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    America Called Its Government, But No One Answered

    I have just finished a couple of weeks on the road in Texas, during which time the coronavirus pandemic blew up across the American landscape. The best sign that something serious was happening while I was on the road was the number of guys in truck stop and convenience store restrooms washing their hands after taking […] More

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    What It Means to be a Wartime President

    His grammar leaves something to be desired, but the message is clear. US President Donald Trump has informed the nation and the world that he has now risen to the same significant height reached by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. Explaining the measures he intends to take to protect the nation from COVID-19 (formerly given […] More

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    The President as Political Hit Man

    Donald Trump filed his paperwork to run for reelection only hours after his inauguration in January 2017, setting a presidential record, the first of his many dubious achievements. For a man who relished the adulation and bombast of campaigning, it should have surprised no one that he charged out of the starting gate so quickly for 2020 […] More

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    Martha Nussbaum’s Magnificent Opus, a Critique

    The philosopher Martha Nussbaum has a prodigious output and, indeed, it takes a prodigious effort to keep up with it. No sooner had I completed reading the latest trio of her books than a new one was signaled,  many of the recent works being based on her delivery of prestigious guest lectures at universities around […] More

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    COVID-19: What Italy and the US Are Doing Wrong

    With the COVID-19 outbreak unfolding worldwide, with around 35,000 cases confirmed outside China to date, it is possible to attempt a preliminary analysis of the politics of coronavirus and the efficiency of policies adopted by national governments and international bodies. Unfortunately, the measures seen so far have not always displayed the degree of leadership, responsiveness […] More

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    McCoy Tyner’s Improvisations of Hope

    Jazz is a musical art form that cultivates complex and highly disciplined improvisational skills. In its brief history — hardly more than a century — jazz has always floated between being perceived as a style of popular, crowd-pleasing music or as a sophisticated art form produced by exceptionally creative artists and daring musical geniuses. There […] More

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    The Cold War Against Bernie Sanders

    The New York Times once again puts on display its commitment to prolonging indefinitely the Cold War in pursuit of its own partisan purposes. Unlike Russiagate and Ukrainegate, which aimed at discrediting US President Donald Trump, The Times has now decided to deploy its Cold War alert system to help the Democratic Party in its […] More

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    The New Man in Fascism Past and Present

    “The trenchocracy is the aristocracy of the trenches,” declared Benito Mussolini on the pages of Il Popolo d’Italia in December 1917. Reflecting on the new type of man emerging from the war, he went on: “What an immense moral force is contained in the patriotic spirit of those who come back from the front … […] More