“Donald Trump says his preemptive attack on Iran was justified, in accordance with international law, because Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States. In his speech announcing the operation, he declared, ‘Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.’ But the threats posed by Iran to the United States, while potentially serious, weren’t imminent. So Trump and his officials have redefined ‘imminent’ to include distant, indirect, and theoretical risks. They’ve stretched the word beyond any semblance of its meaning.” (03/06/26)
“On March 9, 1776, four months before the American colonies broke with Britain over the issue of taxation, a little-known Scottish thinker published a long, dense book with an unpromising title: ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.’ Two hundred and fifty years later, Adam Smith is, by any objective measure, easily the most widely cited and widely quoted economist who ever lived. Astonishingly, his work still frames the central questions we face, not just about free markets, trade and capitalism, but about the nature of human society, and even what it is to be human at all.” (03/06/26)
“There are reasons for Democrats to hope that this might be their year in Texas, including big primary turnout numbers that suggest an engaged Democratic electorate. And there are a few voters and donors who support Cornyn who would not transfer their support to Paxton — but probably not very many. In 2026, Republicans do not vote Republican because they love the Republican candidate but because they hate the Democrats categorically. The same holds true across the aisle: Negative partisanship is the third-strongest force in American politics, coming in behind only inertia and stupidity.” (03/06/26)
“American bombs are now falling on Tehran, and while Donald Trump ultimately pulled the trigger, administrations before him – Republican and Democrat alike – constructed the gun, and even loaded it.” (03/06/26)
“The war Israel and the United States launched against Iran on February 28, with the ‘decapitation’ of the country’s leadership and the bombardment of hundreds of military and civilian sites (including a girls’ school in Minab where at least 165 children and staff were massacred), has quickly transformed into a regional conflagration with incalculable consequences. While already weakened by the Israeli-U.S. ’12-Day War’ in June 2025 (which President Donald Trump declared had ’obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capabilities) and despised by many Iranians for its murderous repression of civilian protest, the Iranian regime has not yet been undermined by the loss of key government figures, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the minister of defense and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).” (03/06/26)
“The dubious claim that Trump mastered ‘The Art of the Deal’ has long been central to his hyper-successful billionaire persona. … However, as president, on May 8, 2018, Trump abandoned his mend-it-don’t-end-it position and withdrew from the Iran deal, despite Tehran’s compliance, according to international inspectors. To salvage his dealmaker reputation, two days later on Twitter, he glibly announced plans for a summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. A bromance between the two blossomed, producing a slapdash agreement that did nothing to contain North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal. Later that year, Trump reopened trade talks with Canada and Mexico and supplanted the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. The new trade deal was only marginally different, but it was Trump’s.” (03/06/26)
“In The Coast of Utopia, the late English playwright Tom Stoppard tackled revolutionary determinism through the tragic figure of Alexander Herzen.” (03/06/26)
“The large-scale U.S. military attack on Iran (undertaken in collaboration with Israel) is blatantly unconstitutional, even if its wisdom and morality are more debatable. Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to declare war. One can debate the extent to which presidents can initiate relatively small-scale military actions, and such debates have raged for decades. But this attack is obviously large enough to qualify as a war. Thus, it just as obviously requires congressional authorization. President Donald Trump got no such authorization, nor did he even try. You need not take my word for the proposition that this is a war. Take Trump’s own. He himself has called it a war, and proclaimed that the objective is regime change.” (03/05/26)
“In The Joy of Yiddish, Leo Rosten defines chutzpah as ‘that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.’ Ladies and gentlemen, meet US Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).” (03/05/26)
“There’s no AI doomer who wants China to get the jump on the US when it comes to AI supremacy. At least that I’m aware of. So why did they all either support or remain silent about a guy who is leading a movement that seems Hell-bent on giving China that lead? Explain it to me like I’m five, guys who get paid half a million dollars a year to write about AI for a general audience? Surely I am not the dumbest of the people you need to convince. What does a country need for AI supremacy? 1. A thriving economy 2. World-class talent 3. State-of-the-art technology … The Trump admin is actively taking a giant dookie on all three of America’s advantages in the AI arms race.” (03/05/26)
