The Observations Podcast

The week, Dale starts by discussing Donald's Trump's long-standing, yet inexplicable, love for tariffs. Then he moves on to the surprising notion that Donald Trump realizes that the post-WWII "Rules-Based International Order" has come to an end. We've reverted to the normal international environment of Great Power diplomacy, and that's a game that Donald Trump is perfectly willing to play.

This week, we discuss the various legal strategies being used to stop Donald Trump from implementing his executive orders.

If you thought Donald Trump did a lot in the first two weeks of his second term, his third week in office showed that he's the most radical president elected since 1932.

This week, Dale and Michael discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of Donald Trump's first two weeks in office. And tariffs.

Joe Biden kicked off his last weekend as president by simply declaring the Equal Rights Amendment had been magically ratified as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, like it was a real thing. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, after spending the last four years threatening to shut down TikTok, and even signing an executive order to do so in 2020, decided that he'd keep the app running via an executive order. There's one thing Trump hasn't changed his mind about, though: Immigration.

This week's wildfires in LA are a perfect illustration of a government system, at all levels, whose policy results are so negative that one has to ask an important question. Is our government completely incompetent, or is it actively malevolent?

This week, we discuss the big victory that Elon, Vivek, and DOGE scored against Congress, and it's duplicitous Continuing Resolution. It's an amazing first victory, especially since DOGE doesn't even officially exist yet, and Donald Trump still isn't president. On the other hand, whether victory will be as easy when they try to cut real funding, real jobs, or entitlements, is very much an open question.

In this podcast, we discuss the downfall of the Assad regime in Syria, and take a deep dive into the drone sightings mystery.

The assassination of United Healthcare's CEO has exposed a dark movement in American culture.

Seventy-eight years ago, the WWII allies, calling themselves the United Nations, created the international settlement we've lived under since then. But that settlement no longer reflects the world we live in. Trump's threat to levy 100% tariffs on the BRICs nations is a failure to recognize that the Post-WWII settlement is dying.