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    Iran’s Voters Send a Clear Message to the Regime

    Two important facts emerged from the Iran elections on 21 February. The first is that the country actually held elections — a rarity in that region. The second is that the outcome was almost wholly negative for the regime. The candidate list had been purged of anyone not loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his uncompromising authoritarian […] More

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    Cleaning Up Trump’s Global Mess

    The next presidential election will not likely hinge on foreign policy. Americans will go to the polls in November to express their fervent support, or disgust, for Donald Trump. The candidates’ positions on the issues — on any issues — matter only to a dwindling number of voters who have somehow managed, over the last three […] More

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    Gallup’s Optimistic Take on Optimism

    Gallup’s current survey of how Americans feel about their personal financial situation has surprised many people. The media and Gallup’s analysts are citing it as evidence that US President Donald Trump’s policies have been successful and that Trump consequently has excellent chances of being reelected.  On its webpage that bears the title “Record-High Optimism on […] More

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    Is Twitter Killing the Written Word?

    If Donald Trump had anything in common with a poet, it would be Homer. Homer was a pre-literate poet from Ancient Greece, while Trump is a post-literate US president who prefers to be briefed orally, gets his news from television and boasts that he likes to read as little as possible. Homer refers to speech […] More

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    Can the Democratic Party Unite Behind Bernie Sanders?

    The Washington Post has published an AP-sourced article about Democratic candidates across the nation who are freaking out about the idea of Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic standard-bearer in the November election. The various corporate media in the US are awash with pundits warning about the impending socialist takeover of capitalist America if Sanders is […] More

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    To Out-Think Beijing, Washington Will Need to Adopt Visionary Planning

    Sino-US relations have been a marriage of mutual economic convenience that worked rather well for both countries for several decades. What is commonly referred to as “Chimerica” — where China produces products and purchases American treasury bonds, and the US purchases Chinese products and derives fiscal stability as a result of Beijing’s purchase of a […] More

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    Kushner Alone Knows What’s Best for the Middle East

    As the entire world knows, Jared Kushner has been working very hard over the past two and a half years at crafting a deal with so much cash in it ($50 billion) that no reasonable Palestinian could refuse. To his deepest consternation, when he finally revealed its contents to the public at the beginning of […] More