Oct 14, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy
Published: Salon (October 14, 2016) This time, Donald Trump may be the victim. So may be a Serbian magazine that was obscure to U.S. audiences until Thursday, when it published a fake interview with the GOP presidential nominee. The alleged interview, in which Donald Trump supposedly apologized for America’s bombing of Serbia in 1999, was likely a hoax that someone played on the publication. The...
May 19, 2016 | Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues, Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, mic, Science and Technology, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: The Good Men Project (May 19, 2016) America is in a "boy who cried wolf" situation right now. We've grown so accustomed to comparing our presidents with tyrants, or insisting that a candidate's ascent to power will result in calamity, that even those of us who see an actual wolf in our midst aren't being taken seriously. The people voting for Donald Trump are well aware of our...
May 16, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy
Published: The Huffington Post (May 16, 2016), Salon (May 15, 2016), The Good Men Project (May 12, 2016) If you're a fan of movies and haven't visited Red Letter Media's website, you should. The critics there are among the funniest and smartest on the Internet, as evidenced when they started joked about the geopolitics of "Captain America: Civil War." Founding member Rich Evans summed up the...
Apr 21, 2016 | Foreign Policy, History, mic, Race and Racism
Published: Salon (April 21, 2016) It’s official: Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew has announced that abolitionist Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. And, while Jackson will still reportedly remain on the reverse side of the bill, the move is nonetheless a momentous one. Naturally there are many people who will complain about this decision, but since Tubman’s...
Apr 21, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, Jewish Experiences, mic
Published: Quartz (April 20, 2016) Senator Bernie Sanders is the most successful Jewish presidential candidate to date. But he did not prevail in the Apr. 19 Democratic primary in New York–despite the state’s massive Jewish community and his personal ties to Brooklyn. Even if Sanders does not end up the Democratic nominee, his efforts to push Americans politics to the left will be remembered for...
Apr 6, 2016 | Class Issues, Democrats, Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, Liberalism, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Terrorism
Published: Quartz (April 6, 2016) If Bernie Sanders wants to be president, he’ll need to do better than this. The Democratic senator is doubtless feeling pretty optimistic today, fresh off a primary victory in Wisconsin. And yet a much more telling measure of the candidate’s presidential chances happened earlier this week, during an interview with the editorial board of the New York Daily News....
Apr 6, 2016 | Conservativism, Democrats, Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, Liberalism, mic, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Republicans
Published: Salon (April 5, 2016) There is one issue in which Donald Trump is much more progressive than Hillary Clinton – and, unless she learns from history and decisively changes the way Americans perceive her positions here, it may wind up costing her the presidency. I’m referring, of course, to American trade policy. Although the last president to oppose free trade was Hebert Hoover (and his...
Mar 21, 2016 | Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, History, mic
Published: The Huffington Post (March 21, 2016), The Good Men Project (March 17, 2016) Whenever I talk to potential voters who doubt Hillary Clinton (not outright oppose her, mind you, but simply have reservations), I find there are two arguments which are most likely to convince them to develop a more favorable view of her potential presidency. One is the possibility that not turning out to...
Nov 20, 2015 | Foreign Policy, Immigration, mic, Race and Racism, Religion and Religious Issues, Terrorism, World Affairs
Published: Salon (November 20, 2015), The Daily Dot (November 18, 2015) As the world reels from the last Friday's terrorist attack in Paris, millions of people have taken to Twitter to share their grief and outrage... and many echoed Donald Trump's call to "bomb the shit" out of them. The desire to immediately strike back at ISIS with overwhelming force is understandable. It took under 48 hours...
Oct 8, 2015 | Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, Jewish Experiences, mic
Published: The Good Men Project (October 8, 2015) When you’re a Jewish person who is willing to criticize the State of Israel, you quickly discover three things: To many other critics of Israel, the authenticity of your position will be constantly questioned. Indeed, whereas a non-Jewish critic of Israel can easily acknowledge that the situation is complicated, a Jewish critic is often held in...