If Donald Trump gets his way on formation of a Space Force, the heavens would become a war zone. Inevitably, there would be military conflict in space. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which designates space as the global commons to be used for peaceful purposes—and of which Russia and China, as well as the United States, are parties—and the years of work facilitating the treaty since would be wasted. More

Misery is not the only thing that “acquaints a man with strange bedfellows,” as Shakespeare put it; geopolitical machinations and international animosities do as well.  Even so, the not-so-secret marriage of convenience – or is it only an affair? — between Israel, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies, on the other, is mind-boggling. Hovering over that strange liaison is, of course, Donald Trump’s America.  More

In 1638, John Lilburne was put on secret trial by the Star Chamber of Charles I. His crime? The writing and distribution of seditious pamphlets that skewered the legitimacy of the monarchy and challenged the primacy of the high prelates of the Church of England. He was promptly convicted of publishing writing of “dangerous consequence and evil effect.” More