Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid

“Two things happened the week before Trump finally decided to end his will-he-won’t-he relationship with regime change in Iran. The first is that Benjamin Netanyahu told the Donald that Israel was going to whack the Ayatollah with or without him and that the results would be identical either way. Iran would retaliate by dumping literal tons of drones on the American bases that encircle it throughout the region and Trump would be duty bound to prove his manhood with blood. The other telltale thing that happened that week was that evidence surfaced from the heavily redacted Epstein Files that appears to show multiple sources corroborating the failed lawsuit of Katy Johnson; an anonymous plaintiff who accused our current president of raping her with Jeffrey Epstein at his side and then threatening to murder her if she spoke.” (03/15/26)

https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-ghost-of-ali-shariati-dances-with.html

Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald

“As the Israel Lobby gets more desperate watching the collapse of American support for their country, they also become more nakedly authoritarian to control US discourse.” (03/15/26)

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/cia-prepares-criminal-referral-of

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kimberlee Josephson

“There is a peculiar irony in modern American consumer culture: we celebrate abundance, low prices, and convenience — until we decide to sue the businesses that make those things possible. Somewhere along the way, buyer beware — a principle as old as markets themselves — has been replaced with the belief that disappointment equates with legal injury. Disputes over marketing messages and lawsuits about the labeling of menu items shows that some patrons are eager to become plaintiffs. Recent skirmishes over chicken are a case in point.” (03/15/26)

https://fee.org/articles/dont-bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you/

Source: The Realist Review
by Martin Sieff

“Three Dead Men’s Hands press down across the map of Europe accelerating the 21st century continent towards a suicidal thermonuclear confrontation with Russia that will pull in and annihilate North America as well. The hands are those of Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill — the three Anglo-American architects of the catastrophic 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles. For 70 years the Versailles Treaty and its following agreements were rightly reviled across Europe and the world as the fiasco and disaster that led directly to the rise of Adolf Hitler and to the even greater conflagration of World War II.” (03/15/26)

https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/paris-1919-a-peace-made-in-hell-driving

Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle

“Sure, we were laughing at him. But every reaction video or parody drove home the message that McDonald’s has a big new burger on the market, a message I’d never have heard if I hadn’t seen so many people making fun of the CEO. I would have eaten a Big Arch for dinner tonight — for research purposes, of course — if my column-writing duties hadn’t chained me to my desk. Such viral moments are marketing gold and at a bargain price — however much McDonald’s spent making that video, it probably only amounted to a fraction of the cost of producing a traditional ad, much less of blasting it into our consciousness in a prime time loop. Corporate America’s problem is that such moments are wildly unpredictable. If you want brand awareness on the cheap, you are dependent on the kindness (or more likely, unkindness) of strangers.” (03/15/26)

https://archive.is/XjuTl