Stories Being Followed Today -- Part 2 -- January 3, 2023

Locator: 46449GEOPOLITICS.

There are two stories here, link here:

Over the last few weeks, the IDF has taken out several high-value targets. This suggests to me:
in addition to the stated goal of clearing Hamas from Gaza, Israel is using the "fog of war" to cover targeting high value targets even if they are in foreign countries outside of Gaza; and,

for the 1,400+ innocent Israelis slaughter, Israel will exact a high price by targeting high-value targets.

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Pet Peeve

Sanctuary cities saying they cannot handle the influx, measured in 100's over days and weeks, whereas Texas is "handling" an influx measured in 10's of thousands on a daily basis. 

The big question 20-something-year-old journalists never seem to address: why would undocumented tourists, many of them criminals in drug smuggling and human trafficking want to fly across the country in the first place to a sanctuary city?

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What The Civil Was All About -- Paul Krugman

Great op-ed in today's NYT. Link here.

Even before Krugman's article, I was amazed by how tone-deaf Nikki Haley was answering that question. On some level she may have been somewhat correct, but it would have required a PhD thesis to make the point, argue the point, and Nikki Haley's audience is not made up of PhDs. Regardless whatever the "reason," or the "cause," the fact remains it was insurrection, pure and simple.

Krugman's op-ed led to four more great essays:

• The southernification of rural America.
• Why the South fell behind.
• The suppressed history of Southern Unionists.
• Myths about the Lost Cause. Behind a paywall, see also this YouTube video.