Saturday, August 16, 2025

Coffee Break: Posse Comitatus and Trump’s Post-Constitutional Order

Trump and the GOP’s extra-Constitutional acts in Washington, D.C., California, and Texas raise questions about the Posse Comatitus Act.

Iran and Russia Vow to Block U.S. Caucasus Ambitions

How the much-bruited Trump Caucasus deal, meant to cause trouble for Iran and Russia, is only a napkin doodle and may never be more than that

Links 8/13/2025

Science Fiction Science and Artificial Intelligence in Our Future

The 7 August 2025 issue of Nature included an interesting article on The Science Fiction Science Method (paywall) by Iyad Rahwan, Azim Shariff, and Jean-François Bonnefon.  The scientific method is difficult enough to understand these days, especially regarding previously important but mundane scientific advances such as vaccines.  The Science Fiction Science (SFS) Method is likely […]

Putin-Trump Summit: Press and Collective West Political Hysteria Escalates as Russia Makes Large, Significant Advance Near Pokrovsk

Trump beats a big retreat in what he expects from the Putin summit even as Russia scores a major battlefield breakthrough.

“Could 2008 Happen Again?”

Private debt levels, particularly for real estate, look evocative of the 2008 crisis. But how is a rerun likely to differ?

Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – The Trouble with ALIS

The F-35 fighter jet is the most expensive weapons program in U.S. history, but one of its biggest failures isn’t in the air — it’s on the ground. The Pentagon’s Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), conceived as an ambitious plan to revolutionize fighter jet maintenance and logistics, collapsed under the weight of bad design, poor […]

‘Israel Has Succeeded in Killing Me’: Journalist Anas Jamal Al-Sharif’s Last Words

An Israeli air strike killed Palestinian journalist Anas Jamal Al-Sharif and four Al Jazeera colleagues.

Links 8/12/2025

On the United States’ “Imminent” Military Intervention Against Mexico

The Trump administration’s latest escalatory threat comes just days after Rolling Stone reported on a secret drug trafficking cartel operating out of Fort Bragg. 

What Is Happening to the Dollar as a Safe Haven?

Why the speed of the dollar’s demise seems to be a tad over-anticipated.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams in Cahoots With ICE? Sudden Surge in Courthouse Arrests With Failure to Act on Illegal Detentions

Hyper agressive ICE shifts tactics in New York City by arresting targets at court appearances. A sop to Mayor Adams? To NYC oligarchs?

Coffee Break: Larry Ellison + Oracle + AI + Paramount + Trump = Total Info Control

Oracle billionaire CEO Larry Ellison is aggressively moving into media and military contracting to consolidate his power in the Trump 2.0 era.

Plunge in Conscientiousness Among Young, a Critical Quality for Personal and Societal Success

Technology is precipitating shifts in character, particularly a drop in conscientiousness, to our individual and collective disadvantage.

Links 8/11/2025