August 2-3, 2026
My sense is that the decision by the Trump administration to return to negotiations with Iran is not necessarily because a deal is closer...
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My article, just published by The Nation, looks at what was behind the border crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
The Real Story Behind the Human Wave That Entered Ceuta
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Human rights groups were unsuccessful at stopping this plan at an Israeli prison holding Palestinian detainees, but animal rights groups have succeeded for now.
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“Sunlight travels 93 million miles to reach the earth, but none of those miles go through the Strait of Hormuz.”
--Bill McKibben on why we need to transition to solar energy
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The respected Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University (located in an adjacent building to my office when I spent my sabbatical there) has made the case that in 2025 the United States experienced one of the most rapid declines in liberal democracy on record, reporting that “Democracy in the USA is now at its worst in 60 years.”
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My sense is that the decision by the Trump administration to return to negotiations with Iran is not necessarily because a deal is closer, but because they may be realizing that no amount of bombing can force Iran to give in to U.S. demands. Iran has developed a kind of asymmetrical warfare that, despite being badly outgunned, gives them a retaliatory advantage because their drones and missiles are far cheaper, more plentiful, and easier to manufacture than the U.S. interceptors. Bombing Iranian power stations, desalinization plants, and other civilian infrastructure as Trump has threatened would be met by retaliatory attacks against the Arab Gulf states, whose modern cities are far more dependent on power stations and desalinization plants than Iran is. This is why Washington’s Arab allies have convinced Trump to give talks another go—at least for now.
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Rep. Haley Stevens, the Democratic establishment's favored candidate in today's U.S. Senate primary, is apparently equating AIPAC-aligned PACS with American Jews. When her progressive Arab-American opponent criticized her for soliciting over $30 million in campaign funds for such groups, she said "everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans."
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This is In reference to Roy Cooper, now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. He also rejects conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel, contrary to the official position of the North Carolina Democrat Party and what polls show are close to 80% of Democratic voters.
Stephen shares a memory from August 3, 2017:
Disappointed that North Carolina's Democratic governor has signed into law a bill that denies state contracts to companies which refuse on principle to invest in Israeli settlements or otherwise support the Israeli occupation (even if they invest within Israel itself.) It appears that Democrats in my home state are as eager as Republicans to punish socially-conscious companies that support international law.