I. Joshua Seifer, "A Tense Relationship," The Nation, February 24, 2020.
"In the Six-Day War, as Amos Oz later recalled, unleashed 'a mood of nationalistic intoxication, of infatuation, with the tools of statehood, with the rituals of militarism.' Rather than subsiding, this mood became 'part of the general attitude of a country engaged in perpetual occupation and war.' "
"Cloaking false equivalences and ideology in the language of realism has long been a hallmark of liberal Zionism argument. Liberal Zionists often insist that one cannot condemn Israeli militarism and occupation without an equivalent condemnation of Palestinian separatism and irredentism, and they generally maintain that the two-state solution is the only realistic and desirable outcome for Israel-Palestine." "The emergence of a Jewish state, however, marked the failure of the early Zionist's very proposition; instead of solving the Jewish question once and for all, Israel [enclosed] it in the realm of geopolitics."
II. Jessica Loudis, "The Act of Recounting," The Nation, March 2/9, 2020.
"The feeling of normality in Argentina didn't last long. Under the pretext of uniting the country around 'Western and American values,' the junta's leaders began targeting what they deemed the 'subversive' elements of society, which included anybody who might disagree with their rule."
"During their seven years in power, the junta conducted thousands of extrajudicial killings, ran clandestine detention centers across the country, censored the press, and gave the infant children of the 'disappeared' to junta loyalists."
"At the end of the Dirty War, as many as 30,000 people had been murdered, and Argentina found itself with $45 billion in foreign debt."
III. Laila Lalami, "The America We Want to Be," The Nation, March 2/9, 2020.
President Trump's travel ban has been extended to Nigeria, Eritrea, Kygyzstan, Tanzania, Myariman, and Sudan. Access is restricted to the the U.S. diversity program for people in Tanzania and Sudan. The Trump administration says the latest ban affects nations with "deficiencies in sharing terrorist, criminal or identity information."
The new restrictions will not apply to tourist or business travel. Neither President Trump, Homeland Security, nor the State Department have detailed any threat from these countries.
The initial 2017 ban applied to seven Muslim-majority countries. Nigeria will be especially impacted by the new ban, because nearly 8,000 immigrant visas went to Nigerians in FY 2018. Rights groups have expressed concern about the potential immigrants from Myariman, where the Rohinjaya Muslim minority faces persecution.
"Slowly and surely, Trump has shaped immigration policy to favor 'more people from Norway,' as he infamously put it, and fewer from everywhere else." "And while Nigeria has a high rate of people overstaying their visas, it is, again, not the only foreign nationals with this issue. In 2018, more Canadians overstayed their visas than any other foreign nationals. Canada is not listed either."
IV. Michael T. Klare, "Twin Threats," TIME, January 27, 2020.
"One particularly worrisome scenario of extreme drought and abnormal monsoon rains devastating agriculture and unleashing social chaos in Pakistan, potentially creating an opening for radical Islamists aligned with elements of the armed forces to seize some of the country's 150 or so nuclear weapons." "A potential US military incursion in nuclear-armed Pakistan is just one example of a crucial but little-discussed aspect of international politics in the early 21st century: how the acceleration of climate change and nuclear war planning may make those threats to human survival harder to defuse."
"Although Obama initiated the nuclearization of the nuclear triad, the Trump administration has sought funds to proceed with their full-scale production, at an estimated initial installment of $500 billion over 10 years." "Trump's decision to acquire a whole new suite of ICBMs, nuclear-armed submarines, and bombers has added momentum to these efforts."
V. Pavel Lakshin, "What is Russia doing with its nukes?" The Week, August 30, 2019.
With "America's withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Russia is also free to deploy short-range, tactical nukes all along its European border." "The U.S. is now accelerating the modernization of its nuclear arsenal, and working on new, smaller tactical weapons."
VI. Shawn Tully, "China is winning the trade war," The Week, August 30, 2019.
"Instead of slapping one-size-fits-all tariffs across vast categories of goods, Chinese President Xi is targeting only products the country can't buy at comparable cost elsewhere." "At the same time, China has lowered tariffs on every other country, making it even harder for U.S. manufacturers to compete."
VII. Evan Osnos, "Hong Kong on the March," The New Yorker, September 2, 2019.
Since taking power in 2012, President Xi has set about extinguishing all challenges to his authority. He has abolished term limits on his Presidency, detained hundreds of activists and human-rights lawyers, and oversees an anti-corruption purge that has punished 1.5 million members of his own party." "A crackdown would also undermine Xi's larger mission: to convince the world that China is a credible contender for global leadership in the age of Trump."
ADDENDUMS:
*While defending his since-canceled plan to hold this year's G-7 Summit at his Doral, Florida resort, Trump referred to the "phony emoluments clause" in the Constitution.
*At least a dozen states,including Florida and much of the Southwest states have passed legislation since 2011 to block efforts to require medical leave.
*Lalami: The Trump administration quietly designated Customs and Border Protection a security agency, shielding many of its documents from public scrutiny.
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