Ban Tanosborn In 1898, incited by a yellow press (the Hearst gang) and aspiring American imperialists, the American public was clamoring for war after the Maine’s sinking in Havana’s harbor. The cry then was, “Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!” which allowed sacrificing an old and decrepit despot to surrender its colonial booty (Cuba, […]
Political Constituencies in America Ready for an Overhaul
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 […]
Requiem for American Foreign Policy Change
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 […]
Saddam Hussein’s Revenge: The Islamic State (ISIS/ISOL)
Ben Tanosborn When will America’s half-witted elite running the Pentagon and the State Department see the light and acknowledge that perhaps the US lacks the qualifications, or resources, to run, or strongly influence, geopolitics throughout Planet Earth? That might’ve been feasible for two-three decades following World War II, but the late 1970’s are long past […]
A New Option to Terrorism, Quagmire in Middle East?
Ben Tanosborn Vladimir Putin should not be pegged as a master strategist nor as a superb tactician; not when he is proving to be both. But perhaps the most miraculous thing: his success is being carved while presiding over a nation still not fully evolved into a market economy after the dissolution of the Soviet […]
Kaleidoscoping the Migrant Problem-Opportunity Dilemma
Ben Tanosborn Pictures of migrant-exiles from the Middle East, not just Syrians but Iraqis and Afghanis as well, are currently being transmitted by CNN, Aljazeera English and other news giants to homes all over the world in customary repetition which most of us would agree exceeds the canons of proper news reporting. Fodder news portraying […]
America in Denial: Width and Breadth of Today’s Poverty
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 […]
Enough Oz-Economics… Let’s Get Back to Kansas-Reality!
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 […]
Americans’ “Freedom to Flutter” in Their Gilded Cage
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… […]
Multiple Breadwinners: An American Household Imperative
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 […]