Triffin’s Dilemma: A Fundamental Frame for Understanding and Navigating Our Time

One of the bedrock principles in my sensemaking toolbox is simple: Always determine the role of mechanical, deterministic causality before imputing human motivation or making moral judgments. In practical terms, this means asking a prior question before doing any moral or political analysis: What would happen here even if no one were trying to make … Continue reading Triffin’s Dilemma: A Fundamental Frame for Understanding and Navigating Our Time →

Between Federal Scylla and Local Charybdis; State Coercion, Civic Abdication, and the Fragility of Freedom

UPDATE: 12:53 p.m., Sunday, January 25, 2026 I originally published this piece just before 8:00 p.m. on Friday, January 23, 2026. Barely thirteen hours later—just after 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 24—37-year-old U.S. citizen and ICU nurse, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was shot to death by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent near the intersection of … Continue reading Between Federal Scylla and Local Charybdis; State Coercion, Civic Abdication, and the Fragility of Freedom →

Meaning Rekindled

The personal journey I documented in my previous post was, at its heart, a struggle to rekindle meaning in the face of axiom altering change. When a deeply rooted mode of being is ground to dust by the relentless assault of change, meaning goes too. The only way back is down. Down to the axiomatic … Continue reading Meaning Rekindled →

New Beginnings

I begin this blog as I begin a new life. In a few days I will turn 40. For the last decade my birthdays have come and gone, eliciting little reflection from me. 40 feels different. For the first time I am struck by the possibility, even the probability, that I may have more road … Continue reading New Beginnings →