Beyond Labels

A 360° Discussion of Foreign, National and Local Policy Issues

Scott Miller

March 25: Anti-Semitism Today

In recent weeks, there have been claims that elements on both major US political parties have fostered / encouraged / expressed anti-Semitic behavior and views. See Donald Trump on the Republican side and Ilhan Omar for the Democrats.

In my opinion, neither individual, nor their respective parties, are bathing themselves in glory in their handling of this subject. So what’s happening?

  • Is anti-Semitism substantially on the rise?
  • Are the standards by which we “flag” anti-Semitism changing (lots of references to “dog whistles” and “tropes”)?
  • Is the political atmosphere so poisoned that no one wants to listen to any subtlety from the “other side,” and instead will always assume—and assert—the worst?

We’ll discuss on Monday.

March 18: India & Pakistan

With other events capturing the US public’s attention a couple of weeks ago (US-NoKo summit in Hanoi, Cohen testimony before Congress), the US media (and, therefore, public) almost missed a sequence of important events in India and Pakistan—reciprocal incursions into the other’s territory by each of these nuclear-capable countries. It was characterized on NPR as being “the closest the world has come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

Here’s a link to a BBC collection/chronology of the events: India-Pakistan Air Strikes. (Or find your own sources.)

We’ll discuss.

Today’s Topic

We agreed a couple of weeks ago that we’d discuss the proposed CMP Transmission Line from Canada to Massachusetts.

From my perspective, it appears to pit environmentalists (in favor of retaining the “pristine” Maine woods and habitat) against environmentalists (in favor of enhancing the proportion of “renewable,” non-CO2 emitting sources in our energy mix).

Any quick web search for “cmp massachusetts maine transmission” will direct you to lots of articles on the subject.

We’ll discuss.

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