About That Last Iran Post — The Match Was Already Lit

And you thought beating egg prices was a win … ? Five days ago, I wrote that America looked like the wild Calvin and Hobbes disaster game bit with the exploding plane, derailing train, earthquake, gas leak, and match. Cute metaphor. Horrible thing to watch age well. Reuters now reports that publicly tracked vessel traffic […]

Planes, Trains, and Matches — Or the Iran War, 5% Treasuries, and Political Fireworks

The Iran war’s economic effects could pull oil, diesel, Treasury yields, and election politics out of their separate crisis lanes and into one grim American adventure. I’ve been watching a developing situation in America that reminds me of a classic Calvin and Hobbes comic strip installment where Calvin plays a game and weaves together the […]

Iran War: The Receipts Are Tiring

I’ve been silent about the Iran war for good reason … You haven’t seen much from this channel about the Iran war these days. Given all I’ve written about Iran for more than a decade — and much of what was predicted is playing out today — I asked myself “What can I say that […]

Almost $5 Billion Was There for War in the Caribbean — But Not There for Brownsville, Brooklyn

Over the past year, America has found money for military adventures in Venezuela, the Caribbean, and the Eastern Pacific. We’re talking about boat strikes, naval deployments, oil blockades, and regime-change — for national security. Brown University’s Costs of War Project and the Institute for Policy Studies estimate that America’s operations in the region cost at […]

Why Gaza’s Latest Unchosen Trauma Reflects a Sad Day in America

Reflecting on the Flour Massacre Israel starved the Gazans, and then murdered scores of them two days ago for starving. The Israeli military’s version of the story is that the unarmed Palestinians’ desperate rush towards the humanitarian aid trucks posed a threat to the soldiers on the ground. And US President Joe Biden still ships […]

Questions in January

If poverty in America was treated like an invading Russian army, how much lethal aid would the poor receive to eliminate it? If former President Donald Trump is elected president of the US again, Should current President Joe Biden flee the country as if it were Haiti? Should Vice President Kamala Harris leave? If Trump […]

1493 is the White supremacist parent of 1776 and 1619

Spain’s Doctrine of Discovery opened America and the rest of the so-called ‘New World’ to centuries of slavery and colonization. The racist backlash to the 1619 Project — also known as the 1776 Project — is yet another inelegant White supremacist trick, disguised as a call to national unity at the expense of legitimate explorations […]

This week’s Trump Insurrection has been a centuries-long project

American history tends to focus on the moment and perhaps four years prior — a dishonest practice. I’m going to help you ride-or-die political partisans focus your thoughts by prefacing this piece with my popular refrain for any mention I make about President Donald Trump: I believe he lacks the intellectual curiosity, skillset, and emotional […]

Who’s uncivilized? Remembering Indigenous People’s Day

These “savages” taught Americans plenty about governing and constitutions … I will spend zero time on Indigenous People’s Day to discuss that murdering, accidental discoverer, in favor of bringing up an amusing bit of history, recalled by Benjamin Franklin, about the American natives he encountered. Franklin seemed fascinated with the lifestyle of these so-called “savages”: […]

The latest Mueller indictment against Russians? We’ll have to wait and see

Before I dig into the latest indictments Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has filed against a dozen Russian military officers for hacking into then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails, I’ll attach my typical caveats whenever writing about The Resistance versus President Donald Trump: I don’t believe Trump has the intellectual curiosity nor emotional stability to serve as President […]