John Peeler

John Peeler is a retired professor of political science at Bucknell University, specializing in Latin American and international affairs. After growing up in Florida and Georgia, he moved north as a teenager, and began a lifelong leftward migration. He’s been writing primarily for LA Progressive since 2008. He continues to live in central Pennsylvania.

Greenland: Mr. President, Wait, What?

John Peeler: Find out what they’re asking. Offer them Mar-a-Lago! It will be underwater soon, but they don’t have to know that.”

A Progressive Take on Immigration

Lessenich says that the prosperous countries of the wealthy regions make poor societies absorb the costs of mining, plantation agriculture, deforestation, overfishing, and low-wage manufacturing. We keep them poor so we can be rich.

Let Me Count the Ways: Trump Is Unfit

John Peeler: Ten thousand lies and counting, that’s roughly ten a day for his tenure as president so far. This man lies when the truth would serve him better. It’s compulsive. How can he lead when we know he is lying?

Good News and Bad: Parsing a Poll

John Peeler: Trump is still under water in public opinion, there are not enough undecided voters to get him above water, but his base is solid. We can beat him, but we can’t count on any defections from his side.

Reflex or Reflections? Trump Digs His Hole Deeper

John Peeler: It’s possible that Attack/Divide/Demonize, a pattern of behavior that we’ve seen from him many times, is actually the only way he knows how to behave.

Loving America

John Peeler: We Americans who join the four congresswomen in calling ourselves progressives love our country fully as much as the Trump supporters. Like them, we don’t love the country that is.

The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America

John Peeler: Snyder argues that the Soviet Union evolved from a politics of inevitability to one of eternity, and that Putin is currently embarked on a project to restore the politics of eternity in Russia.

Barons, Apparatchiks and the Deep State

John Peeler: There appears to be a high concentration of career and political personnel in this shop who are deeply enthusiastic about Trump’s anti-immigrant rants. When he says “Build the Wall,” they ask “How high?”

Dragging Anchor: The Breakdown of Everyday Trust

John Peeler: On the whole, those who see religious teachings as their primary window on the world are more likely to disbelieve science. Those who see science as their primary window on the world tend to be nonreligious.

Building Walls, Opening Doors: Trump the Closet One-Worlder

John Peeler: That Trump apparently has so little regard for this legal and cultural norm suggests that — building the Wall notwithstanding — national sovereignty means little to him.