Is Trump Scared?
I get this question all the time. The answer is: of course. He has been running scared all his life. It started with his sense that he was a disappointment to his father and continues until the present...
View ArticleWhen Trump Visibly Crashes
As the 2020 U.S. elections begin to be the major front-page concern of the media, there is increasing speculation about what will be the form it takes. Could Trump really be impeached? Will the...
View ArticleThe Desperate mr. trump, or Trump says he matters
Donald Trump is using all his rhetorical skills to keep everyone’s eyes focused on him and on him alone. He is trying so hard precisely because it is increasingly evident to most politicians and...
View ArticleWithdrawing troops: The Impossible choices
It was I believe Colin Powell who said that sending in troops in a dispute was easy, but extracting them almost impossible. The present situation in the Middle East illustrates this axiom perfectly....
View ArticleThe Big Five: Clinging to power
When the United Nations proclaimed its Charter in 1945, it included therein a special privilege for five member states – the power of the veto in its Security Council. Why these five states? There was...
View ArticleHow to Fight a Class Struggle
Class struggles are eternal, but how they are fought depends on the ongoing state of the world-system in which they are located. World-systems have three temporalities. They come into existence and...
View ArticleCan Unacceptable Compromises Prevail?
Every compromise has losers. Every compromise has dissenters. Every compromise includes a betrayal. Yet no political struggle can end without a compromise. Compromises do not last forever and often...
View ArticleUnacceptable compromises: A clarification
Two of my regular readers sent me indications that I was not clear in my explanation of what I was talking about when I spoke of unacceptable compromises. I shall attempt to answer their queries and...
View ArticleWho is Winning? It All Depends When
For a worldwide struggle to capture the surplus-value there is always a choice. One can give priority to short-term gains. Or one can give priority to middle-turn gains. One cannot do both. Whoever...
View ArticleOntological Dilemmas
Epistemology, especially statistics, is the study of how we measure things and how we know if our measurements are correct. Ontology is the study of whether the things we are measuring actually do...
View ArticleThe Fire of Notre Dame Cathedral: How Tragic?
On April 15, 2019, a fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame was a tragedy for people all across the world, and particularly those in France. Everyone who ever saw it usually loved it. So this was a...
View ArticleDecisive moment! Decisive moment?
We all want to know what the future portends for us about anything important. We all tend to believe the future will be what the present is. If the polls show we shall make a certain decision, deciding...
View ArticleAgain and Again!
Two leading actors in the modern world systems – Donald Trump and Theresa May of England – sound like broken records. They say the same thing each time they talk, knowing full well that their case is...
View ArticleEurope’s telephone and the politics of non-real change
U.S. superdiplomat Henry Kissinger is famously said to have asked, “Who do I call if I call Europe?” The question is repeatedly cited as a clever way to suggest pessimism about Europe as a reality. The...
View ArticleThis is the end; this is the beginning
My first commentary appeared on October 1, 1998. It was published by the Fernand Braudel Center (FBC) at Binghamton University. I have produced commentaries on the first and the fifteenth of every...
View ArticleHow to Fight a Class Struggle
Class struggles are eternal, but how they are fought depends on the ongoing state of the world-system in which they are located. World-systems have three temporalities. They come into existence and...
View ArticleCan Unacceptable Compromises Prevail?
Every compromise has losers. Every compromise has dissenters. Every compromise includes a betrayal. Yet no political struggle can end without a compromise. Compromises do not last forever and often...
View ArticleUnacceptable compromises: A clarification
Two of my regular readers sent me indications that I was not clear in my explanation of what I was talking about when I spoke of unacceptable compromises. I shall attempt to answer their queries and...
View ArticleWho is Winning? It All Depends When
For a worldwide struggle to capture the surplus-value there is always a choice. One can give priority to short-term gains. Or one can give priority to middle-turn gains. One cannot do both. Whoever...
View ArticleOntological Dilemmas
Epistemology, especially statistics, is the study of how we measure things and how we know if our measurements are correct. Ontology is the study of whether the things we are measuring actually do...
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