Oracle has financial problems that threaten the Ellison media empire, while technical problems at TikTok complicate the transition to total info control.
Read more...After one full year the grim news on the science front – all fronts really – this Coffee Break is devoted to why science is interesting and fun. And useful, even if its use value cannot be predicted before the fact. Part the First: Ancient Travelers. Or, social networks (not this kind) have always been […]
Read more...Davos 2026 points to a new world order—technocratic, executive and corporate—powered by AI and digital currencies
Read more...American Democrats continue to entangle themselves in issues like ICE and Israel, where their supporters have moved dramatically to their left.
Read more...Emerging Middle Eastern alliances are often dismissed as inconsequential because regional states have a long record of weak and fragmented cooperation. This article argues the opposite: it is precisely the fragility of these alliances that makes them dangerous. Ambiguous commitments, existential threat perceptions, and nuclear capabilities combine to magnify escalation risks, even from routine military incidents.
Read more...Bari Weiss’ CBS tenure so far shows that for Larry and David Ellison, buying a media empire is one thing, imposing total information control is another.
Read more...Part the First: The President Fixes Healthcare. Oh, joy! A very long time ago I told myself that, surely, by the time I was eligible for Medicare the United States would have fixed our healthcare system so that job lock and other assorted problems would have vanished. Silly me. I have been eligible for Medicare […]
Read more...The shifting power architecture of the Middle East explored through two new axes: religious politics and regard for territorial integrity
Read more...Democrats react to the ICE-engendered crisis in Minnesota with their usual aplomb, savoir-faire, organization, coherence, and discipline. Just kidding.
Read more...Nuclear proliferation is no longer driven primarily by rogue ambition or regional instability. It is increasingly a rational response to a global order in which legal restraints on force are eroding and security guarantees appear contingent and unreliable. As military power displaces law as the ultimate arbiter of security, nuclear weapons reassert themselves as the only credible deterrent against coercion—pulling multiple threshold states toward rapid proliferation and dangerous alliance entanglements.
Read more...With the killing of Renee Good, Minneapolis has become the frontline of POTUS Trump’s ICE incitement and the reasons why go back decades and across the globe to Somalia.
Read more...Part the First: We Live in Pluto’s Republic. With apologies to the shade of Walt Disney, this was bound to happen eventually. From Corey Robin, who notes that at Texas A&M a philosophy professor must dispense with Plato in his course because the content will be in violation of this edict: “No system academic course […]
Read more...The analysis of the U.S. abduction of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro offers three theories: an elite military raid, imperial aggression, or an internal coup
Read more...Microsoft and OpenAI’s partnership ignited the AI boom but frayed under pressure in 2025 revealing some of the hidden agendas of both companies.
Read more...Over the past two decades, use of U.S. military force has shifted from an exceptional act governed by law and public accountability to a flexible, discretionary instrument of policy. This article examines how post-9/11 legal authorities, institutional convergence, and secrecy have eroded the boundaries between war, intelligence, and governance—producing a system of permanent, unbounded conflict.
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