I arrived at the Pentagon in February 2003. Whenever I could, I followed the official tours, learned every corridor, and later guided colleagues and friends through the building myself. Rank rules the real estate. The highest officials claimed the outside windows on the Potomac side. The office that allocated space sat on the inside ring, looking over the courtyard with its trees, benches, and the five-sided sandwich stand that served a genuinely excellent Philly cheesesteak. Even the people who decided who got the best views kept the second-best for themselves. Power allocates the good stuff. It’s not theory. People do what they do because they want what they want. 

Even socialists are personal capitalists. They talk fairness and the common good. In practice, they gather the most they can for their own families, using political leverage. In East Berlin in 1981, the Party stores were impossible to miss. The select goods were in shops reserved for members and us hard-currency foreigners. More than 90% of the population was locked out. The rhetoric was equality. The reality was a privileged caste. 

Willie Nelson is wrong. He’s declaring war on the data centers streaming his music

Desperate for cash, Illinois just declared war on crypto

When ‘criticizing Israel’ becomes plain old bigotry

I’ll give you a dynamic we see played out everywhere: As it was 100,000 years ago, the Beautiful Woman “I’ll give you this if you give me that” privilege card is second only to the “Armed and Dangerous” privilege card. It’s paid where distribution begins. Taxpayers fuel the life of the unscrupulous. Power is money, for more power and more money. We’re all equal, but my motives are for the collective, so I’m just a little more equal. And by the way, when the show trials are over, there will be fewer but better socialists next year.........

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