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    The 2020 Pandemic Election

    When the COVID-19 pandemic is dissected in the 2020 presidential election debates, Donald Trump will be at a disadvantage. The coronavirus has killed over 100,000 Americans and maimed thousands more. The caveat is that deaths per capita, rather than total deaths, better measure national failure, and by that metric the US fares better than Belgium, […] More

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    Trump’s Great Disentanglement From China

    Economists like to think of the wreckage caused by stock market downturns, widespread bankruptcies and corporate downsizing as “creative destruction.” As it destroys the old and the dysfunctional, the capitalist system continually spurs innovation, much as a forest fire prepares the ground for new growth. Or so the representatives of the dismal science argue. Donald […] More

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    The Limits of Western “Creativity” Facing China

    The disastrous numbers produced by the coronavirus crisis in the US have generated a second pandemic, one that will predictably last for just the next six months: the virus of electoral rhetoric focused on blaming an overseas enemy. Whereas the Democrats, clinging to their Cold War nostalgia, still appear to be obsessed by Russia, Republicans […] More

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    Water Becomes a Weapon in China’s Geopolitical Chess

    Many centuries ago, the great Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu observed: “The nature of water is such that it avoids heights and hastens to the lowlands. When a dam is broken, the water cascades with irresistible force. Now the shape of an army resembles water. Take advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness; attack him when he does […] More

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    The Colorful World of Coronavirus Conspiracies

    A few days ago, thousands of demonstrators gathered in a number of German cities, ignoring government restrictions and guidelines regarding social distancing or the wearing of protective face masks. Among the demonstrators were many ordinary citizens, but also extremists from both sides of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists, and members of the radical right-wing populist […] More

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    Wuhan: The Same Evidence Can Be Enormous or Nonexistent

    In a May 6 article in Forbes with the title, “Pompeo Backtracks About Wuhan Lab: The Latest In The Controversial Coronavirus Origin Theory,” Jack Brewster provides a detailed timeline of the debate relating to the hypothesis that the novel coronavirus originated in a Wuhan laboratory. The first entry in the timeline is dated January 26 […] More

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    Debunking Trump’s China Nonsense

    Conspiracy theorists never let a crisis go to waste. When something truly terrible happens, the conspiracy theorist sets to work to determine the dark, hidden forces at work behind the scenes that have produced the crisis. Some people might see God or the Devil as the prime mover behind a catastrophe. Others throw up their […] More

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    Hate in the Time of Coronavirus

    There is no part of the globe that has not been affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. At the time of writing, over 200 countries and territories have reported outbreaks as the global number of confined COVID-19 cases continues its steady march towards 4 million. But there is another pandemic that is threatening the health […] More