Our world is vast yet intimate, complex yet traceable, ancient yet immediate, often regressive, sometimes compellingly timely, and occasionally progressive.
It is resilient but not invulnerable, abundant but not equitable, knowable yet never fully known—where signals of things to come are seldom subtle. Noise is loud, outcomes judge intentions—the good, the bad and the ugly.
The world is finite, interdependent, and unforgiving of illusion. Wisdom is often a conveniently ignored nuisance, rather than a catalyst for clear perception and disciplined action.
FINGER ON THE PULSE presents observations stripped of philosophy and sentiment. Hard-edged pragmatism delivered with cynicism, alarm, and occasional amusement.
CULTURAL SENSITIVITY IS NEITHER SOUGHT NOR SPARED; SOME ENTRIES LAND WITH DELIBERATE, ACUTE DISPLEASURE.
BOX OF CHOCOLATES
“Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are gonna get.” —Eric Roth, 1994.
That from the exceptional Tom Hanks movie, Forrest Gump. A movie, your humble scribe always thought it was wonderfully incongruent: constancy of character shapes history…
How cool and how wrong!
Donald J. Trump
His posture alone shifts global trajectories. He is political weather—unavoidable, disruptive, and impossible to ignore.
As Mark Twain — or perhaps Charles Dudley Warner — observed: Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
With that, however torturously, back to the chocolates.
Those of us who are capable of discussing Trump without emotional anesthesia have reached a disciplined accord: remove “feelings” from the analysis. Any sentence that begins with “I feel” is disqualified at inception. Gets the originator banned from the room.
With Trump, there was no mystery box of chocolates. The contents were declared in advance.
There exists a comprehensive record of what he said he would do — prior to both elections.
There exists a comprehensive record of what he has done, is doing, and has asserted he will yet do.
If one wishes to preserve friendships and avoid performative combat, the path is straightforward:
Conduct a structural alignment. Reconcile the two records. Test for congruence.
You will retain serious friends. You will unsettle the unserious.
“POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT, AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.”
—John Dalberg-Acton (Lord Acton), 1887
A century and more later, the mechanics have not changed. Only the scale.
It is merely a matter of time before some enterprising branding team attempts cultural rehabilitation by packaging notoriety as spectacle: puts Jeffrey Epstein’s picture on a cereal box or milk carton or …
Marketing has demonstrated a prodigious capacity for amnesia. Recent campaigns have confirmed as much. Too many appeared to have slept through the Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney mess.
I have wrestled with the Epstein convulsion for some time. Fully aware that I am no Lord Acton, I have nonetheless searched for the correct formulation.
Still, with full recognition that I am no Lord Acton, I labored to come up with THE right line: what happens when you merge corruption, immense money, perceived proximity to consequential power and absolute human depravity?
It is not scandal. It is not aberration.
It is THE EPSTEIN ERA OF IMPUNITY. Money shields. Power normalizes. Institutions hesitate. And restraint collapses.
Thank you, Lord Acton.
WAR IS A GOOD THING?
“You did not actually write that, did you?”
That was your immediate recoil. Understandable. Reflexive. Predictable. Good. Now we can begin.
I have been writing and saying—screaming really—that the most dangerous place on earth is Pakistan.
Sharif is the steward of a nuclear-armed, military-shadowed state whose stability or failure reverberates instantly across South Asia. He balances Islamabad’s political minefield with one hand tied behind his back by the generals in what HE KNOWS is not his army.
253 million Shia Muslims with nuclear weapons. In a perpetual war with a couple billion Indians. What could possibly go wrong.
This week—phew!—the pressure cooker appears on holiday. Briefly, I opine. Pakistan is busy with Afghanistan! At war, kinda… Not a war. A century-old border fracture layered with proxy conflict, militant spillover, and strategic mistrust.
Come now! Pakistan versus Afghanistan is like the NFL Seatle Seahawks or Real Madrid CF playing against my high school’s junior varsity.
Alas, a good break in any event. Still blood is being spilled by immense egos versus a militant theocracy intolerant of dissent and hostile to modern civil society. Oh well, what could go wrong?
ONE OUT OF THREE AIN’T ALL THAT BAD
The “three” on my mind, as in “don’t get into thinking into any of this, unless it helps with your diet”—meaning you will lose your appetite:
1. RUSSIA – UKRAINE WAR
Is that still in the news?
Taking inventory:
– We got the minerals we wanted.
– Zelenskyy and his cabal continue to add to their immense wealth, while the poor people are slaughtered.
– Putin “playing the best possum” ever? Nah: projects increasing dominance … while the poor people are slaughtered.
It’s OK. That war is “over there…”
2. ISRAEL-HAMAS/GAZA
Is that still in the news?
– Step up people! Including Hamas (never going to happen), the neighborhood (we appear unable to buy their help no matter the billions we throw about), the Europeans (antisemitism and anti-Zionism reign), Israel (essentially go at it alone with no resolution on any horizon; still the inexplicable owner of the biggest PR failure in history), the U.S. (gosh, we talk a great game).
I read there is still diplomatic pressure on ceasefire negotiations.
3. TENSIONS IN THE TAIWAN STRAIT / U.S.–CHINA STRATEGIC COMPETITION
The war that is in the news!
The U.S. drives the entire foreign and economic policy truck with one eye permanently on China. That is our strategic fulcrum.
The reality is that when China moves, the world recalibrates. When Xi sneezes, the world catches a cold. Xi defines global gravity by sheer economic mass and strategic audacity. Let us pray that Trump is a good foil for Xi, the greatest long-game player in history.
IRAN VS. THE WORLD | THE WORLD VS. IRAN?
What world?
Iran: the undisputed leading fomenter of hate in the world.
Is this the time when Iran rids itself of that despicable theocratic mafia that has its hands on the throats of its 93 million people?
Do the breath-holding at your obvious peril.
What viable, durable end state could emerge from the current seek-and-destroy operations undertaken by Israel and the United States?
Mr. President. Give a call to Douglas MacArthur. He did a bang-up job in Japan.
But, this time, do not castrate him in mid mission.
Ouch, you say? Go ahead: what is your better idea other than the sacrifice of the State of Israel.
WORDS TO THE WISE. When you decapitate THIS AYATOLLA, THIS MAFIA DON, mind these wise words: the devil known is better than the devil unknown.
Mr. President. You already know that you cannot govern from the margins. You in or out…
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ALL YOU FINE PEOPLE READING OR LISTENING TO THIS: ALL THIS IS HAPPENING NOW! DURING OUR LIFETIMES! HOW ABSOLUTELY COOL IS THAT?
1. Precision Gene Editing. Editing disease at its source.
2. AI-Driven Diagnostics. Detecting illness before symptoms emerge.
3. Breakthrough Disease Therapies. Altering trajectories of fatal diseases.
4. mRNA Platforms. Rapidly adaptable therapeutic architecture.
5. Cell Therapy. Rebuilding function at cellular level.
6. Microbiome Medicine. Modulating ecosystems to treat disease.
FUN FACTS AND STUFF ON MY MIND THIS MORNING (DESKTOP?)
- Cherry Blossom Season in Japan (Sakura season) started earlier this year. Good thing. One of my daughters was passing through Japan to witness that.
- How old are you? Old enough to relate to Pokémon? That launched 30 hears ago. Arghhh. A cultural phenomenon I missed out on.
- I know you rushed out and experienced this. Yesterday, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune, and Uranus were visible together in a rare celestial parade, creating a stunning skywatching.
Don’t you wish you would have dropped us a note to get a “family” discount on a $2 billion Hubble Space Telescope for some really awesome skywatching.
- Guiness World Records certified a horse at 37 years and 329 days old. The oldest ever. In human years, that is just a half a dozen years older than the average member of the U.S. senate.
- I finally met the owner of the small shop in Los Angeles that makes the best bagels West of a small deli on the Eastside in New York City. I took a picture of him. I will display the 8×10 on the wall of my studio.
Ahhhh. To be in the presence of greatness…
Let me know if you want details, both East and West Coast U.S.
More soon. Thanks for listening and reading.