There’s lots of talk about ‘spheres of influence’ these days, largely in response to the latest U.S. National Security Strategy, the Trump regime’s recent actions in Venezuela, and its renewed efforts to take over Greenland. The idea that great powers should exercise unchallenged sway in their own ‘neighborhoods’ is also consistent with U.S. President Donald Trump’s belief that strong leaders of strong countries should run the world and cut deals with each other, without worrying about international law, universal moral principles, or other idealistic notions. Unfortunately, both those who embrace spheres of influence and those who oppose them may not fully grasp their place in world politics. In the real world, they are neither an outmoded practice that can be eliminated nor an effective way to minimize great-power competition.” (01/19/26)
“A surge in scientific paper retractions exposes flaws in peer review, rising paper mills, and growing concerns about bias, error detection, and research integrity.” (01/19/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“The question is not if the US and Israel will attack Iran, but when. In the nuclear age, the US refrains from all-out war, since it can easily lead to nuclear escalation. Instead, the US and Israel are waging war against Iran through a combination of crushing economic sanctions, targeted military strikes, cyberwarfare, stoking unrest, and unrelenting misinformation campaigns. This combination strategy is called ‘hybrid warfare.’ … for more than a quarter century, the US and Israeli militaries and intelligence agencies have laid waste to a region of hundreds of millions of people, blocked economic development, created terror and mass refugee movements, and have nothing to show for it beyond the chaos itself.” (01/19/25)
“There is no ceasefire, no aid, no Hamas disarmament, IDF withdrawal or stabilization force. Just a lot of talk about Trump-run panels with little buy-in.” (01/19/26)
“They say when you’re born, you come into life with no instruction manual. If we’re lucky, we inherit a good set of parents, who set us up with good habits and sound thinking. We might pursue a religious practice, embrace an education, and learn to think for ourselves. Others might not be so lucky. Anxious and unsure, we turn to other things to make sense of reality: drugs, alcohol, sex or easy money. Without a set of instructions, we rely on what we think is our operating system: the ego. And we protect it with all our might. … I came across Scott Adams accidentally, but it couldn’t have come at a better time for me.” (01/19/25)
“The Greenland episode, disgraceful and shameful as it is, should be seen in the context of Trump’s other foreign-policy escapades — the capturing of Nicolás Maduro; the bombing of the Iranian nuclear program; the attempt to rebuild and reorient war-shattered Gaza; the on-again, off-again relationships with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky; the tariff bazookas that get downgraded to squirt guns with China. Erratic as the president sounds, the Trumpian worldview is comprehensible and even, in some respects, predictable. Trump is an ignorant man; unlike many other would-be or actual dictators, he does not read books and has difficulty writing more than a few badly spelled sentences on social media. But he does intuit certain truths, and one must give him credit for those, because he is not stupid and they animate his policy.” (01/19/26)
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words from his ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech still ring true: ‘When machines and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more important than people,’ he warned, ‘the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.’ Those words, delivered in 1967, still summarize today’s political moment. Instead of putting the lives of working Americans first, our leaders in Congress and the White House have prioritized advancing corporate profits and wealth concentration, slashing government programs meant to advance upward mobility, and deploying military forces across the country, increasing distrust and tension. This historic regression corresponds with a recessionary environment for Black America in particular. That’s what my organization, the Joint Center, found in our report, State of the Dream 2026: From Regression to Signs of a Black Recession.” (01/19/25)
“The Trump administration unveiled the outlines of a health care reform plan last week and, surprisingly for any policy proposal these days, it contains some decent ideas that would empower individuals instead of bureaucrats. Unsurprisingly, though, ‘The Great Healthcare Plan’ doesn’t really undo the bad government interventions and restrictions that limit choice and raise costs. The plan might offer some improvement over what we have, but it should be a lot better. In fact, legislation that would greatly improve the plan has already been presented to Congress.” (01/19/26)
“It has taken European leaders nearly a year to recognize what they were up against in Donald Trump. The 47th president has been browbeating and insulting them since he returned to the White House. He has called Europe a ‘decaying’ continent led by ‘weak,’ ‘incompetent’ people who ‘are not doing a good job,’ and his administration has vowed to ‘cultivate resistance’ to continental governments, replacing them with far-right populists. Still, most European leaders have been afraid to push back, wary of alienating the great power that has guaranteed the continent’s security and prosperity for over 80 years. But this dynamic appears to be changing as Trump ratchets up his threats to take over Greenland — the autonomous territory of a loyal NATO member — either ‘the easy way’ or ‘the hard way,’ with the use of force.” (01/19/26)
“The 1920s were an era in which everything seemed up for grabs. Critics left and right declared the liberal consensus dead. But Aurel Kolnai stood in the center, not falling to the right or to the left of extremism. As certain voices today sing tunes from the hymnals of a century back, it is worth looking at this forgotten philosopher, who fought for human dignity in the face of ideology. The fascists and communists of the 1920s were not all crazed lunatics; many of them were simply conservatives or progressives who took the wrong road, who, step-by-step, were desensitized to their own radicalization. Kolnai shows us how we can retain our balance.” (01/19/26)
