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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Blob
NYT: In War’s First Week, a Punishing Military Campaign With No Coherent Endgame
The New York Times reports: “The U.S. and Israel have pounded Iran’s leadership and undercut its defense capabilities, but President Trump has offered wildly different explanations for what he hopes to achieve.” The blob aka the foreign policy establishment places … Continue reading
Decoding David Rothkopf
Wikipedia says: “David Jochanan Rothkopf (born December 24, 1955) is an American foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator. He is the founder and CEO of TRG Media and The Rothkopf Group, a columnist for The Daily … Continue reading
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Decoding Stratfor Geopolitical Analysis
While academics demand “truth” and intelligence agencies demand “accuracy,” Stratfor provides coordination. It does not provide valuable hidden truths. The firm exists as a cognitive bridge between the chaos of world events and the need for institutional stability. Using the … Continue reading
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Decoding The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in the American foreign policy ecosystem. Through David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory it is best understood not as a neutral research institute but as a coordination … Continue reading
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Elites Don’t Like The Trump Rhetoric About The Iran War
The FT reports: “‘Cavalier and demeaning’: the Trump team’s hyper-aggressive war rhetoric” Per Alliance Theory, the current “War of Words” over Operation Epic Fury is not a debate about ethics—it is a status war over the “Sacred Language” of American … Continue reading
Decoding The Counsel On Foreign Relations
Per Alliance Theory, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the ultimate coordination hub for the American sovereign. It is not just a think tank; it is the prestige cartel where the various tribes of the elite—finance, industry, academia, and … Continue reading
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Decoding Author Walter Russell Mead
Walter Russell Mead’s lack of a graduate degree is not a deficit but a strategic advantage. It signals that his authority is derived from horizontal coordination with elites rather than vertical submission to an academic guild. By bypassing the “doctorate … Continue reading
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How Expert Are International Relations Experts?
I am fascinated by expertise and by decoding what is real expertise and what is self-aggrandizement and socially destructive. I grew up on college campuses, the youngest son of a Religion professor. I love ideas. I love learning. And I … Continue reading
Good & Bad Nationalism
People evolved to be tribal, and nationalism is just an extension of that basic instinct. Hating that hard-wiring is like hating parents who prefer their own kids to children they’ve never met on the other side of the world. When … Continue reading
Posted in Blob, Elites, Nationalism
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Which journalists, pundits, & experts are gaining status and prestige from this Iran war?
Gemini says: The rapid escalation of Operation Epic Fury has created a “prestige vacuum” that the hawkish alliance is filling with high-velocity narratives. As of March 5, 2026, the status hierarchy in the “Iran Hand” world has shifted from the … Continue reading