The great political crisis now is that a pandemic is being used to justify an end-run around constitutional rights, and so the mechanism that the general public might use to fight for their version of a ‘reset’ is on the verge of disappearing.
Whereas the U.S. requires other Governments to follow its instructions, and considers their own instructions to be moral demands, Russia and China and their allies reject — on principle — any country’s dictating to another.
The whole planet is enthralled, appalled, shocked and awed by the spectacle of democracy as enacted under the shadow of messianic imperialism – complete with a slew of slimy, smoking gun October Surprises.
There is considerable speculation in Washington about a so-called October Surprise being engineered by either party to change the outcome of the upcoming election. The original October Surprise took place in 1980, when Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager William Casey conspired with several senior CIA officers in Europe to convince the Iranian government to delay the release of the American Embassy hostages until after the November election against Jimmy Carter. Casey believed that any earlier release of the hostages would give a boost to the Carter campaign.
The latest issue roiling the U.S. presidential race is the Supreme Court and what to do if it bucks the wishes of the ruling party. The reason is the Amy Coney Barrett nomination, which, assuming it goes through, could result in a 6-3 conservative majority lasting well into the 2030s.
Fidel Castro had chartered a course for Cuba to ensure the island’s complete liberation from U.S. colonial influence and interference. Participating at the UN’s Sixth Committee during a debate on “Ways to Eliminate International Terrorism”, Cuban Ambassador to the UN Ana Rodriguez reminded that the island has been a target for U.S.
Several of the founders of the United States were gifted scientists and scholars of the Age of Enlightenment. Benjamin Franklin was not only a statesman, but he was known as one of the leading scientists of the world in his own right. Franklin, who had to deal with his age’s numerous religious extremists, medical quackery, and various misanthropes, would have little time for the anti-science foolishness of the Donald Trump administration.
Now, as we enter the final month of the U.S. election, the expected climax to long-buried animosities is at hand. It is unlikely to be brief or decisive. The internal convulsions of the U.S. however, are one thing. But the implosion of social trust in the U.S. is radiating out, and its effects are radiating out across the globe. If the imprecarity of our times – compounded by the virus – is making us nervous and tense, it may be because we intuit that a way-of-life, a way-of-economics, too, is coming to its end.
On October 5th, The Atlantic, a pretentious American popular ‘big think’ magazine (selling 552,242 copies per issue), headlined an 8,500-word essay from the New York Times columnist and PBS NewsHour commentator David Brooks, “America Is Having a Moral Convulsion: Levels of trust in this country — in our institutions, in our politics, and in one another — are in precipitous decline.” This article documented that levels of trust in America have plunged; distrust has s
Taking into consideration the UN Sustainable Development Goals in terms of environmental matters, the Escazu Agreement, an initiative of Latin American and Caribbean countries, seeks to regulate regional standards in terms of environmental protection. Equally important is the treaty’s aim to protect environmental activists and defenders, as well as guaranteeing the inclusion of marginalised people, or communities.
