I recently viewed the new Oppenheimer movie and was struck by the horrifying McCarthyism based on unfounded accusations and inuendo that destroyed Dr. Oppenheimer’s reputation. This severely undermined his efforts after World War II to stop the H-bomb and start nuclear arms control regimes to prevent nuclear war.
Browsing: Opinions
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Oppenheimer saw immediately that any nation with adequate resources would be eventually able to build a weapon, and that something as gargantuan as an H-bomb had no possible military function. It could only be a mechanism for genocide.
This September is the 60th anniversary of U.S. and Soviet ratification of the world’s first significant nuclear arms control agreement, the Partial Test Ban Treaty. Thus, it’s an appropriate time to examine that treaty, as well as to consider what might be done to end the danger of nuclear annihilation.
Over the last decade or so, the tendency among China watchers has been to see China’s rise as an endless upward progression. Just as happened during the Cold War when the Soviet Union was viewed as a colossus that in fact had feet of clay, China’s economic and diplomatic successes are significant but often have been exaggerated, while its weaknesses have been ignored or underestimated. Only now, amidst bad news for China’s economy, have observers awakened to certain Chinese realities.
The state of labor this year is so fraught, so weighted with issues and problems, that a single day of homage and reflection doesn’t seem enough. It’s as if a year or more is needed to engage the issues, challenges, and possibilities facing American workers today. Consider the following:
So why do I care about art? Indeed, why now? As I grow older (by which I mean “old”), I refuse, refuse, refuse to retire: to quit writing, to quit believing I’m doing something that matters . . . to quit believing that humanity is collective and, at the deepest levels of our being, we all participate in this collective. This is what I call art, even though I don’t know what I mean by that. Or at least I don’t mean something that’s simple and certain, or even particularly serious — at least not in an academic sense. Serious can be fun.
The power of a president to issue pardons is derived from Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution: which stipulates: The president shall have power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment. Yet a president has unmitigated power to issue three distinct types of pardons: amnesty, commutation, and reprieve. Pardoning Nixon literally cast an abominable curse on future presidents not held accountable for their crimes.
What kind of person goes to sleep and wakes up thinking he or she has to go out into an African American community to find unarmed Black people to gun down in broad daylight?
The legal system is set up for politicians, conglomerations, and public officials to operate with immunity, and otherwise is not subject to formal legal sanctions when they break the law. Most officials are aware that many times they violate the constitution, but because they are rich and White the issue is wiped under the rug.
In Maryland, the Prince George’s County Public Schools Board of Education believes in the biblical Proverb 22:6 which states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old enough he will not depart from it.” That is why school officials were determined to implement a policy that trains a child to adopt and practice LGBTQIA+ behaviors at school, then helps the child hide their gender identity from parents.