[Ussama Makdisi] Trump order pits Muslims against Christians

President Donald Trump’s unwarranted anti-Muslim ban imposed on refugees, immigrants and visitors from seven mostly impoverished and war-torn countries contained an extraordinary clause exempting Christians from these same countries from its draconian sway.　Trump then doubled-down with a tweet the following day: “Christians in the Middle-East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue!”　The cynical executive order is not only blatantly discriminatory, but it pla

Feb. 6, 2017

[Mark Buchanan] You won’t Believe what‘s driving the economy

Do humans act largely rationally, or can stories and rumors throw an entire economy off course? Lately, economists are increasingly recognizing that narratives matter.In the early 1920s, the US suffered a brutally sharp economic contraction, in which inflation turned rapidly to deflation and stock price-to-earnings ratios dropped to 50-year lows. The economists Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, in their book “Monetary History of the United States,” blamed an inexperienced Federal Reserve, which

Feb. 6, 2017

[David Ignatius] Trump must avoid making Iran his Bay of Pigs

By putting Iran “on notice” for its aggressive behavior, President Trump has taken aim at a country that‘s opposed by many US allies. But he has begun this confrontation without much preparation or strategic planning, continuing the haphazard pattern of his first two weeks in office. Iran is a convenient enemy for Trump. Israel and the Gulf Arab states share the administration’s antipathy toward Iran, and the regime‘s hard-liners gave Trump a pretext with a ballistic-missile test last weekend th

Feb. 5, 2017

[The Nation] How can Asia answer the new Ugly Americanism?

Thanks to the belligerent statements and policies of Donald Trump, the Islamic State terrorist group will grow from strength to strength in coming weeks and months. The IS group no longer needs to conduct overt recruiting campaigns of its own. The global publicity about Trump’s ban on people from seven designated Muslim-majority countries entering the United States will serve that purpose for the jihadists. The president has delivered an unexpectedly grand “bonus” triumph in the war they’re wagi

Feb. 5, 2017

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Why millennials will reject Trump

The key political divide in the United States is not between parties or states; it is between generations. The millennial generation (those aged 18-35) voted heavily against Donald Trump and will form the backbone of resistance to his policies. Older Americans are divided, but Trump’s base lies among those above the age of 45. On issue after issue, younger voters will reject Trump, viewing him as a politician of the past, not the future.Of course, these are averages, not absolutes. Yet the numbe

Feb. 5, 2017

[Other View] How to defeat Le Pen

Marine Le Pen could be France’s next president. Sure, her lead in some polls exaggerates her strength before the field narrows to two candidates -- but voters’ discontent with normal politics isn’t subsiding. For France’s sake, and Europe’s, Le Pen must be defeated. Her party’s blend of virulent xenophobia and economic statism makes Donald Trump seem moderate. But with her support still building, defeating her calls for more than a show of contempt. Her rivals need to understand why she’s so pop

Feb. 5, 2017

[Md. Shahidul Haque] Our duty to migrants and refugees

The indefinite ban on Syrian refugees imposed by the United States has cast a bright spotlight on one of the great challenges of our time. What should we do with the millions of refugees fleeing war and persecution around the world?The scale of today’s refugee crisis is staggering: Worldwide, an unprecedented 65 million people have been forced to flee from their homes; and, in 2016 alone, over 7,500 migrants – men, women, and children – died while desperately trying to reach safety, of which 5,0

Feb. 3, 2017

[Other View] Sally Yates’s mistake

President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries is un-American, dangerous and probably illegal, and the public response has been heartening: marches at airports, lawsuits, judicial stays, even some Republican criticism. Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, however, went a step too far.Yates told Justice Department staff members on Monday not to defend the order in court. Hours later, she was fired.　President Donald Trump was justifi

Feb. 3, 2017

[Los Angeles Times] How Trump created chaos with his unfair and inhumane order

The mere idea of President Trump’s executive order suspending the entry into the country of various visitors, migrants and refugees was bad enough, based as it was on the erroneous assertion that people from predominantly Muslim countries posed an escalated threat to the United States, and the contention — also without evidence — that existing vetting of arrivals from those countries was inadequate.In execution, it was a disaster, plunging US airports into chaos and displaying a shocking lack of

Feb. 2, 2017

[The Sacramento Bee] Trump’s refugee order disgraceful, incompetent overreach

If any American value was served by President Donald Trump’s inhumane treatment of hundreds of ordinary people from Muslim-majority nations this weekend, we would like to know what it is.How sickening it was to watch Trump’s draconian executive order on refugees play out, indefinitely banning entry to Syrian refugees and suspending US travel for visa and, for a time, even green card holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.The estimated 375 travelers detained or prevented

Feb. 2, 2017

[Bloomberg] A Trump-era guide to ignoring all that noise

The first 10 days of President Donald Trump’s administration were a blur. For Trump, chaos is a feature, not a bug. That means the rest of us could use some help sorting things out. With that in mind, here’s a guide to what not to focus on.“Watch what we do, not what we say,” Attorney General John Mitchell said in 1969 at the start of the Richard Nixon administration. That’s good advice for any presidency-watcher, especially in 2017. Trump talks or tweets all the time, often with little thought.

Feb. 2, 2017

[Other View] Like Garland, Gorsuch deserves Senate vote　

President Donald Trump has made some lamentable appointments in his brief tenure. Judge Neil Gorsuch is not one of them.　Gorsuch, who serves on the federal appeals court in Denver, Colorado, is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former Supreme Court clerk. Only 49 years old, he is genuinely well qualified and well within the mainstream of conservative intellectual thought.　This presents a dilemma for Senate Democrats. Their Republican colleagues shamefully trashed an important democratic nor

Feb. 2, 2017

[Bloomberg] Trump’s dumb war on NAFTA

Hostility to supposedly bad trade deals was a main theme of President Donald Trump’s campaign, and he seems to mean business: Not only has he withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but he also confirmed his intention to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. His exact plans for NAFTA, however, aren’t clear.NAFTA could stand some improvement. The problem is that every way to make it better would, from Trump’s point of view, make it worse. That’s why his apparent sincer

Feb. 1, 2017