporters have long claimed that the conflict in Ukraine is a clear-cut contest between “democracy” and “authoritarianism” that affects the whole world… and that on that basis the countries of the Global South should line up to support NATO’s campaign against Russia. …World10 min readWorld10 min read
Jul 21Climate crisis puts Ukraine war into perspectiveThe climate crisis we’re living through this year is real. It’s global. And it’s just a foretaste of what humankind will see over the years ahead if the leaders of our most powerful governments don’t find a way, SOON, to work together to address it. The impact of this crisis…World13 min readWorld13 min read
Jul 18John Kerry, China, and averting planetary disasterHave you, like me, been wondering what U.S. “climate czar” John Kerry has been talking about with his hosts in a Beijing that, like much of China and the United States, is drenched in extreme weather events? If you read the (uber-nationalist) New York Times account of the meetings, you’ll…World7 min readWorld7 min read
Jun 16History of the West’s domination of the world, Ep. 2 (through 1776)In the earliest phases of the West Europeans’ construction of transoceanic empires, from 1415 CE through the early 1500s, well-armed Portuguese and Spanish flotillas would use the height and maneuverability of their ships and the firepower of their cannons to overcome Indigenous populations and then either outright rob them of their crops and possessions…World14 min readWorld14 min read
Jun 2A history of ‘the West’ in 6 episodesBroad phalanxes of commentators, politicians, and pundits in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere speak easily about the role of “the West” in world affairs; and the contest/contrast between “the West vs. the rest” has even become a thing. But what is this “West”? …World History5 min readWorld History5 min read
