With former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney’s comments that she’s considering an independent bid for president against Donald Trump, experts are beginning to game out how she and other third-party candidates could affect next year’s election. A political action committee backing independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign announced that it’s planning to spend at least $10 million to get his name on that ballot in 10 states. And the quasi-party No Labels has threatened

ViewpointsDec. 20, 2023

The 2005 American political thriller, “The Interpreter,” directed by Sydney Pollack, illustrates how a good politician who was once a rebel leader fighting tyranny can easily turn into a dictator himself when he possesses political power. They say that you become a monster when you fight a monster. Of course, after slaying the monster, the idea is that you should return to being a normal human. Unfortunately, however, many monster fighters remain monsters and become dictators themsel

ViewpointsDec. 20, 2023

Here we go again. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether the Food and Drug Administration has wrongly loosened the rules for abortion pills, which have been used safely for decades and now account for half of all US abortions. The case against the drug, mifepristone, was filed by a group of antiabortion physicians in a Texas federal court whose sole judge, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, is known for his right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+, antiabortion bent. The physicia

ViewpointsDec. 19, 2023

With air travel finally returning to pre-pandemic levels, this holiday season is expected to be exceptionally hectic. Many passengers, especially in the United States, will face maddening flight delays, and many more will suffer unnecessarily long flying times. But, most worrying of all, at least a few might witness or be involved in frightening airport near-misses. To be sure, the US has an outstanding record of aviation safety, with no fatal commercial airplane crashes since 2009. But the freq

ViewpointsDec. 19, 2023

Seventy-five years ago last week, UN member states meeting in Paris adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was not a binding law, only a statement of principle. But it was the first declaration to embed an ancient moral ideal of human equality into the new architecture of international law established in response to the genocidal nationalism that had left so much of the world in ruins after World War II. This new moral universalism asked us to turn our backs on our instinctive par

ViewpointsDec. 18, 2023

In February 2022, Russian troops mounted an invasion of Ukraine. Following Russia’s flagrant violation of Ukrainian territorial sovereignty, the US joined with nations around the world to impose sanctions. Instead of military action against Russia, these countries turned to economic warfare. The world is now approaching two years of Russia’s war, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for support after Republican lawmakers rejected US

ViewpointsDec. 18, 2023

December in the US brings short days, chilly weather, and the Holidays, but every four years it brings something else: quiet before the stormy primary season for major party nomination that begins in January. This year, however, things are different. President Joe Biden, running for reelection, is facing little serious opposition for the Democratic nomination. But with sagging approval ratings and advancing age, many doubt the viability of his candidacy. On the Republican side, former President

ViewpointsDec. 15, 2023

It is reported that a task force enactment has been introduced in the US Congress to consider establishing an Asian version of NATO. Mike Lawler, a US congressman from New York who proposed the initiative, argued in a press release that the Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization, an Asian version of NATO, was needed to respond to the rising threats facing the US and its allies. However, the organization could be misrepresented and not help many global villagers or the US itself. We can present a long

ViewpointsDec. 14, 2023

Due to South Korea's rapid industrialization and globalization, these days many Korean people comfortably meet a number of global standards that suit citizens of advanced countries. In this regard, foreign tourists frequently commend some laudable behaviors of Koreans, such as forming a line at the subway station, observing public etiquette and being considerate of other people. When waiting in line, foreigners say, Koreans even care about other people behind them and try to finish their bu

ViewpointsDec. 13, 2023

In 2021, malaria caused 619,000 deaths, 77 percent of which were children under 5, and 96 percent of them in Africa. But now, after decades of research – and several false dawns – a malaria vaccine known as R21/Matrix-M (henceforth just R21) has been shown to be effective in 70-78 percent of cases. Although three doses are required before that level of protection is reached, and a booster is needed one year later, the vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford and the Serum Insti

ViewpointsDec. 13, 2023

A nation that few Americans could find on a map, the oil-rich South American country of Guyana, is in trouble. It has a large and aggressive neighbor, Venezuela, run by an authoritarian leader who maintains close relationships with Russia, Iran, Cuba and other authoritarian states. In a move reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the dictator of Venezuela -- Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and acolyte of leftist strongman Hugo Chavez -- sponsored a referendum in his natio

ViewpointsDec. 13, 2023

Using specific dates to define entire eras is often a gimmick, a way of compressing wild and unwieldy life into a neatly artificial package. But some days, or years, just massively overproduce, leaving behind a nation, or world, transformed. As a quote typically attributed to Vladimir Lenin has it, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” For the reactionaries who drive Republican politics today, one year looms like Godzilla over a darkenin

ViewpointsDec. 12, 2023