If this were about any time before 1960 in our state’s history our election campaign would be almost over! For up until then, Maine elections had been held the second Monday in September. With a year of campaigning already behind us many might wish that this were still the case. The fact that it isn’t […]
Perspective
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
QAnon conspiracy theory leaps from the internet to the crowd at Trump's 'MAGA' tour
On Tuesday evening, the dark recesses of the internet lit up with talk of politics. “Tampa rally, live coverage,” wrote “Dan,” posting a link to President Donald Trump’s Tampa speech in a thread on 8chan, an anonymous image board also known as Infinitechan or Infinitychan, which might be best described as the unglued twin of […]
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Posted inPerspective, sj-web
What is a blockchain token and what is it good for?
People are just becoming acquainted with the idea of digital money in the form of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, where transactions are recorded on a secure distributed database called a blockchain. And now along comes a new concept: the blockchain-based token, which I’ve been following as a blockchain researcher and teacher of courses about cryptocurrency and […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Why ATMs are giving you dirty money
We live in a dirty world. Wherever we go, we are among microbes. Bacteria, fungi and viruses live on our phones, bus seats, door handles and park benches. We pass these tiny organisms to each other when we share a handshake or a seat on the plane. Now, researchers are finding we also share our […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Trump says Putin's offer to 'help' is incredible. In a way, he's right
Four years ago, on July 17, 2014, a Boeing 777-200 rose from a runway at the Amsterdam airport bound for Kuala Lumpur. Aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were 298 human beings. As the plane passed over Ukraine and neared the Russian border, a 9M38 series Buk missile, fired from a launcher belonging to Russia’s 53rd […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
The Russian pipeline to Germany that Trump is so mad about, explained
BERLIN — When German officials headed to the NATO summit in Brussels this week, they were already prepared for what they considered to be an inevitable attack by President Donald Trump over their low defense spending. But on Wednesday morning, Trump took aim at the Germans for a very different reason: an 800-mile-long, planned pipeline […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Donald Trump's fight with his own intelligence services will only get worse
Even before his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki’s presidential palace, Donald Trump had predicted that talks would be much easier than those with NATO and Theresa May. This he did in remarkably sympathetic tones, taking to Twitter hours before to proclaim that America’s “relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
What is the WTO?
President Donald Trump has made the World Trade Organization a frequent target. Recently, he’s reportedly considering suspending U.S. compliance with the global body – a claim the White House quickly denied. What exactly is the WTO, and would it matter if the U.S. left it? As an international trade scholar, I’d like to start with […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Trumponomics: Trade war spotlights president's unorthodox stance
Donald Trump ran for office on his record as a businessman, but his escalating trade war illustrates how far outside the mainstream his economic beliefs lie. To the president, the existence of a trade deficit means other countries are “stealing” from the U.S. Few economists would agree, and they warn that the tariffs he’s imposing […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Every current Supreme Court justice attended Harvard or Yale. Why that matters
WASHINGTON — It is not hard to see similarities between President Donald Trump’s last two Supreme Court nominees: They are both white male conservatives who attended Ivy League law schools, clerked for retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and went to the same exclusive private prep school. The elite background does not end with them. If […]