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The Brooklyn Luncheonette
Back in my Brooklyn NYC of the 50s and 60s we used to call the neighborhood luncheonette ‘The Candy Store’. In my Ave U neighborhood we had at least one such store every few short blocks. The one I will focus on was Moe’s Luncheonette on Ave U between East 24th St and Bedford Ave. […]
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When the World Yields to the Self: The Politics of Individualism in Stranger Things
The finale of Volume 1 in Season 5 of Stranger Things turns on a single charged image: Will, cornered by Vecna, suddenly awakening to powers that had supposedly lived inside him all along. A rush of home-movie memories flows through his mind, scenes of friendship, queer attachment, and family care, and almost instantly this inward […]
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US State Department Travel Warning on Venezuela: What Washington Fears Most
Following his earlier threat that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s days are numbered, US President Donald Trump announced on social media he was closing Venezuelan airspace. He then immodestly proclaimed the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, commending his nineteenth century predecessor for presciently envisioning “a superpower unlike anything the world had ever known.” On December […]
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War Crimes and Pete Hegseth’s Lust for Blood
Pete Hegseth, the soap opera styled US Secretary of Defense, sports a questionable sanity. His behaviour before generals is the stuff of low comedy. His mania about sending narco-traffickers making passage on the sea from Venezuela to a watery grave has a millenarian zeal. But psychological coarseness and imperfection have not prevented questions being asked […]
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Australia: A US Vassal State in a Peripheral Sphere of Influence
For reasons set out briefly below, let’s suppose that Australia is a US vassal state and that the Pacific — what Australia likes to call its ‘backyard’ — is a peripheral sphere of US influence. Under these circumstances, this essay considers what for Australia should be some of the more worrisome implications for its security […]
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How to Read the New National Security Strategy Document
The New US National Security Strategy (NSS) has been released. This is a critically important document prepared by every administration that sets out the United States’ national security priorities, along with a formulation of the strategy & policies it proposes to address these concerns. As would be expected with such a high stakes document, there are already many interpretations […]



