Ben Tanosborn It seems such an improbability, impossibility at times, that such a diverse population in ethnicities, races, religions and ideologies be politically housed in two tents.  But this United States of America for all its diversity, and at times forced accommodation, did manage early on in its history to develop an economic critical center […]

Ben Tanosborn It was expected to happen and, true to course, it did.  On Tuesday, April 26, presidential primaries in five northeastern states hermetically, and silently, sealed the fate of/in how the US will be dealing with the rest of the world on all issues, geopolitical or economic, for another four, perhaps eight years.  Fear […]

Ben Tanosborn Last week I read Daniel Weeks’ article, “Poverty vs. Democracy in America,” which appears in The Atlantic’s January 2014 issue.  As much as I respect Weeks’ advocacy for trying to clean American politics with the clear baptismal waters of democracy, and the many valid points he brings forth in this article, I feel […]

Ben Tanosborn We simply don’t get it; better yet, we simply don’t want to get it!  For all our proud puffing of an academic structure in economics second to none, coupled with business expertise we continuously claim to be the envy of the world, we’ll soon be proving ourselves as nothing but an inflated yokel […]

Ben Tanosborn Tomorrow I’ll be watching from my residential perch in Fort Vancouver – the cradle of a Europeanized Pacific Northwest – one of the nation’s top fireworks displays celebrating yet another Fourth of July.  Today, as the enclave prepares for the welcoming of tens of thousands of celebrants, I ponder the meaning of freedom… […]

Ben Tanosborn And the beat goes on!  More studies, more surveys, more statistics, more data to feed the ongoing fires in present day American cultural wars.  Apparently, it isn’t enough to have the constant bickering between the three conservative factions in American politics – ultra-right Tea-partiers, old-guard Republicans and Democrats – so we are now […]

Ben Tanosborn It was the time to go to the barricades, not just unionized labor but the rest of America’s middle class that union activism had helped create.  It was the time to reverse the ill-advised globalist course in which Reagan and Bush Sr. had taken the nation.  And, as it later proved out, it […]

Ben Tanosborn It’s been almost two decades since the “Kitty Hawk incident” (1994) and the display of American naval power in the Yellow Sea.  Since then, no US aircraft carrier has had a presence north of the East China Sea.  But that will come to an end shortly as the U.S.S. George Washington is on […]

Ben Tanosborn Will US politicians kick the can down the road once again?  Need we ask? Of course they will, except each time that happens, the can gets heavier and travels fewer and fewer feet, giving us an indication that soon the can might be so heavy that they’ll bust their toes.  Or will they? […]

Ben Tanosborn I’ve always been convinced that all great conspiracies, at least those which might be regarded as successful, have one thing in common: no identifiable conspirators.  We may identify them, but will dare not accuse them for either lack of perceptible proof or the probable dire consequences we would face as disadvantaged accuser(s).  In […]

Ben Tanosborn It is unlikely that American leaders, from the State Department to the White House to the Pentagon will seize the Syria-opportunity as a turning point in helping bring calm and stability to the Middle East.  Obama failed miserably during his first term to get Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, forcefully if […]

Ben Tanosborn A model nation for democracy, is that what we claim to be?  My guess is that many political scientists would place the US as democracy’s anti-model, not exactly the nation to emulate.  For starts, here we are more than three weeks before Election Day (November 6) and people are already casting ballots in […]

Ben Tanosborn Well, the second half of the quadrennial political charade is over, Pres. Barack Obama making his case for a second term in office before a friendly audience of militant Democrats at the convention in Charlotte.  Tongue-in-arm Joe Biden, likely to be held accountable for his “America’s best days are ahead of us” remark, […]

Ben Tanosborn Almost half a millennium ago, Montaigne, in his wisdom, was telling us that “sometimes it is a good choice not to choose at all.” [Essays III.ix].  He could have been addressing what would eventually be American democracy, its captive politics, and the fantasy that voters are making a meaningful choice when casting their […]

Ben Tanosborn On Wednesday, July 4, Ricky “My-T-Mouth” Johnson, an obscure ghost lyricist in the rap-music world, and also an acquaintance from the early Occupy days, showed up at the porch of my historical townhouse at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.  He had brought his family from Portland (Oregon) to see our famed fireworks’ display, […]

Ben Tanosborn April 29 marks a score since the “Los Angeles Riots,” sparked by a “not guilty” verdict rendered on four policemen accused of beating a black man, Rodney King, to a pulp. For six days the nation witnessed via television these riots in South Central Los Angeles where 54 people lost their lives and […]

Ben Tanosborn A generation ago Bruce Springsteen was socio-serenading us with what soon was to become the iconic song, “Born in the USA.”  And now, seven presidential elections later, he’ll likely be sending his message with the song, “We Take Care of Our Own.” Although the message in 1984 was inconceivably misconstrued and misappropriated by […]

Ben Tanosborn If we don’t come to terms in America to the reality around us, we will be doomed; and not just as an empire-holder, but as a serious major player in any future affairs of planet earth.  We need to step down from that land of make-believe, and accept once and for all that […]

   Ben Tanosborn Nothing appears as ugly as unmasked raw propaganda, or seems as fashionable as well-crafted deception.  Yet, the catwalk for both forms of propaganda is one and the same, deception wearing the most titillating togs provided by the top fashion house, the House of Public Relations. And the deceptive PR isn’t limited to […]

Ben Tanosborn It is not what the few do but what the many don’t do.  That really represents what we are all about, co-conspirators in a sea of silence.  Marines who view despicable acts committed by other marines remain silent; the officers, who are well aware of this behavior, condone it, invariably following the “ethical […]

Ben Tanosborn Back in the wild-and-woolly days of the American West – encompassing much of the second half of the nineteenth century – the Colt revolver was said to be the “great equalizer.”  It promised to wipe out any gap between weak and strong, claiming to put every man at the same level of strength […]

Ben Tanosborn When a corpse is in a state of putrefaction, the only logical and healthful thing to do is to get rid of it – bury it or burn it – and not just keep holding mourning services around it.  And NATO happens to be one such corpse. General Lord Ismay, first Secretary General […]