Category: Uncategorized

When I arrived in Rome, my predecessor had been gone for some time.  His assistant, who would be my assistant, had been handling the science job until my arrival.  I had not had Italian language training, and the main issue for the office was fisheries, which was handled by the…

Bloomberg reports that export controls will play an increasing role in trade negotiations: The London meetings showcased the growing role of export controls in modern trade warfare, where access to rare minerals or tiny microchips can give one economy a big edge over a rival. China controls much of the…

A New York Times editorial described the ways in which President Trump has behaved corruptly in office: The self-enrichment of the second Trump administration is different from old-fashioned corruption. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump has received direct bribes, nor is it clear that he has agreed to specific…

Miles Taylor v. Trump https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/06/03/anonymous-miles-taylor-trump-treason-interview-00380063

As I was finishing my tour as the deputy director of the State Department’s “green” environmental office – responsible for living things like forests, animals, and humans – the office across the hall that was responsible for supporting foreign service science officers in the field asked if I would accept…

By cutting off funding for Harvard, Trump is saying he wants to eliminate a valuable American asset, which is Harvard’s research and development, and instead promote manual labor in the US.  According to Trump’s plan, Americans will assemble smart phones in the US that use new chips designed and produced…

According to the Wall Street Journal, three years is not enough time to build Trump’s Golden Dome to protect the US.

As I was finishing my tour as the deputy director of the State Department’s “green” environmental office – responsible for living things like forests, animals, and humans – the office across the hall that was responsible for supporting foreign service science officers in the field asked if I would accept…

The Eonomist reports that in 2024 deforestation increased in the Amazon. A new contributor was fires caused by climate change drought, in addition to the old problem of illegal land clearing for farming and ranching. The article says: Climate change is raising temperatures and drying the air, turning the rainforest…

n the New York Review of Books, Christopher Brown writes about what a “Manchurian Candidate” would do if elected, and it turns out to almlst exactly what Donald Trump has been doing. He says: Imagine that the president of the United States was a “Manchurian candidate,” an embedded foreign agent determined to…