Can Russia afford the war in Ukraine? Short answer: Yes, it can afford the war — but cannot afford peace at the same time. Putin cannot prop up both the military and civilian economies together. The cost to Russia of the support for the military can be understood if we…

Vladimir Putin’s desperate ploys to shift public attention away from domestic troubles in Russia have a common pattern: use invasions and violence to divert the people. Control is easier when they are looking away. Putin’s Russia emerged during the popular protests in 1991 that led to the fall of the…

What does it say about your isolation when the only ally who will stand by you to condemn the gift of new tanks to your enemy is the sister of the ruler of an insignificant country in Asia? When Kim Yo Jung, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong…

Drones attacked an ammunition factory in the Iranian city of Isfahan yesterday, setting fire to part of the structure. …

People are good at bad. And they are bad at good. February 2nd is World Optimist Day. And contrary to the human tendency to focus on bad news (good at seeing bad) there is actually more good news out there than bad (people are bad at seeing good). That simple…

One man is responsible for this war, and one man only. He needs to be removed or the war will not end. But he knows that if he IS removed, he will die. There are no other options than his removal. A peace treaty that left Putin alive and in…

Today, nearly half of Republicans think the United States is doing too much in support of Ukraine. The Biden administration announced a new $2.85 …

Surprisingly soon, a realization will start to make its furtive rounds in the hushed halls of the Kremlin: ‘our invasion of Ukraine has turned into a blindingly obvious failure…we need to end the war’. What will trigger that moment? If we had a freeze-frame of the dynamic elements that crystallized…

The Republicans have proposed that all income, capital gains, estate, gift, corporate, and payroll taxes should be eliminated. They would be replaced by a flat 30 percent national sales tax on everything you buy. Millionaires would no longer have to pay income tax. They would escape taxes on their gains…