The Economics of Victory in Ukraine and Defeat in Iran
The U.S. uses $4 million Patriot interceptors to destroy drones that cost $20,000 to $50,000.
Updated ET
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Six hundred years ago, on a muddy field near Agincourt in northern France, King Henry V’s outnumbered, half-starved English army faced the flower of French chivalry. French knights were expensive, each man-at-arms the product of many years of training, his armor and warhorse a major investment. Henry’s archers carried longbows that cost little, drawn by men trained in every village across the kingdom. When the volleys came, the knights fell by the hundreds. Quantity overwhelmed quality—and the mud helped. France lost the battle, but defeat in the war came not in the dying. It was in the impossibility of replacing what had died.
It turns out that would-be authoritarians don’t need to staff their regimes with ideological true believers, offer extreme enticements or impose draconian punishments in order to make successful power grabs. They just need to figure out how to target their ideal labor pool: the frustrated and mediocre.
Actually, Democracy Dies in H.R.
New research sheds light on how mediocre employees help would-be authoritarians maintain power.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
The nature of war has changed and is changing much faster and more radically than most observers—and most of the world’s militaries—yet understand. Rifles, mortars and tanks appear to be going the way of sword fights and cavalry charges. Evacuating the wounded from the ever-expanding drone-infested “gray zone” that separates opposing armies can take weeks, in some cases up to two months. That’s because teams of drone and unmanned ground vehicle operators must struggle to maneuver coffin-shaped evacuation platforms against swarms of hostile drones on a winding path through the war zone. In a war in which thumbs on joysticks have largely replaced fingers on triggers and more fighting is done on screens and less in the trenches, almost every assumption about what armies are and how they fight is being challenged and reshaped daily.
“If we’re going to lose this radical idea of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, a nation that in its Constitution guarantees to each state a republican form of government to ensure the debate of ideas — if that’s going to happen, Mr. President, by God, it’s not going to be because I surrendered it.” “I’m voting no.”
From Canada's YouTube reaction its apparent Trump may have declared to Xi to stay away from commercial transactions with his intellectually superior Mark Carney
Trump and Xi Would Need Personality Transplants to Get This Deal Done
Soumaya Keynes and
Ms. Keynes and Dr. Bown are the authors of the forthcoming book “How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy.”
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Stories about Mr. Massie have the feel of tall tales but frequently turn out to be true. The solar-powered mobile chicken coop, a.k.a. the Clucks Capacitor, is designed to move an inch an hour so the chickens always have fresh grass. Then there was the neighbor who asked him for help hiding distilling equipment. (Mr. Massie says he told him he could not get caught up in anything illegal, but that if the man kept driving, there was an old tobacco barn that “rarely gets visited.” He heard the truck go back and forth two more times. “I never saw the equipment,” he told me. “And nobody went to jail.”)
He’s One of a Dying Breed in Congress. America Needs Him Now More Than Ever.
Ms. Mangu-Ward is the editor in chief of Reason.
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Sorry Josh but Bibi Netanyahu's total support of illegal Jewish settlers in Palestine determined to eradicate its Muslim population makes him as despicable ironically as Hitler
I’m a Democrat. My Party Has a Double Standard on Antisemitism.
Mr. Gottheimer, a Democrat, is the representative for New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Iran Strikes Hard - Israel's Tank Production and Maintenance faces total Shutdown. Practically speaking Iran with cheap missiles surgically destroyed Israel's tank making and servicing capacity leaving no hope for continued tank with combined air power and missiles warfare to continue. It was an incredibly surgical attack that leaves Israel's army stunned!
Monday, May 11, 2026
Saturday, May 9, 2026
Because Emiratis only make up 10% of the total population in the United Arab Emirates, with over 88% of the population expatriates makes its viability as a country at war with Iran bleak, back to nomadic tribes actually
Singled Out by Iran, U.A.E. Doubles Down on U.S. and Israeli Ties
The United Arab Emirates has borne the brunt of Iranian attacks throughout the war, hardening the government’s resolve to reassess its list of friends and foes.
Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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