“The Ides of March came and went with less drama than in 44 B.C., when Julius Caesar was assassinated. Nevertheless, 2,070 years on, there was a reason to beware mid-March this year. It marked another momentous, if mostly unremarked, moment in the nation’s accelerating self-assassination. The Peterson Foundation says that on or about March 18, the national debt will reach $39 trillion. This was less than five months after it reached $38 trillion. At our current pace of profligacy — it probably will accelerate — three trillion-dollar milestones can be passed during one fiscal year. … The debt has doubled in the 10 years since Donald Trump, on March 31, 2016, vowed to eliminate the debt in eight years. He did not try, but if he had, he would have been stymied by this grinding political dynamic: The fastest-growing age cohort is people 65 and older.” (03/18/26)
“Pakistan announced on Wednesday a pause in strikes against Afghanistan, saying the decision was made ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. In a statement, Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said the pause in strikes on ‘terrorists and their support infrastructure in Afghanistan’ would take effect at midnight on Wednesday and remain in place until midnight on Monday. ‘Pakistan offers this gesture in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms,’ he said. However, he said, ‘in case of any cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan,’ the operations would immediately resume with renewed intensity.” (03/18/26)
“My childhood (metaphorically speaking) ended in the early 2000s, when traditional, kid-focused, Saturday morning broadcast television was fading away. Being in my thirties at the time, it was probably overdue. Even so, the misguided government regulations that helped end a rite of youth now form a case study in the futility that often results when bureaucrats wedge themselves between producers and consumers.” (03/18/26)
“You’re probably tired of hearing about the U.S. government’s looming debt crisis, because it’s a continuing backdrop to political conversations in this country. Unfortunately, the government’s debt problem comes up so often because most politicians do very little to address the issue. Year after year, they spend more than the government collects in revenue. A new report cautions that growing federal debt not only guarantees a day of reckoning but hobbles chances of fixing the situation.” (03/18/26)
“An aspect of the argument that a draft would make politicians think twice before allowing a war to take place because politicians’ children might get drafted into the war is not really much of an argument when considered historically. Looking at the last war where US citizens were drafted — the war in Vietnam, it is more than apparent that those draftees who did most of the killing and dying in that war were working class men. If those men were black, they were even more likely to end up as nothing but cannon fodder. … Another part of this same argument is that the US people would be more likely to oppose US involvement in a war if their children were involved. Once again, history tells us something different.” (03/18/26)
