Israel has told the US that it killed a senior member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was gunned down in Tehran on Sunday, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed intelligence official.
I am grateful for my suffering. I truly am. These are not words I utter in some halfhearted, feeble effort to brighten my mood or motivate my day. Fortunately for me, I am not battling depression. It’s been a challenging few years; Entrepreneurship. Battling Cancer. Cash flow. Covid. Battling Socialized Healthcare. Infected Stingray Stings. The list goes on. When one problem is mitigated, more will arise. Count on that. There existed a list of excruciating pain points preceding those mentioned above. Some I thought I might not survive. Even with all the mountains to climb there’s one...
The European Union is close to reaching an agreement on banning the import of Russian oil. Some Eastern-European member states, particularly Hungary, are trying to obtain exemptions or delays on the implementation of the ban. All in all, however, it seems likely that many if not all EU members will soon agree to ban Russian crude oil completely within the next six months, while refined oil would be phased out by the end of 2022. The ban is only the latest EU disciplinary economic measure which the bloc has levelled against Russia. On February 24, the starting day of the Russian invasion...
https://youtu.be/DPEP1TGyqqQ The cumulative acceleration of knowledge by specialists that allows us each to consume more and more different things by each producing fewer and fewer, is I submit, the central story of humanity. - Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 46 Matt Ridley's books have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. His books include The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, Genome, Nature via Nurture, Francis Crick, The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything, and How Innovation Works. He writes a weekly column in The...
Download Episode. Scott interviews Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor about the war in Ukraine. Scott recently interviewed William Arkin who believes the Russians are actually losing this war. Macgregor has a very different take, and Scott gives him the opportunity to address Arkin’s argument. Macgregor shares his view of how the war has unfolded so far and how he expects it to evolve. He believes the Russians will pivot and attempt to occupy Eastern and Southern Ukraine. He thinks a battle for Odessa is looming and that the Russians will succeed in this endeavor. Scott then asks about...
One of the stranger narratives coming out of the controversy over Disney's "special district" in Florida is the notion that Disney's Florida property is some sort of truly independent self-governing entity operating without government oversight. Most claims in this regard wildly overestimate the degree to which Disney enjoys self-governance. Some also claim that Disney's Florida special district represents some sort of model for a truly "private city" in the model of a sovereign city-state. Or as one Twitter commenter put it, "Unironically, Walt Disney style private city-states is my...
Just last week, I finally got around with starting to read Crime and Punishment, Fyodr Dostoevsky’s famous novel about a Saint-Peterburg student’s murder of an old lady pawnbroker. The murderer and book’s main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, got the idea from a fellow student whom he overheard saying at a local eating establishment: “On the one hand, you have a nasty, stupid, worthless, meaningless, sick old woman who’s no use to anyone. […] On the other hand, you have young fresh energies that are going to waste for want of backing. […] If one were to kill her and take her money, in order...
Download Episode. Scott interviews Mitchel Plitnick about Israeli politics and the Iran Nuclear Deal. Plitnick begins by filling us in on the political situation in Israel, where a new coalition government is working to agree upon a budget by the Fall of 2023. If they are unable to do so, the government will fall apart and new elections will take place. Next, they discuss the news about Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch labeling Israel an apartheid state due to their treatment of Palestinians. Plitnick and Scott give their theories for the abrupt change in tone. They then...
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has announced that his country will further develop its nuclear capabilities, vowing to build up its arsenal following a flurry of weapons tests in recent months.
On COI #259, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman cover the NATO hawks’ desire for a protracted war in Ukraine, the American people’s support for war with Russia, and the latest news on the Iran deal talks. Kyle discusses new revelations in the Washington Post that some NATO member states’ governments actually prefer to see Ukrainians “fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early.” There is further indication that the U.S. led, Western sanctions imposed on Russia will not be lifted even in the event of future diplomatic breakthroughs with Kiev and Moscow or if there is a...
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