Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Coffee Break: Someone Stupid Heads From South Carolina to DC

The South Carolina special election to replace the late, great Lindsey Graham was held last night and the stupid won in a big way, by that I mean his sister.

This American City Perfected Clean Water for Beer — Now It’s Fighting to Keep Cancer-Causing Nitrates Out of the Tap

Rural communities can treat water to reduce nitrates to safe levels. But what about well water polluted by runoff from fertilized fields?

Links 8/26/2026 Plus Iran War Note

Imperialist Realism and American Empire

“May you live in interesting times.”  So says the apocryphal Chinese proverb that may well have been more properly attributed to Austen and Neville Chamberlain’s father.  All of us here can be said to have lived in interesting times, if interesting means, among other things, unsettled and inscrutable, not to mention ugly and unstable.  But […]

Understanding Iranian Victory

Iranian strategic logic and why Tehran believes it has already won against the US.

Is Sikorski’s “European Legion” Proposal a Way for Poland to Deploy “Peacekeepers” to Ukraine?

A sketchy “European Legion” scheme which could deploy to Ukraine illustrates the huge gap between EU belligerent intent and ability to act.

Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Humanoid Soldiers and Vanishing Valor

Humanoid robots are approaching the physical capabilities required for infantry combat. Once machines become stronger, faster, more precise, more expendable, and easier to reproduce than human soldiers, military competition could make the human infantryman obsolete. But the deeper consequence may be cultural: what happens to warfare when armies no longer require courage, sacrifice, or heroes?

Gates and Rockefeller Foundations’ Green Revolution Failing Africa

How 20 years of Gates and Rockefeller Foundations’ green revolutions initiatives have yielded little in Africa and even done harm.

Links 8/25/2026

Robert Urie: There Is No Bond Market Panic. Who Benefits from Claiming That There Is One?

You have been had! The current bond market media panic is a con! But cui bono, aside from clickbait-y sites?

Iran War: Bessent’s “The Nigger Gets It” Iran Sanctions Strategy as His Ex-Boss Druckenmiller Trashes His New Treasury Scheme; Iran Hits US Escorted Tanker as Strait of Hormuz Transits Fall Further

Today’s Iran war news: Even more Trump Administration flailing about in the form of Bessent’s Operation Economic Outcast.

A Failed Murder-for-Hire Plot in Bolivia Exposes the Inner Workings of the US’s Donroe Doctrine

The rise and fall of “Maga’s Man” in Latin America. 

Coffee Break: Trump’s Policies Could Hurt GOP Senate Candidates in Maine and Texas

The crude venality of the Trump administration blew up trade talks with Canada and are triggering a backlash with rural Texans that could cost the GOP control of the US Senate.

How Riding the Subway as a Kid Changed the Way I See the World

An ode to the public transportation commute—for the way it forces a visceral reminder of our shared humanity.

Links 8/24/2026