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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1468 )

• “No Kings” — Loving America

  

  Albany’s October 18 “No Kings” protest stretched along Western Avenue from Manning to Stuyvesant Plaza, a couple miles. I walked it from one end to the other,... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The French and British Nightmares

  

  America is not alone in going haywire. What is it with the French? Such a great cultural history — but when it comes to politics — Mon Dieu!They’re now on... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What Good Is Free Speech?

  

  (A shortened version of my 9/30 Albany Library book talk)This 2022 book, Free Speech, by Jacob Mchangama, incisively chronicles freedom of speech and the press... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Should Trump Get a Nobel Peace Prize?

  

  Trump may have finally managed, after flailing around erratically, to stop the Gaza war. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Samantha Power: Idealist

  

  Samantha Power was our UN Ambassador. Her 2019 memoir is titled The Education of an Idealist. A bold title — no disillusionment hinted. Read more

  Posted on 09 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Still Life: Stories by David Sylvester

  

  At the New York State Writers Institute’s annual book festival, there’s a hall full of authors at tables flogging their work. It felt like entering a den of... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump and Hegseth — Fighting the Last War — And Us

  

  Hundreds of America’s military top brass, summoned at a cost of millions last Tuesday, reportedly “sat stone faced” while harangued by Trump and Hegseth about... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump: Mister Human Rights

  

  Talking to Xi Jinping, Trump did not criticize China’s horrific human rights abuses against Xinjiang Uighurs, around a million put in concentration camps. In... Read more

  Posted on 22 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• 8647

  

  Trump’s last campaign darkly threatened “retribution.” Now we’re starting to see the horror.Former FBI Director James Comey is a particular Trump target. Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump Regime Welcomes Refugees!!

  

  Think the Trump regime hates refugees? Guess again!In Mid-May a group of refugees was fulsomely welcomed here, indeed given VIP treatment. Flown in on a... Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Evolution: Climbing Mount Improbable

  

  A good rule of thumb in my reading is that I can’t go wrong with a Richard Dawkins book. So I picked up this 1996 one, Climbing Mount Improbable.The title is a... Read more

  Posted on 14 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The New DEI — Discrimination, Exclusion and Inequity

  

  “DEI” has stood for diversity, equity and inclusion. Then the Trump regime declared war on all that. So now DEI is transmogrified into discrimination,... Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• My Book Talk Tues., May 13: Why Nations Fail

  

  I will discuss “Why Nations Fail,” by Acemoglu & Robinson, Tuesday May 13, 2 PM, at Albany Library, 161 Washington Ave. This has much relevance to today’s... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• David Brooks: Incitement to Uprising

  

  Writer David Brooks (like me) spent most of his life as a “conservative.” A label whose meaning now is totally twisted. But a notable recent column marks... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Trump Regime: Bullshit All The Way Down

  

  For a decade now, U.S. news media have struggled over how to cover the maelstrom that is Trump and Trumpism. Trying to treat it all as normal news, when it’s... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ethical Jews Must Renounce Israel

  

  My neighborhood still sports some “We Stand With Israel” lawn signs. This confounds me.I grew up Jewish, my mother escaped from Nazi Germany. Israel was a brigh... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• 100 Days — 1361 To Go

  

  The Albany Times-Union solicited reader thoughts on Trump’s 100-day mark. Here’s my submission:In halcyon 2009, I wrote The Case for Rational Optimism.... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The ICEman Cometh: Trump’s Criminal Gestapo

  

  Nothing was more central to the American idea than rule of law and freedom of speech.Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent U.S. resident in Vermont, was at an... Read more

  Posted on 26 April 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• AI: The Consciousness Problem

  

  At a 2016 presentation, computer guru David Gelernter insisted no artificial system could ever be conscious, lacking neurons. I challenged him, arguing that if... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America: The Enemy of the World

  

  America was once the envy of the world. Now the enemy of the world.Trump’s tariffs attack every country (except Russia!) as an enemy. All concretely harmed,... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY