Normally, when one develops all the symptoms of a disease, the response ought not to be exacerbating the disease, but seeking to cure it. Approaches to healthcare in the United States have gone off the rails, of course, but think about the disease of military spending.

What are some of the symptoms we’ve suffered recently? Wars, bombings, threats of wars, kidnappings of foreign presidents, arming of distant genocides, attempts to take over or control various countries, hatred, resentment, terrorism, read more

Secession first he would put down
Wholly and forever,
And afterwards from Britain’s crown
He Canada would sever.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy.
Mind the music and the step
and with the girls be handy!

Grab em by the CN Tower! The U.S. and Canada may be preparing for war with each other, even while selling each other weapons, jointly building insane “Golden Dome” schemes, and so on. It’s all a big joke, of course. And it’s very Trumpian and off script. But that doesn’t read more

The U.S. government has the world’s most expensive military waging wars around the world. It also now has a military aimed at the United States itself. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has a budget larger than any military in the world except 12. It has military weaponry and vehicles. It has military training from the U.S. and Israeli militaries. It has veterans of foreign U.S. wars in its ranks. The man who murdered Renée Good had learned to kill people in Iraq, for which he was almost read more

Peering out from the United States, it’s hard to see much of China. One learns general facts and gathers views from a small number of people. But I can’t make a lot of sense out of this 4% of humanity over here (or myself for that matter), and don’t have much hope at all for deeply understanding that 17% of humanity over there. It seems worth some effort, however, to build better relationships and understanding, since the U.S. government is overwhelmingly obsessed with competing with China, read more

Trump’s approach to Greenland has something in common with his (Cutting-)Board of Peace approach to Palestine: not even the slightest pretense of involving the people impacted. The residents of Kalaallit Nunaat were never asked about the existing permissions for the U.S. military to build bases in their land and are not being asked now about a “deal” made between Trump and, not even Denmark but, Trump’s servant, the Secretary General of NATO.

“Oh, what a relief to have a deal,” shout read more

I discussed Iran and global madness in this interview with Mark Dunlea.

Dear European governments, look at the map of U.S. military bases above and tell us again about your self-respect, about how you’re going to fight Trump in Greenland (where he also has a military base), about all the military violence metaphors in your newspapers’ columns about trade policies, but understand that we know about the thing you’ve never mentioned: the empire of bases. You don’t even issue self-respecting threats to evict foreign bases like the president of Honduras has done.

Pieces read more