President James Monroe must have turned in his grave at the Monroe doctrine, named after him, being desecrated by rank outside powers, China and Russia.
West will lose power but will leave mess before giving up
The story of how the Wachowskis’ philosophical-crossroads moment was co-opted by bad-faith actors and a political movement is a complex tale about semiotics, the internet, and modern pop culture.
The Twisted, Stolen Legacy of the ‘Matrix’ Red Pill (The Ringer)
New team in Washington surveys West Asia Trump leaves behind
At this moment of transition, what construct does one place on the outgoing Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s participation in the cloak-and-dagger meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu in the mega city of Neom being built on the Red Sea?
To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves.
How Social Media Took Us From Tahrir Square to Donald Trump (MIT Technology Review)
Withdrawing from Syria: Trump sets cats among flocks of pigeons
What Erdogan has been offered is a poisoned chalice. This is clear as daylight in Trump’s own words. The tone is of malicious glee: “Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out.”
Anti Semitism rises when populism lurches to the Right
I had barely registered that the sword of Damocles hung on the heads of over four million people, mostly Muslims, in Assam by a very Orwellian sounding National Register of Citizens, when a friend from New York drew my attention to similar happenings in Israel.
Needed a non-doctrinaire Left to carry Gauri Lankesh’s vision
Encouraged by the spontaneous outpouring of sympathy and resolve across the country after Gauri Lankesh’s murder, I began to ferret out my last year’s notebook. The thousands who came out in marches need a regular formation to lean against – a non-doctrinaire Left. Are such movements stirring globally? I fell back on my coverage of events, including elections in the US, Spain, France, the UK and the mayhem in virtually every West Asian country.
Western arms and Islamic terrorism: An endless spiral
I have always maintained that Americans, protected by the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, will continue to enhance their dependence on what Eisenhower called the military industrial complex.
Will Trump era provide respite to those with destroyed countries?
The procession of breast beating “liberals” doesn’t seem to end, not since Donald Trump eclipsed their most shining star – Hillary Clinton.