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A descent into darkness by our special operations forces
Summary: Only slowly have Americans begun to see the dark thing done in our name during our post-9/11 wars. For years we tightly closed our eyes. We told ourselves that only terrorists were killed, or...
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Prepare for cyberwar: today’s are small compared to what’s coming
Summary: Here’s a brief look at the state of cyber-conflicts. The first ones have run their course; from them we can guess at the outlines of the larger ones to come. As with nukes and drones, America...
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Reforms are coming to America’s police, either with them or over them. Which?
Summary: For decades people have written about our unjust criminal justice system, dysfunctional in many ways from the arbitrary and unsupervised power of district attorneies down to our 3rd world-like...
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About the imminent spike in global warming
Summary: Our dysfunctional politics result largely from polarized views of Americans, both sides shaped by skillful and expensive propaganda. To break free we’ll need to learn their methods and develop...
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Put the latest stats in larger context to understand the economy
Summary: Amidst the bursts of enthusiasm about the economy by bulls (boom!) and bears (recession!), the reality continues to be slow growth, and slowly falling forecasts for the future. Only slowly do...
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What happened to NASA’s missing weather satellites & their vital data about...
Summary: The world has a new and serious mystery, right up there with “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” and “The President’s plane is missing!” What happened to NASA’s satellites that measure...
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The Barons of England warn us not to throw away what they gained in Magna Carta
Summary: 800 years ago on a field at Runnymede the Barons of England took a large step for humanity. The consequences of their actions still echo today. Now we’re losing what they won for us. On this...
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Are we at war with ISIS? Does it make a difference what you call it?
Summary: Today Chet Richards (Colonel, USAF, retired) looks at our conflict with the Islamic State. What kind of conflict is this? What is the nature of our foe? Victory becomes a matter of luck...
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When you look back on this day & remember the bubble…
Summary: We’re in a time of great events. Like all such, it consists of breaks with the past combined with periods of deceptive calm. This is a transition between the post-WWII era and the as yet...
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Dueling remarks about the Pope & the climate from Rush & Jeb! We can learn...
Summary: Two voices on the Right illustrate vital aspects of our largely dysfunctional political system, bad news and good news about the climate wars (and the Pope). We can learn from the former and...
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How would Sun Tzu defend computer systems? Poorly. A new era needs new thinking.
Summary: The theft of the Federal government’s personnel data has brought information security back to the front pages. Along with the usual cries of “off with their heads” for the guilty and promises...
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Jeb Bush speaks to us about climate change. Is he a denier?
Summary: American political campaigns are the longest and most expensive in the world, but consist largely of both sides kicking sand into our eyes. The result leaves us less informed and more...
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Do global climate models accurately predict climate change?
Summary: Climate models are important for several reasons. Large flows of tax dollars go to their construction and operation. Their predictions dominate the public policy debate about climate change...
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Thomas Kuhn & Twitter tell us what we need to know about climate science
Summary: The history of science provides a vital perspective for anyone watching our time’s high stakes climate science debate. Look at Twitter and you will see the theories of the great Thomas Kuhn at...
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Madness walks the streets of America. We can defeat it.
Summary: The front pages of major American newspaper these days read like the community newsletter for a high-class asylum, written by and for educated but mentally dysfunctional people. Those of the...
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History debunks the magic of gold-backed money
Summary: We’ll hear much from Republicans during Campaign 2016 about the glories of a gold-backed currency. Today’s post debunks that with history from 19th Century Britain, when both men and money...
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We emailed Congress but lost on the TPP (again). Let’s try something different.
Summary: Each year we send 200+ million letters to Congress. What does Congress do with them? What’s the result? Is there a better way to help guide the Republic? Repeated failures show the answers,...
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Finding truth amidst the lies about Russia & the Ukrainian civil war
Summary: Today we look at off-road sources of information about the world (especially wars), used by those who seek more than the polished narrow narratives of the western news media. What do we seek?...
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Kingsman: a mirror too disturbing for critics
Summary: Today’s Sunday film review looks at Kingsman, a provocative mirror of today’s Anglo-American zeitgeist (and as such hated by critics as too disturbing). It’s worth a look. “We are past the...
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What can we learn from Greece’s crisis?
Summary: Now the final act has probably begun in the long divorce of Greece from the European Monetary Union. Ignore the predictions. They’re just wild guesses. Rather let’s take this moment to...
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