Recent Posts - page 2

  • How to launder money: a domestic tale

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    People often ask me about money laundering. It’s not that complex. First, sell drugs in America. Receive cash. How do you get those millions of filthy USD cash bills into the banking system so that you can actually use it… Read More ›

  • Happy Fourth of July

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    Militarily it was a hardpressed time [for the Americans]. A crushing defeat in the Battle of Long Island in August, 1776, had left the British in control of access to New York and the New York coast. Washington had, at… Read More ›

  • Are You a Traveler or an Immigrant?

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    I’ve never bought the travel-as-transformation narrative fluff that’s mongered in such tracts as Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” or in Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love.” Travel, at least the kind of travel so often coded as “real” or “authentic,” as opposed to,… Read More ›

  • Seoul: Emergent Urbanism

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    Do you live in Seoul? Do you think a lot about your city? The greater Seoul area has about 26 million people in it. It’s about 50% of Korean GDP and about 50% of the population. Seoul proper, just the… Read More ›

  • Thank you, France

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    This Thursday is the Fourth of July. Every Fourth of July, I say a little prayer of thanks to France. France bought from the fledgling U.S. its first-ever tranche of federal bonds, thereby giving Washington enough cash to buy guns…. Read More ›

  • O Captain! My Captain!

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    O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the… Read More ›

  • Gettysburg Address

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    Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing… Read More ›

  • On Our Birthday—America as Idea

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    The United States is a nation consciously conceived, not one that evolved slowly out of an ancient past. It was a planned idea of democracy, of liberty of conscience and pursuit of happiness. It was the promise of equality of… Read More ›

  • The Tortured Poets Department

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    I’m listening to “The Tortured Poets Department” this Friday afternoon. I give it a 7/10. Maybe a 6/10. The album is OK if you want mild background sounds, but it’s certainly not up-beat dance happy music. Swift uses co-writers for… Read More ›

  • Thank you for the music…

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    The U.S. Black community is unique. First, it is not African in any way. It is a wholely North American construct. Second, it is the largest and most diverse of the various Afro-sourced North American communities. Sure, there are Blacks… Read More ›