Sol W. Sanders Settling in with a drink and interesting talk a few years ago — it would be the last session we had, unhappily — with Ed Seidenstecker, the best of the WWII American Japan scholars, the conversation took a serious turn. As we dissolved in that witlessness that overtakes one in Hawaii, […]
Sol W. Sanders Whatever develops out of the bloody, chaotic mess Syria has become, it is unlikely that the short-term outcome will be good or the long-term prospects much brighter. One has only to recall the dozens of post-World War II coups that preceded the arrival of the Assad/Alawite/Baathist dictatorship in 1970, a dictatorship […]
Sol W. Sanders Lost in the political fracas in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, but emeshed in the still expanding bureaucratic jungle — and cost — of Obamacare is a fundamental issue: it is another failed attempt at “a comprehensive solution” to complex problems. It‘s not a new phenomenon. Since the French […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] If we can get your attention off Dred Scott II — the Supreme Court decision on health care costs with its byzantine political implications — something perhaps as fundamental for the U.S. and world economies is happening: a second fossil fuel revolution. The Saudis are pumping oil like mad. […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] “A policy of strategic ambiguity” is a striped-pants way of saying “keep your opponent guessing”. It can also be a Foggy Bottom euphemism for lack of policy or not knowing what to do in a difficult situation. It has the advantage of keeping your opponent off balance, never quite […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] An epidemic of blabberitis has broken out in Washington. Had one more faith in the sophistication of the present governing elite, “black propaganda” might be suspected — that is, deliberate disinformation designed to befuddle the enemy. After all, as James Jesus Angleton, old fox of a generation of professional […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] Resembling a huge 74-wheeler packed with unassembled goodies, the U.S. is stranded on the world economy grade-crossing with the Euro express gathering speed as it tears down the Trans-Atlantic financial tracks for a seemingly inevitable collision. A police report written by patronizing Harvard economists some time in the dim […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] Despite the fact that Europe is in the Northern Hemisphere, the downward swirl of the euro this month took a reverse direction and started going left — counterclockwise. Maybe it is the first part of the Mayan prediction that gravity will fail later this year and we will all […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive] As more detail seeps around The Great Firewall Beijing masters once thought would suppress all dissident China blogging — and contradictory explanations emanate from Party sources — the case of Bo Xilai and his wife becomes all too familiar. For those who have tried to follow happenings over the […]
Sol W. Sanders [See Archive Technology is politically and ideologically neutral. It would be comforting to believe increasing levels of technology alone could solve social and political problems and make the world a better place. But history has proved that false, alas! again and again. When German scientists with their traditional leadership in chemistry invented […]
