Neoliberalism
Banking
Commercial real estate
Fig. 1. “The iconic Crescent stands as recognizable landmark in the upscale neighborhood of Uptown, Dallas.” Photograph by Dallasedits [pseud.], July 5, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Bosses like to talk tough about having workers return to the office. It looks like what they actually do may be a bit different.[1]
Jeffry Bartash, “Most businesses plan to stick to current work-from-home arrangements,” MarketWatch, August 16, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-businesses-plan-to-stick-to-current-work-from-home-arrangements-195d1827
Imperialism
Russia
Ukraine
Fig. 2. “The atomic cloud over Nagasaki 1945.” Photograph from Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Overseas Operations Branch, New York Office, News and Features Bureau, (12/17/1942 – 09/15/1945), by Charles Levy, August 9, 1945, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s important to remember that the point of a warning is so you don’t have to follow through. It requires those being warned, however, to heed the warning. So the question here is whether Russia, which views its war on Ukraine in existential terms,[2] will heed the warning to permit Black Sea shipping and, if not, whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will follow through.[3]
It’s taking enough longer than I thought that I’ve stepped back from my expectation of nuclear war between Russia and the west. But Vladimir Putin’s logic is unchanged.[4]
Gabriel Gavin, “Russia risks war with NATO in Black Sea, former top commander in Europe warns,” Politico, August 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-ukraine-nato-war-risk-black-sea/
- [1]Jeffry Bartash, “Most businesses plan to stick to current work-from-home arrangements,” MarketWatch, August 16, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-businesses-plan-to-stick-to-current-work-from-home-arrangements-195d1827↩
- [2]Robyn Dixon, “Russia moves toward annexing Ukraine regions in a major escalation,” Washington Post, September 20, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/20/russia-referendum-annexation-luhansk-donetsk-kherson-ukraine/; Julia Ioffe, “Will Putin Get His World War III?” Puck News, February 22, 2022, https://puck.news/will-putin-get-his-world-war-iii/; Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s New Iron Curtain,” Puck News, February 24, 2022, https://puck.news/putins-new-iron-curtain/; Julia Ioffe, “Europe’s 9/11,” Puck News, March 3, 2022, https://puck.news/europes-9-11/; Luke McGee and Claire Calzonetti, “Putin spokesman refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons if Russia faced an ‘existential threat,’” CNN, March 22, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/europe/amanpour-peskov-interview-ukraine-intl/index.html; Eugene Rumer and Andrew S. Weiss, “Ukraine: Putin’s Unfinished Business,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 12, 2021, https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/11/12/ukraine-putin-s-unfinished-business-pub-85771↩
- [3]Gabriel Gavin, “Russia risks war with NATO in Black Sea, former top commander in Europe warns,” Politico, August 16, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-ukraine-nato-war-risk-black-sea/↩
- [4]David Benfell, “Nuclear survival,” Not Housebroken, January 24, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-ukraine-nato-war-risk-black-sea/↩