Tano — Sep 27, 2026

Five thoughts about historic art, modern wartime performance art, real estate, and an unsung star. one. experiment in starting a fight today12th–18th century ife and benin sculpturesset for nigerian ownershipand a renewable 25-year loan to the metindigenous art justice remixed or sumpn else? two. speakin’ of i dunnonyc acted like a private landlordchashama’s losing half […]

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 […]

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 […]

You can’t ‘heal’ White supremacy — a bloody lesson from America’s Civil War

Republicans talk about “healing” more than “justice” today. Sounds familiar … Remember when President Abraham Lincoln wanted the country to “heal” after the Civil War ended in 1865? You know, back when the current Republicans’ ancestors were Democrats who owned slaves, were whole White supremacists, became separatists by creating their own country in America called […]

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 […]

Million MAGA March: funny and not funny

I said this long ago: MAGA is bigger than Trump … Today’s Million MAGA March — aside from the irony in how the title borrows from the vision of an African descendant Muslim leader that appears near the top of every MAGA member’s hate list — proves a point many of us have been making […]

2020 post-election meditations: Trump’s loss shows everyone who he really is

The jig is up … I just watched President Donald Trump on TV — his first public appearance since his reelection loss to Joe Biden — as he attends a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. His somber demeanor is fitting for the moment, depending on your view of this American holiday, but the […]

2020 post-election meditations: ‘Heal’? From what?

‘Heal’ is a throwaway word … During last night’s speech as President-elect, Joe Biden talked about the importance of Americans seeing each other as Americans and healing: Heal? Heal what? 70 million people voted for White supremacy, even if they did so for the tax cuts. What does “heal” mean? Who’s harmed? Was African descendant […]