Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Venezuela has been on a political and economic descent into the heart of darkness for years. I have bemoaned this unfolding tragedy in many commentaries, including most recently in “Venezuela’s Death Spiral of Recession, Protest, and Repression,” April 24, 2017. But it speaks volumes that so much is being made of Sunday’s pyrrhic reprieve –… Read more.
Western countries have been sanctioning Russia for years. Their aim has been to punish it for everything from launching military incursions into neighboring countries (e.g., Georgia and Ukraine/Crimea) to assassinating political dissidents (e.g., Boris Nemtsov and Alexander Litvinenko). Unfortunately, sanctions have done little to curtail Russia’s rogue behavior. Nothing attests to this quite like: The… Read more.
Partisan critics routinely cite Obama’s decision to announce a date certain for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan as evidence of his military incompetence and political naiveté. More to the point, they invariably juxtapose this disregard for Obama with reverential regard for Russian President Vladimir Putin – as if the former is to the latter as… Read more.
The title of this post says it all. What’s more, I’ve denounced this European appeasement in numerous commentaries. But I summarized my denunciation and presaged what this appeasement portends in “Checkmated on Crimea, Obama Plays for Rest of Ukraine” on March 7, 2014. Europeans appeasing Putin Now comes another case of European appeasement. Germany is refusing to join… Read more.
Mikhail Prokhorov became the Russian oligarch Americans could love when he bought the Brooklyn Nets in 2010. He endeared himself further by hiring (Black) Avery Johnson as head coach; and even bought a little street cred by allowing Jay Z to front as co-owner. What’s more, political pundits began hailing him as a pro-democracy dissident… Read more.
