The Problems Facing the Next Democratic Administration

Should the Democrats retake power in 2029, they will be in a situation where the best courses of action will be deeply unpopular.

My Country is Melting

Trump's Iran war—our Iran war—, if it drags on, will throw East and South Asia into China's arms, and that's not a place they want to be. Even China may come to regret it, though I think right now they see it as an opportunity. Meantime, we have a recession coming. And this loss means that the jihadis of Iran will probably have a great deal of funding to pursue their madness.

My country is melting.

Trade in Our Time

I'm at the resource war. I'm at the trade war. I'm at the combination resource war trade war.—lumpyprol

If enough of these factions, all alike and all hating each other, come together the global economy will unravel. The networks of trade that make us a rich world, if not all of us rich people, will be dismantled and all nations will be the poorer for it.—Raven Onthill, July 2016

It seems that we now have trade in our time, but I think that time is short. The US-Iran-Israel ceasefire only kicks the can down the road. The Arab Gulf states resent paying tolls to Iran. Iran will continue to assert its authority in the future, possibly even undertake jihad. Other nations that sit astride trade routes will also assert their power. Oh, yes, and China and the US are now sqaubbling over control of the Panama Canal.

It seems likely that in the long run, global trade will be much reduced. Further shooting wars wars seem possible.

Starting Points: The Persian Gulf

I hope the book helps readers grasp the bigger picture of this extraordinary place. The Gulf is part of a global story that is more than 5000 years old, a story of Africans, South Asians, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Baluchis, Sufis, Nestorians, Mandaeans and Buddhists. Understanding the diversity of its people, and the long history of mutual interactions reveals that the conflict between Shia/Sunni, Iran and Arabia in the news today was not always the norm. Bridging the Gulf can help us build a bridge at the center of history.—Allen James Fromherz

Horrors of the 21st Century

• Renewable energy systems built on slavery.

The "Sustainable" Slave Economy

“Progress has different meanings for different people… what was progress for white people was enslavement and further degradation for African Americans.”—Prof. Margaret Washington, Cornell University

I am horrified at how many people are lauding the Chinese achievements in photovoltaic and electric vehicles without any commentary on the slave system they are built on. The sustainable energy transition is driving the expansion of the slave system in China, much as the invention of the cotton gin drove the expansion of the slave system in the antebellum United States, and if we don't act now, we are going to end up with a global economy built in part on slavery.