Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Requiem for Nuclear Arms Control

The collapse of nuclear arms control is not returning the world to Cold War stability, but pushing it into a more complex and less governable nuclear order. As treaties lapse, latent up-arming capacity, compressed decision times, and multi-actor deterrence dynamics combine to raise systemic risk. This article examines how the erosion of formal limits—rather than malign intent—has made nuclear escalation easier, more opaque, and more dangerous, and why the United States bears central responsibility for dismantling the institutional architecture that once constrained catastrophe.

Iran Regime Change Tout Spews NSFW, Misogynistic Abuse When Asked Merely to Stop Spamming

A backer of Iran regime change efforts asked to have his ugly, misogynistic exchange with me published, and I am complying with his wishes.

Links 2/17/2026

Trump To Host “Six Stooges” Presidential Summit in Miami to Try to Push China Out of Latin America

All six Latin American leaders share an ideological affinity with Trump, and are the closest thing his government has to strategic partners/vassals in the region.

Why Does Economics Refuse to Acknowledge John Ruskin’s Illith, as in Harmful Activity?

Why the economics discipline has ignored John Ruskin’s seminal concept of illith, as in destructive activity.

Urban Slums: Stepping-Stone for Some and Traps (or Shields) for Others

A study in Brazil found that urban slums can offer upward mobility due to access to public education. But how true is that around the world?

Coffee Break: Rubio and AOC Audition for 2028 in Munich

American 2028 presidential hopefuls, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, treated the Munich Security Conference like an audition.

As Alberta Separatists Court the U.S., Prosperity Is Fuelling a Sovereigntist Turn

Dreams of oil‑funded prosperity In Alberta clash with Canada’s Constitution and the realities of a warming world.

Links 2/16/2026

War With Iran to Accelerate Trump’s Golden March to Ruin

The decision to go to war with Iran appears to have been made, and how that will sink Trump’s already failing rule and risk nuclear war.

Will Russia and Iran Be Forced to ‘Restore Order’ in the Caucasus? 

Moscow and Tehran hold economic upper hand in the region, but current ruling groups in both Armenia and Azerbaijan are no longer responding to rational and mutual national interests. 

Ralph Linton (1936), Identity Politics, and the Concept of Ascribed Status

Ralph Linton, arguably the father of what we now call identity politics, had some impressive insights as well as blind spots.

Links 2/15/2026

The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: Defamation (2009) Run Time: 1H 31M Plus Bonus Jazz!

Defamation is a movie about the exploitation of anti-Semitism to keep Jews fearful and compliant.

Trump’s DHS Is Pushing the Boundaries of Probable Cause and Due Process to Fuel a Farm Labor Crisis

Agricultural employers are scrambling to find replacements and the administration is turning to guest workers.