The arrest of the Spanish rapper known as Pablo Hasel in February sparked violent protests in his native Catalonia, but also across Spain. Judging from international news coverage, Spain’s young people had erupted in anger over a lack of free speech in the country, 46 years after its post-dictatorship transition to democracy. A closer look, …
Read The Article from Pablo Hasel’s Arrest Revives the Debate Over Spain’s Free Speech Laws
Last month’s election in Catalonia underlined the deep and longstanding divisions in the region over whether to seek independence from the rest of Spain. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party may have won the most votes, but separatist parties together won the most seats in the regional Parliament and are poised to form a …
Read The Article from A Hollow Election Victory for Catalonia’s Separatists
An angry mob breaking into a government building and halting an election processes isn’t an out of the ordinary scene. We’ve seen it on the evening news many times. Just not in America, not the “shining city on a hill.” No, this sort of thing doesn’t happen in America. Until it did. …
Read The Article from Assault on the Capitol: The Truth No Longer Matters
Picking winners and losers from Joe Biden’s presidential victory is decidedly Trumpian. This false dichotomy of friends and enemies, you’re either with us or against us, has dominated US politics for the past four years. But politics is about power and power is not a zero-sum game. It is messy and diffuse, and the coming …
Read The Article from #Elecciones2020 | The Winners and Losers of a Biden Victory
“I know a predator when I see one,” Kamala Harris assured viewers during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention this week. This thinly veiled reference to Trump gained even more relevance when Steve Bannon was arrested on Thursday. You know, the architect of Trump’s 2016 campaign, especially the central theme of building a …
Read The Article from The fall of the man who invented Trump’s wall
MADRID—Tens of thousands of households in Spain began receiving checks last Friday under a new guaranteed minimum income program that was passed by parliament in early June. Plans to provide a guaranteed income had been part of the coalition agreement reached in January between the ruling Socialists and their junior coalition partner, the far-left Podemos …
Read The Article from Its Economy Battered by COVID-19, Spain Tries a Guaranteed Minimum Income
MADRID—In late March, about 100 Moroccan migrants living in Spain paid smugglers 5,400 euros each—roughly $6,100—to make the treacherous journey home in inflatable rafts. In a curious case of reverse migration, they desperately fled a wealthy country that had been crippled by the coronavirus and could not offer them work for the foreseeable future. Yet …
Read The Article from Morocco Is a COVID-19 Success Story. But at What Cost?
Trump’s preferred lying platform, Twitter, can fact check him all it wants, it can label his tweets for violating rules against glorifying violence but none of this will stop him ever. Still, Twitter made an attempt to signal the mendacity of his tweets to the Twitterverse by including a small link below that tweet that …
Read The Article from Twitter can’t stop Trump’s lies or racist calls for violence
Depending on how you see it, either Joe Biden, the Democratic Party or both were lucky in that the coronavirus lockdowns started kicking in just as he had cinched the nomination. Everyone, probably even most Republicans, knows that Biden can do the job. That wasn’t at issue in this primary where Democratic voters were hellbent …
In a recent interview with Reuters Trump said that “China will do anything they can to have me lose this race.” The “race,” meaning, the race to be re-elected as president this November. It’s been 48 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon made his famous visit to China to meet with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, …
Read The Article from The breaking point for US-China relations?
The coronavirus is changing everything and that includes the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Much of the U.S. and its president woke up to the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic in the weeks after Super Tuesday, just as former Vice President Joe Biden was consolidating his victory in the Democratic Presidential Primary. He and Senator Bernie …
Read The Article from Trump tries to rebrand himself as a war president for a 2020 victory
As Spanish schools and universities went online, my students made a mad dash for their home countries and towns and while it might be comforting to be with family at a time like this, I realized that I would be a fool to leave Spain for the my home country, the U.S. This is in …
The Democratic Primary was really over after former Vice President Joe Biden won nearly all of the Super Tuesday states. But if that wasn’t clear enough to Senator Bernie Sanders, then the results on March 10thshould have been. Yet here we are, with another primary Tuesday in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Arizona, all states that …
Read The Article from Sanders can concede to Biden or declare war against the Democratic Party
MADRID—After a series of gut-wrenching incidents of rape sparked a massive public outcry in Spain in recent years, the country’s new leftist coalition government has quickly focused on overhauling its sexual assault laws. It has public opinion on its side, as several high-profile trials, including the conviction last summer of five men calling themselves the …
Read The Article from Can a Divided Coalition Government Reform Spain’s Sexual Assault Laws?
Democrats generally care deeply about climate change, but in choosing a candidate for the coming battle with President Trump there is one issue that reins above all others: electability. Democrats across the country are tying themselves in knots trying to decide who might be able to take down this toxic presidency. This is an unfortunate …
Read The Article from How climate change is shaping the Democratic primary race
The first-in-country Iowa caucus was—to use Trumpian language—a total disaster. However, this are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unruly, imperfect and, frankly, absurd U.S. system of choosing presidential candidates that has existed in its current form since 1972. It is not enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and in fact, …
If you are from the state of Iowa, you have the privilege of meeting every presidential candidate you wish to meet, and your vote is more powerful than any other primary vote in the country. Why? Because since 1972 your state has gone first in the primaries, giving the people of Iowa a profound impact …
Read The Article from Iowa goes first for no good reason at all
As soon as Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States, impeachment became a very fashionable topic. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time explaining impeachment with the most important point being that it is a political rather than legal process and decision. While the treason and bribery part in the U.S. …
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s new Cabinet was sworn in last week, marking the official start of Spain’s first coalition government since its democratic transition in the 1970s. Sanchez’s Socialist Party won a general election in November but failed to secure an outright majority in the legislature. After weeks of negotiations, the lower house of …
Read The Article from Will Catalan Separatists Be the Downfall of Spain’s New Coalition Government?
Since the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump in December, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been caught in a quandary that’s been in the making for several months. If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statements are to be taken at face value, then there will be no impartiality in Trump’s Senate trial. …
Read The Article from If a Senate acquittal is so certain, what is the point of impeaching Trump?
You have to give them credit, the Democrats are showing that they can almost walk and chew gum at the same time. They have spent two months running an investigation and finally voted to impeach Trump in December and at the same time have been running a primary to choose the candidate who will face …
When the U.S. House of Representatives impeached Donald J. Trump on Wednesday, he joined an exclusive club that includes only two other presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. We’ve been talking about a Trump impeachment since before he was even elected. This moment has been so anticipated, and this president has taken impropriety to such …
Read The Article from Impeached, Trump’s best hope is to keep public opinion divided
In an Oval Office meeting with President Trump, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whipped out an iPad to play a propaganda video that depicted the leader of the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist. Erdoğan did this unabashedly in a meeting that included five Republican senators who have been the most vocal critics of …
Read The Article from Disinformation and the 2020 campaign: what can we possibly believe¿
MADRID—Spain returned to the polls Sunday for the fourth time in four years, and just six months since its last election. After giving the center-left Socialist Party, the leftist Podemos party and center-right party Ciudadanos, or Citizens, the opportunity to form a government in April, voters punished them this time around for failing to do …
Read The Article from Spain’s Socialists Lose Their Electoral Gamble, as the Far-Right Vox Gains
One thing I learned early on as a foreigner who sometimes appears in the press here in Spain was to never, ever, under any circumstances make a public statement about Catalonian independence. Never! You may remember the former U.S. Ambassador James Costos, who made a seemingly innocuous statement about how if Catalonia separated from Spain, …
Read The Article from Why does Spain care so much what the world thinks?
It was a breathtaking moment when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives is opening a formal impeachment investigation against President Trump Tuesday evening. Given the gravity of an impeachment, its announcement is always going to be a historic moment. What made it breathtaking, however, wasn’t that Trump would be investigated. He …
Read The Article from Nancy Pelosi finally gives Trump the impeachment he’s been wanting
Spaniards are not happy that their country is headed for its fourth election in four years. According to a recent poll in El Pais, more than 90 percent of respondents said they felt either disappointment, anger or worry at the prospect of another vote. But the parliament that was chosen in April still dissolved Monday …
Read The Article from As They Go to the Polls Again, Spaniards Are Fed Up With All Their Parties
My friend's 11-year-old daughter made a very mature attempt to reset a toxic relationship with a friend of hers at the beginning of the school year. She asked if they could leave the drama behind and start anew. Does it surprise you that the drama started up again about a week later? Probably not. Attempts …
During the first night of the second round of Democratic debates, the presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren mused “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” A new version of the million …
Read The Article from Is big and bold the path to a Democratic victory in 2020?
Monthly debates kicked off in June among Democratic presidential hopefuls and American voters are beginning to pay attention to who's who and who stands for what. The issues that got the most attention inJune's debate were immigration, healthcare, the economy, climate change and gun control. Foreign policy only occupied about 15 minutes out of a …
Read The Article from The Democrats have a foreign policy problem
It's pretty rare that I do an interview in English but it does happen from time to time! I spoke with PressTV last week about the failure to form a government in Spain. …
Read The Article from Interview with PressTV: failure to form a government in Spain
Political campaigns are about winning. It's about winning in order have the power to impose your policy preferences. We believe in the righteousness of our policy preferences. We believe that our societies will be better off if things are run our way, regardless of our political leanings. We all think we are right. This is …
Too many of us have experienced “gaslighting” from a romantic partner where the constant lies and manipulation end up making us question our own sanity. Truth is an elusive concept subject to perception which makes it manipulable. This is what gaslighters do in order to gain power and control over their partners. The only way …
Read The Article from Deepfakes. Coming soon to an election near you.
I spoke with HispanTV about the European Parliament election the the block of eurosceptic parties. …
Read The Article from Interview with HispanTV: European Parliament election
Both Spain and the U.S. are playing key international roles in the drama the continues to unfold over the future of Venezuela despite a divide between the left and the far left in both countries that is driven by ideology, oversimplification of the issue and President Donald Trump's support for interim president Juan Guaidó. The …
I can mostly guess someone's political leanings in Spain by how they react when I tell them that I am American. Those that gush about how much they admire the U.S. tend to lean conservative and those who reveal their skepticism tend to lean left. This isn't absolute, of course, people who have spent time …
MADRID—Spain’s left breathed a collective sigh of relief Sunday night as right-wing parties failed to win enough seats in parliament to put them within striking distance of forming a government that would have included the ultranationalist and far-right Vox party. Instead, voters gave a clear win to the ruling Socialist Party, led by Prime Minister …
I discussed Spain's general election with China's CGTN. …
Read The Article from Interview with The World Today on China’s CGTN
MADRID—Europeans will elect a new European Parliament in May, but how many of them really know what it does? The continued lack of common knowledge across Europe about the European Union and how its byzantine governance institutions actually function is a challenge for political parties and their candidates. It is why these races have typically …
When I studied political science at UCLA at the end of the 1980s, a question that sparked hot debate was about the growing the Latino vote: Which party would they eventually settle on? Of course, the question itself is an enormous error, since Latinos are a large and diverse group, but still we argued over …
When I studied political science at UCLA at the end of the 1980s, a question that sparked hot debate was about the growing the Latino vote: Which party would they eventually settle on? Of course, the question itself is an enormous error, since Latinos are a large and diverse group, but still we argued over …
Can fire only be fought with fire? Or, hate with hate? Or, outrage with yet more outrage? This is at the million dollar question that Democrats are facing this primary season, which has been well underway since the midterm election in November and will likely go on until May or June of next year. Will …
Read The Article from Should Democrats fight Trump in 2020 from the left or the middle?
I'm so honored to be chosen by my alma mater, UCLA, to be featured in the interview series 'Excellence in Action', which recognizes and honors UCLA alumni who have had breakthrough achievements in their careers since graduating from UCLA. (Read interview here) Me siento muy honrado de ser elegido por mi alma mater, UCLA, …
MADRID—Catalan pro-independence leaders and the Spanish government have intensified their efforts to take their family feud global as 12 Catalan leaders are being tried before the Supreme Court in Madrid. This fight now goes beyond the October 2017 referendum on Catalonia seceding from Spain, which was declared illegal by the Spanish government, and the subsequent …
Read The Article from What’s at Stake for Spain’s Global Image in the Dispute Over Catalonia
'The U.S. doesn't have a real left' is something I am commonly told here in Spain. Aside from the joy of having people explain my own country's politics to me, it's just not true. To begin with, left vs. right is a woefully inadequate way to describe political ideology, but more importantly, it is just …
This article was written for and published in Spanish in esglobal. We can argue all we want about the nature of Donald Trump's presidency, but one thing that's clear is his dogged pursuit of his campaign promises. When he was first elected, many analysts mused over whether his campaign rhetoric was nothing more than theater …
My interview with Sky News the latest about the independence referendum in Catalonia and its consequences for Spain. …
My interview with Sky News the latest about the independence referendum in Catalonia and its consequences for Spain. …
Read The Article from On Sky News: Catalan Independence, a political faux
My interview with Sky News about the fall out from the independence referendum in Catalonia and its consequences for Spain. …
My interview with Global News Canada talking about what is happening in Catalonia, its independence and the consequences for Spain. …
Read The Article from Interview on Global News Canada about Catalonia
I was on RTE Radio 1 Ireland discussing the referendum in Catalonia and its consequences for Spain. You can listen to it here (01:39:45). …
Read The Article from Interview on RTE Radio 1 Ireland about Catalonia
My interview with Sky News about the fall out from the independence referendum in Catalonia and its consequences for Spain. …
My interview on Sky News about the Spanish Royal visit to UK this summer / Mi intervención en la cadena británica Sky News, una de las principales del país, para hablar sobre la visita de los reyes de España a Reino Unido este verano. …
Read The Article from Talking about the Spanish Royal visit to the UK on Sky News
It’s been described as a ring-kissing ceremony, the opening scene from King Lear and the type of standard fare from dictators like Kim Jong Un. Glen Thrush described it as “one of the most exquisitely awkward public events I’ve ever seen.” This may all be quite true and amusing, but I think there’s a better explanation for …
Trump’s trip left a big impression on our European allies. So much, that German Chancellor Angela Merkel turned around and announced at a campaign rally that “the times when we could completely rely on others are, to an extent, over.” (read the article in The Huffington Post) …
"The shit show that is the Trump presidency came to a head on Monday with the Washington Post revelation that his couldn’t keep his mouth shut in front of two top Russian officials. He actually bragged to these guys, telling them “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day.” (read the article in …
"A friend I tend to agree with shared an article on Facebook from the (conservative) National Review, commenting that the magazine’s readers didn’t appreciate it. I had been mulling over the left wing freak out over the New York Times’ new columnist Bret Stephens’ first piece and relished finding a similar example on the right. So, …
Read The Article from How To Burst Your Own Private Media Bubble
"For Republicans, it does matter how much money you make. It’s not surprising that Jimmy Kimmel’s touching monologue about his son’s congenital heart disease went viral on the social networks. It was heartfelt and touched upon a touchy and timely subject, healthcare. He also included a noble call for left-right unity and understanding, but he …
"She might be worshiped by Chinese women for her beauty and style but the European women who attended the W20 Summit on Tuesday were having none of it and promptly booed Ivanka Trump when she had the audacity to say that her father is a champion of women." (read the article in The Huffington Post) …
Read The Article from Ivanka Trump is an anti-feminist in feminist clothing
"I picked a fight with some male co-workers a couple weeks ago. They had put together a day of conferences about the international relations of the Trump presidency and out of 10 panelists, only 3 were women, including me and the first panel had no women at all. This happens all the time in Spain, …
Read The Article from Mike Pence, Sex and How Both Ghettoize Women
"There I was, an American, Skyped in to the very British Sky News to talk about the showdown between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar. Gibraltar, you ask, as in ‘the rock’? Yes, the very one! I decided in advance that it was my job to smack everyone upside the head so I prepped some …
Read The Article from Did the UK Threaten to Go to War with Spain?
My interview with Sky News about tensions between the UK and Spain over Gibraltar due to Brexit. / Intervine en un programa de Sky News, uno de los principales medios de comunicación e información en Reino Unido, para hablar sobre las tensiones actuales entre España y Reino Unido sobre la situación de Gibraltar tras …
Read The Article from Talking UK-Spain tensions over Gibraltar and Brexit on Sky News
"Trump’s abominable behavior during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to the White House caused outrage on my Facebook feed. But Merkel doesn’t need your outrage. She’s taken on plenty of outsized egos with her signature steely patience, from Nicolas Sarkozy to Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Vladimir Putin. What she needs you to to do is …
Read The Article from Angela Merkel Doesn’t Need Your Outrage Over Trump’s Rudeness
"Well, I’m here to tell you that if you think you can ride off into the sunset and just give the next four years of Trump a miss, you are sorely mistaken. Not only is living abroad a lot harder than you might imagine, even if you get there, there’s no escaping Trump. No matter …
Read The Article from No, You Can’t Escape Trump By Moving Abroad
"And so starts my day, with an inpouring of wishes for a Happy International Women’s Day! Since I’m an American living in Madrid, Spain, the wishes come in both English, mostly from female friends and oddly, the ones in Spanish tend to come from male friends, who send “felicitaciones.” It’s hard work trying not to …
Read The Article from Don’t Wish Me A Happy International Women’s Day
"In his farewell speech, President Obama reminded us that “democracy needs you.” This is not hyperbole, at its best, democracy is about the people. Democracy’s roots are in highly participatory forms of government and the representative systems of today’s nation states distance us from our governments, so we depend on the press to keep us …
Read The Article from Democracy Needs You: How To Avoid Fake News
Whichever definition you prefer for democracy, at the base of it are the people and the vote. In his 1956 book A Preface to The Democratic Theory, political scientist Robert Dahl provided a handy and widely cited 8-point list of conditions to measure majority rule, which, unlike pregnancy or your love or hatred for cilantro, has …
Read The Article from The So-called Post-truth World Is Nothing New
This intellectual journey and revolution that I had at UCLA is what we expect of any engaged university student and is certainly not restricted to any one ideological destination. To question everything, think independently of the influence of one's parents and be open to changing our minds is the idealized university experience. But this attitude …
Spaniards are angry. Their anger was evident in the European election results in which voters embraced new political parties and gave a slap in the face to the two established ones. The ensuing revolt inside the socialist party (PSOE) over the selection process for its next leader was quickly eclipsed by the antimonarchy protests in …
Read The Article from Spain’s Democracy is Having a Midlife Crisis
It might surprise you that 36% of Spain's members of Parliament are women, placing it 20th in the world by the Inter- parliamentary Union1 while American women make up just 18.5% of the U.S. Congress for a dismal ranking of 79th. Yes, Spain, the country where the term “machismo” comes from (which has long been …
Some elections sexier than others. The entire 2008 U.S. campaign — from primaries to the general election — left us breathless. On the other hand, Bush vs. Gore in 2000, and Spain's Rajoy vs. Rubalcaba in 2011 could have been marketed as insomnia remedies. However, presidential campaigns, where two candidates battle it out to become …
I took some time out last week to talk to Liam Aldous with the Urbanist on Monocle24 about the "Eurovegas" that never got built outside Madrid, Spain. Casino tycoon and Republican activist Sheldon Adelson was behind this project but ended up walking away from it when he couldn't get all the government concessions he demended. …
Read The Article from Talking about the unbuilt “Eurovegas” in Spain with The Urbanist on Monocle24
Text in English / texto en Español …
Tens of thousands of protesters hit the streets of Madrid on Saturday to defend this right and show their opposition to the recent anti-choice bill introduced by Spain's right-of-center ruling Popular Party. The "purple tide" of protesters was in high spirits shouting "¡Sí se puede!" (Yes we can!) and "¡Vamos, escucha, esto es nuestra lucha! …
Read The Article from Tens of Thousands Protest the Erosion of Abortion Rights in Spain
This article was published in the Spanish foreign policy magazine, esglobal. Keep in mind that this was written for Spanish readers, therefore there may be more context about American politics than you would find in an article written for American readers. In 2009, I wrote in my blog that President Obama wasn't a socialist. This post was …
Read The Article from In esglobal: Socialism, no longer a dirty word in the U.S.?
It's always scary to find a lump. I found one about the width and length of my thumb on my abdomen on a Friday morning in late June and booked an appointment with my general practitioner for the following Tuesday. She thought it might be a hernia (which I found incredible given that I'm a …
Read The Article from In The Huffington Post: Equality, Justice and Universal Healthcare
Their story is so strange it dominated Spanish headlines for several news cycles while it destroyed their reputations as well as the credibility of the young think tank they defrauded. They can't show their faces in Spain, yet she runs her production company out of New York and he's in…(read) …
From the outside, politics and corruption seem to go hand in hand but when you work on the inside, the day to day is much more mundane. You hardly expect to find yourself unwittingly entangled in the type of sordid affair that makes big headlines. But I did. (read) …
Read The Article from In the Huffington Post: My big fat Spanish corruption story
January 17, 1994 4:31am I was asleep, so I can’t remember how or when it began. All I know is that suddenly we were clinging to each other under the bedroom doorway, terrified and convinced that these were our last moments. Our bedroom, which was otherwise lit by L.A. city lights, was pitch black and …
This article was published in Spanish in Foreign Policy en Español. Keep in mind that this was written for Spanish readers who need more context about the American political system than American readers would. Outside the US, the 1992 election might be best remembered for Bill Clinton's victory, but it's an election year also remembered as …