There's a time when many men think their father (figure) is a sage. Usually happens in middle age when they start facing similar personal and career issues. Then their father goes over the hill: fast becoming out of touch and possibly senile. Sometimes that decline is only apparent in hindsight.

Nothing soothes the body and mind in a crisp, cool way than a sunset over the English countryside near George Barnard Shaw's home in Hertfordshire.

Reading old "On Guard" magazines for a research project, and just came across this article about a gent who served in WW2 and the Gulf War. Epic!

I deleted the original post because I was apprised of the date. Many thanks to @delexical.bsky.social and my apologies.

American plans for Venezuela are collapsing because nobody wants to negotiate with the real power brokers, the Venezuelan army. So, a regime transition is now delayed and mutual trust with the democratic leader Corina Machado is being frittered away. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Populists in Latin America near always turn to authoritarianism as their hold on power is threatened. This can be through attempted coups, electoral losses, or economic downturns. When institutions stand firm, they can fail. But they could have also destroyed the institutions when they were popular.

Bill Clinton in a nationally televised political spectacle being attacked by a bunch of fierce opponents baying for his blood? Y'all have no idea who that man is.

While British conservatives flog Shakespeare, Byron, and Shelley across the world to make perspiring children in Calcutta by heart Wordsworth stanzas about daffodils, American pretenders only think of the color of the orator's skin. As if Hemingway, Faulkner, Twain and Melville are not universal.

Where was Charles Murray's indignation when Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Cleopatra or Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago? Art is über alles!

Pace Faulkner, to understand American politics today, you must first understand the politics of a state like Mississippi.

Knowing how perfidious Albion does foreign policy, they are probably handing over an island base because the rise in sea levels due to climate change will make it impossible to maintain and operate from the place anyway. All the while claiming generosity, fair play, and generating good will. lol

We are about to find out this in real time in the Epstein case. Commentators will pick their favorite punching bag, but pay to play spying is way more common--and has been forever--than we think.

Credit card companies will lend less with a 10 percent ceiling on interest rates. Also, does this cieling apply to the pay day lenders? Removing ATM and overdraft fees (for less than a certain amount) are easy and less harmful ways to help the working poor, but we only do Mad Max stuff.

To what degree will Russian dependency on China continue after the Russo-Ukrainian War?

Throwing money at defense industries will not work. We need an overhaul of the entire system from manufacturing to acquisitions processes and supply chains that cover issues like skilled labor, machine tools manufacturing, access to steel and rare earths, and refocusing from capability to capacity.

Woody Allen has a daughter with his adopted daughter? He took Epstein's help to get her admitted to a college? So, Epstein helped Allen's daughter and granddaughter.

TIL there were Nazi Germany weapons used during the Vietnam War by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, including various light and heavy machine guns and the towed artillery Pak 40. These were captured by the Soviets and handed to North Vietnam.

Delcy Rodríguez and her cronies aren’t going to surrender easily. They plan to adapt and undermine any attempt to restore Venezuela’s democracy. This is their strategy.

Today's male popstars have short careers because they lack the charisma, vocal ability, and frankly pizazz like Tony Ferrino.

"In many Washington and Pentagon circles, 'resilience' has become a comforting abstraction. Slap some 'resilience' initiatives on a PowerPoint or tout it in a speech, and the resilience fairies will solve it."

13 sorties of PLA aircraft and 6 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 11 out of 13 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s northern and southwestern ADIZ.

This is bad news for U.S.-South Africa relations. FYI: @cthomasjamh.bsky.social www.justice.gov/opa/pr/unite...

AFRICOM looks at INDOPACOM www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Happy to announce a non-resident fellowship at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) America in Washington, DC. Headquartered in New Delhi, ORF is India's premier non-governmental think tank. orfamerica.org/vasabjit-ban...

My hometown went from a world class hub of business and culture to a provincial backwater in around 30 years. The decline was caused by the provincial elites' economic and political mistakes, the opposition's utopian radicalism and national policy. Decline has many fathers and arrives imperceptibly.

I like BlueSky because someone will say "why should you have more say than the rest of us when it comes to American politics" and then four skeets later that person admits they are from Brazil.

www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/t... Okay, since I think I am about to be furloughed for a little while again, I think I can nail down some of this work, @vasabjit.bsky.social. It's been becoming too prominent for us to not be getting this out there!

In the future, public buildings in Washington, DC will highlight true working class asthetic to signal the American Renaissance of reindustrialization purified of effete intellectualism and bourgeois cosmopolitanism.

New picture of DC dropped.

Many a persons life is about to demolished because of the Epstein papers. We want to know the rich and famous. But there are others whose identities are traceable; including a number of victims. I am watching people track down a couple of the latter in Mississippi. It's just tragic beyond words.

The objective fact is that the CBP and ICE can be considered a nation-wide armed force, akin to carbinieri, federales and national police. An armed force doesn't need to operate tanks, jets, and ships to be in the military. However, many paramilitary forces do that too. This isn't a partisan point.

I kinda missed that this was in the making, and it’s of course annoying that the US now bans all drones *made outside the US*, rather than working to create a western market (who’s surprised though…) but still: I think we need something similar in Europe.

😄

A friend shared with me this AI-generated map of the administrative divisions of Spanish America during the Hapsburg Period.

Y'all do know that a private entrepreneur can run multiple honey trap operations for multiple countries as long as they get him money and favors, right? It's not some special insight of mine. It's basic common sense.

When the view from the window looks like the first three photos, the soul needs the last one.

This is an important thing and valid point. Explosions in Iran in no way should automatically mean the U.S. is bombing it. I didn't imply or say that. To find out, we need to confirm: a. If there were explosions across cities; b. Who did they target. Then of course wait for claims and denials.

The Independent seems to use gas explosion while quoting Iranian sources. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...

I’d wait. I’ve only seen an apartment in Bandar Abas as something that actually happened

Attributed to Tehran Times, but Israel has also issued a denial for the attacks (not this article). Thus, indicating that there were multiple attacks. www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

Not an Iran expert myself, so I wouldn't know where to verify. I am passing on what information I have. If incorrect, pardon me.

There was old footage being posted. An apartment blew up in Bandar Abas, but that was it and it was a gas leak or something

Multiple explosions across different Iranian cities, e.g., Tehran, Tabriz, and possibly Bandar Abbas, are being reported.

If you don't want your skin to atrophy and look like a prune, I suggest a morning moisturizing routine.