As Helmer said by e-mail, “The Trump formula is retreat=negotiations plus covert operations.”
Friday, November 21, 2025
Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Trump’s Falklands Temptation
In 1982, the Falklands War rescued Margaret Thatcher from political collapse and turned her into a wartime icon. But the deeper lesson of that conflict is more dangerous: diversionary war is appealing to failing leaders, whether democratic or authoritarian. Donald Trump’s long-standing fascination with invading Venezuela, documented in his first term and now echoed by renewed U.S. deployments, a favored opposition proxy, and drug-war legal framing, fits the same dual pattern that produced the Falklands: a desperate leader seeking escape through external confrontation, and the hope of political resurrection through a short, decisive victory. The Falklands Effect turned crisis into triumph for Thatcher, but a Venezuelan conflict today could result in disaster for Trump. The danger is serious, but the power of Trump’s temptation is quietly growing.
Public Money, Private Innovation: How Government Funding Built – and Sustains – America’s Technological Leadership
More evidence that publicly funded research is disproportionately productive and hence critical to innovation.
Rob Urie: American Decline in Three Parts
Rob Urie looks at a trifecta of failure: a looming Ukraine loss in Ukraine, desperation among workers, and the unfixable problems with generative AI
Is the US Trying to Set in Motion a Colour Revolution in Mexico?
For the moment there is no smoking gun. But the US is clearly, wilfully destabilising the country. And this effort predates Trump 2.0.
Godzilla v. Mothra: How Google Is Winning Struggle Among AI Giants to Control News Flow
How a few platforms control how news travels, shaping what we see, starving journalism, and locking new AI rivals out of data voters need.
Coffee Break: TACO MIGA Breaks With MAGA Over the Epstein Files
A look at Trump’s attempts to kick 2 MAGA stalwarts out of Congress and the what the New York Times is leaving out of its Epstein coverage.
As ICE Street Raids Ramp Up, New Yorkers Stock Up On Whistles
Community groups and ICE protestors have distributed thousands of whistles in recent weeks to help neighbors sound the alarm.
Yet More AI Bubble Worries, Now on Debt Side, with Wall Street Journal Featuring AI Datacenter Borrowing “Frenzy”
Peeling back another layer of the AI onion, today on datacenter financing.
“NatSec Democrats” Go to Governors Offices in Preparation for 2028 POTUS Runs
Spanberger in Virginia and Sherrill in New Jersey are part of the party’s spook network pushing the ratchet wheel ever rightward.
Social Reuse of Seized Assets
The Taxcast goes to West Yorkshire in the North of England to see social reuse of seized assets in action.
The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: Whisky (2004) Run Time: 1H 38M
Whisky is a movie about life, love, and socks set in Uruguay.
