Living together: We need a sense of oneness among all human beings
His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about the need for universal responsibility, for the whole of humanity to learn to live happily together.
Music: Can — ‘Future Days’
Will Trump get away with inciting an insurrection?
Laurence H. Tribe, Donald Ayer and Dennis Aftergut write: In his nine months in office, Attorney General Merrick Garland has done a great deal to restore integrity and evenhanded enforcement of the law to an agency that was badly misused for political reasons under his predecessor. But his place in history will be assessed against the challenges that confronted him. And the overriding test that he and the rest of the government face is the threat to our democracy from…
Trump finally decides to push back against Covid vaccine lies
Eric Lutz writes: In a rare dalliance with the truth, Donald Trump championed COVID-19 vaccines in an interview published Wednesday, pushing back on an attempt by the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens to undermine the shots, calling them “very, very good.” The former president’s defense of the inoculations was, of course, as self-serving as anything he’s ever done, and by no means makes him some heroic defender of public health. But it is a welcome—albeit belated—gesture that one hopes will help…
U.S. intel and satellite images show Saudis building ballistic missiles with help of China
CNN reports: US intelligence agencies have assessed that Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, CNN has learned, a development that could have significant ripple effects across the Middle East and complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to restrain the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the Saudis’ top regional rival. Saudi Arabia is known to have purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past but has never been able to build its own —…
America is now in fascism’s legal phase
Jason Stanley writes: “Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.” So began Toni Morrison’s 1995 address to Howard University, entitled Racism and Fascism, which delineated 10 step-by-step procedures to carry a society from first to last. Morrison’s interest was not in fascist demagogues or fascist regimes….
2021’s climate disasters revealed an east-west weather divide
Wildfires that swept through Sequoia National Forest in California in September 2021 were so severe they killed ancient trees that had adapted to survive fires. AP Photo/Noah Berger By Shuang-Ye Wu, University of Dayton Alongside a lingering global pandemic, the year 2021 was filled with climate disasters, some so intense they surprised even the scientists who study them. Extreme rainstorms turned to raging flash floods that swept through mountain towns in Europe, killing over 200 people. Across Asia, excessive rainfall…
How will our warming climate stabilize? Scientists look to the distant past
Ars Technica reports: Thanks to unbridled greenhouse gas emissions, our planet is stitching together a climate version of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. We still have ice from the warmer parts of the Pleistocene even as our temperature approaches the warmer Pliocene levels of 3 million years ago. Meanwhile, our CO2 level is between the Pliocene and the Miocene of 10 million years ago, and we risk an Eocene hothouse not seen in 40 million years. At some point, this unnatural fusion…
Your sense of right and wrong is interwoven with your personality
Luke D Smillie and Milan Andrejević write: Although many moral views seem somewhat universal – most would agree that it’s generally wrong to end someone’s life – people often disagree on how to weight and prioritise different values. For instance, some would argue that ending a person’s life can be morally justifiable when other values are taken into consideration (such as in cases of voluntary assisted dying), while others would strongly disagree. Why do people routinely arrive at a different…
‘Old age is a ceremony of losses,’ said poet Donald Hall
Donald Andrew Hall Jr. 1928 – 2018
West Virginians ask Joe Manchin: Which side are you on?
Evan Osnos writes: Months ago, in the quiet, eagle-bedecked confines of his office on Capitol Hill, Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, sketched out a social-policy bill not unlike the Build Back Better proposal that he torpedoed on Sunday, in a rebuke to his party, his President, and millions of people in his state. It was still in the early blush of the Democrats’ control of Congress and the White House, and the Party was pursuing an all-in-one proposal…
How the White House lost Joe Manchin
Eric Levitz writes: Much of Manchin’s worldview is deluded, classist, and wholly incompatible with meeting the challenges that the United States faces in the present moment. Manchin’s deficit-phobia is premised on basic misunderstandings about the nature of sovereign debt. His fear that providing cash aid to indigent families would only trap them in dependence is rooted in hateful folk wisdom, not actual social science (studies have demonstrated that giving unconditional cash benefits to low-income parents does not significantly depress their…
January 6 committee weighs possibility of criminal referrals impacting Trump
The New York Times reports: When the House formed a special committee this summer to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, its stated goal was to compile the most authoritative account of what occurred and make recommendations to ensure it never happens again. But as investigators sifted through troves of documents, metadata and interview transcripts, they started considering whether the inquiry could yield something potentially more consequential: evidence of criminal conduct by President Donald J. Trump or others that they…
Crisis of command: The Pentagon, the president, and January 6
Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix write: One of the most vexing questions about Jan. 6 is why the National Guard took more than three hours to arrive at the Capitol after D.C. authorities and Capitol Police called for immediate assistance. The Pentagon’s restraint in allowing the Guard to get to the Capitol was not simply a reflection of officials’ misgivings about the deployment of military force during the summer 2020 protests, nor was it simply a concern about “optics” of…
Who is Gabriel Boric, Chile’s next president?
The New York Times reports: Gabriel Boric rose to prominence in Chile ten years ago as a shaggy-haired student leading massive demonstrations for free quality public education. He ran for president this year, calling for a square deal for more Chileans, with more social protections for the poor and higher taxes on the rich. Now, having won the presidency on Sunday — with more votes than any other candidate in history — Mr. Boric is poised to oversee what could…
Assad shows human rights abusers everywhere how to commit atrocities with impunity
Bente Scheller writes: The regime has so far given no reason to assume that diplomacy alone will get it to change its behavior. Nor has it given any indication that it is willing to make concessions for a lasting peace. It could have offered or honored amnesties, but there isn’t one example of successful reconciliation from any province in Syria. The local cease-fires strategy embraced by the U.N. under then-Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura delivered much of Syria…