“Dexter Filkins did the world a disservice when he coined the term ‘Forever War’ for the wars I fought in — Iraq, Afghanistan, the Global War on Terror. The real forever war has been going on for half a century, ever since President Nixon signed the Substance Control Act in 1971, and it shows no signs of stopping. Over the decades, Democrats and Republicans came together to spend more than a trillion dollars — and probably much more — enforcing prohibitions on a wide range of psychoactive chemicals. … Despite the time and resources invested in the drug war, Americans continue to seek illegal drugs. The statistics are alarming: Half of Americans older than 12 have used illicit drugs, and some 700,000 Americans have died from overdoses since 2000. Now President Trump and his national security team are doubling down.” (03/13/25)
“The Canadian government on Wednesday announced plans to ease sanctions on Syria during what it called a period of transition. Many Western nations, including Canada, had put a range of sanctions against Syria under its ousted President Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled late last year by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The Canadian government issued a statement announcing the steps that it said displayed Ottawa’s ‘commitment to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people and to support a transition to an inclusive and peaceful future.'” (03/13/25)
Source: The Daily Economy
by David Hebert & Emily Bissett
“Imagine that you wanted to do some grocery shopping. To do so, you drive your car from your house not to the grocery store, but to a parking lot miles and miles away from the grocery store. There, you get on a bus (which you have to pay for) that will then take you to the grocery store. You do your shopping, get back on the bus (paying once again) with your groceries, which then takes you back to your car where you can unload the groceries from the bus and reload them into your car before ultimately driving home. This would be absurd. It’s also remarkably similar to how people in the great states of Hawaii and Alaska must do almost all of their shopping, thanks to the Jones Act.” (03/13/25)
“During a February 20, 2024, speech at a new General Dynamics factory outside Dallas Texas, Biden made the alleged ‘economic benefits’ argument explicitly. A supplemental spending measure pending in Congress at the time contained a total of $95 billion in foreign aid, including money for Ukraine, Israel, and other countries. Of the $60.7 billion for Ukraine, $38.8 billion would go to U.S. factories that made missiles, munitions and other gear. ‘While this bill sends military equipment to Ukraine,” Biden emphasized, “it spends the money right here in the United States of America in places like Arizona, where the Patriot missiles are built; and Alabama, where the Javelin missiles are built; and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, where artillery shells are made.’ Republican pro-Ukraine hawks embraced similar ‘logic’ …. Such justifications, which should be termed military Keynesianism, are not only erroneous, but also sleazy.” (03/13/25)
“Poland’s President Andrzej Duda again called on the United States to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland as a deterrent to Russia, the latest indication that the frontline NATO nation is increasingly considering nuclear protection as fears of Russia grow. Duda made his appeal in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, repeating an appeal he made to the Biden administration in 2022. Duda’s adviser for international affairs, Wojciech Kolarski, followed up on Duda’s appeal with an interview on Poland’s RMF FM radio Thursday morning in which he argued that nuclear protection would improve security for Poland, a NATO member along the alliance’s eastern flank that shares borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad.” (03/13/25)
“No serious person mourns the offshoring of apparel employment. Clothing production is a low-tech industry that even in its heyday mostly employed immigrants who, despite being represented by a powerful union, were paid low wages and often faced harsh working conditions. For a poor nation like Bangladesh, apparel jobs are a big step up from the alternatives. But American workers have better, and better-paying, things to do. As I said, no serious person wants the apparel industry to come back. But Donald Trump’s economic team aren’t serious people.” (03/13/25)
“South Korea’s military on Thursday charged two air force pilots with criminal negligence over the accidental bombing of a village near the DMZ last week that injured 43 and damaged dozens of buildings, citing pilot error as the cause. ‘The Defense Ministry’s investigation headquarters has confirmed that the pilot’s incorrect input of target coordinates was a direct cause of the accident,’ the ministry said in a text message to reporters. ‘Accordingly, as of March 13, two pilots were criminally booked on charges of occupational negligence resulting in injury,’ the message said. They were also charged for damaging military facilities, including a church, a ministry spokesman said during a press briefing Thursday.” (03/13/25)
“President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order renaming the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge after Jocelyn Nungaray, a Houston girl whose tragic murder at the hands of two unauthorized Venezuelan immigrants, captured national attention. The decision, while framed as an honor to the young victim, raised eyebrows. It marked yet another instance in which Trump leveraged symbolic renaming as a political tool. Previously, in a move that defied geography, diplomacy, and common sense, President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming a section of the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America.’ But what exactly has been renamed? … While it was clearly intended as a symbolic assertion of American sovereignty, the renaming not only violated international conventions but also flew in the face of basic geographical principles.” (03/13/25)
