https://znetwork.org/author/tomengelhardt/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:04:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/tomengelhardt/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like/#respond Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:04:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285346 How strange. I’ve been going to demonstrations for a long, long while now. I began once upon a distant time in opposition to the nightmarish all-American war in Vietnam. And almost 60 years later, that war, in some sense, has come home. Hence, the other day, I found myself at the “No Kings” demonstration in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/going-going-gone/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/going-going-gone/#respond Fri, 16 May 2025 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283807 I remember the phrase from my boyhood, listening to baseball games on the old wooden radio by my bed. A major hitter would be up and — bang! — he’d connect with the ball in a big-time fashion. The announcer in a rising voice would then say dramatically: “It’s going, going, gone!” It was a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/going-going-gone/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shock-and-awe/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shock-and-awe/#respond Fri, 21 Mar 2025 15:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281342 Yes, “shock and awe” is back in the second age of Donald Trump. His border czar, Tom Homan, used that very phrase to describe border policy from day one of the new administration and, whether the president has actually said it or not, it’s now regularly in headlines, op-eds, and so much else. If you remember, it was the phrase [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shock-and-awe/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-a-lost-universe-with-you-know-who/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-a-lost-universe-with-you-know-who/#respond Sat, 28 Sep 2024 13:06:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272930 Imagine yourself in space, looking down on our world and yet unable to return any time soon. Consider it our bad luck, in fact, that Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams were the two Americans sent to the International Space Station, 250 miles above this planet, for a few days in June and now find [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-a-lost-universe-with-you-know-who/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-candidate-from-hell/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-candidate-from-hell/#respond Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270862 Donald Trump is all too literally the candidate from hell and, yes, he’s threatening to take the United States and the world to — no place else! — hell and back. He’s the greatest danger to this planet imaginable. And I’m not even thinking about what else he’d do, were he to win election 2024 [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-candidate-from-hell/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-decline-and-fall-of-presidential-america/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-decline-and-fall-of-presidential-america/#respond Fri, 19 Jul 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269527 It’s not a happenstance or some sad mistake that, barring a surprise, Americans will go to the polls in November to vote for one of two distinctly ancient men, now 77 and 81, both of whom have clearly exhibited language and thought problems for a significant period of time. To put this in perspective, remember for a moment [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-decline-and-fall-of-presidential-america/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-enemy-is-us/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-enemy-is-us/#respond Wed, 05 Jun 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267435 Honestly, doesn’t it befuddle you? I mean, don’t you think we humans are kinda mad? And worse yet, at some deep level, we simply can’t seem to stop. All too often, we just can’t curb our urge to destroy. Looking back, the desire to make war and obliterate our “enemies” is a deeply ingrained and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-enemy-is-us/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/old-man-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/old-man-world/#respond Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:04:10 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1265419   Let one old man deal with two others. I turn 80 in July, which makes me just over a year-and-a-half younger than Joe Biden and almost two years older than Donald Trump. And, honestly, I know my limits. Yes, I still walk — no small thing — six miles a day. And I work [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/old-man-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-on-the-wrong-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-on-the-wrong-world/#respond Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263156 On this planet of ours, it almost doesn’t matter who’s right and who’s wrong when it comes to our wars. Actually, let me correct that thought slightly: it certainly does matter, but what matters so much more is that we humans simply can’t stop fighting them. That is (or at least should be) a stunning [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-on-the-wrong-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-superpower/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-superpower/#respond Tue, 06 Feb 2024 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261801 I was born on July 20, 1944, almost two years after Joe Biden arrived on this planet and almost a year before You Know Who, like me, landed in New York City. The United States was then nearing the end of the second global war of that century and things were about to look up. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-superpower/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-slow-motion-equivalent-of-a-nuclear-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-slow-motion-equivalent-of-a-nuclear-war/#comments Mon, 02 Oct 2023 15:14:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1255197 Tell me, what planet are we actually on? All these decades later, are we really involved in a “second” or “new” Cold War? It’s certainly true that, as late as the 1980s, the superpowers (or so they then liked to think of themselves), the United States and the Soviet Union, were still engaged in just [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-slow-motion-equivalent-of-a-nuclear-war/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-global-maui-moment/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-global-maui-moment/#respond Mon, 11 Sep 2023 16:46:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1253866 From the earliest kingdoms to late last night, history has been the story not just of the rise of great powers but of their decline and fall. So, normally, there would be nothing particularly out of the ordinary about the aging America of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a classic imperial power distinctly in decline [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-global-maui-moment/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-our-control/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-our-control/#respond Mon, 07 Aug 2023 17:08:57 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1250516 It was summer almost half a century ago when I got into that Volkswagen van and began my trip across the country with Peter, a photographer friend. I was officially doing so as a reporter for a small San Francisco news service, having been sent out to tap the mood of the nation in a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-our-control/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/me-first/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/me-first/#respond Thu, 03 Aug 2023 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1250373 Hey, who knows? It could be the Gulf Stream collapsing or the planet eternally breaking heat records. But whatever the specifics, we’re living it right now, not in the next century, the next decade, or even next year. You couldn’t miss it — at least so you might think — if you were living in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/me-first/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-third-way/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-third-way/#respond Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1249294 In case you hadn’t noticed — and how could you not? — there have been more than 500 (yes, 500-plus!) wildfires burning across the vast reaches of Canada, an unheard-of number, and more than half of them completely out of (human) control in a record-shattering fire season. That’s been true for seemingly endless weeks now with no [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-third-way/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-on-a-smoke-bomb-of-a-planet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-on-a-smoke-bomb-of-a-planet/#respond Thu, 15 Jun 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1247848 (Image: Petey B, @realpeteyb123) As it turns out, it’s never too late. I mention that only because last week, at nearly 79, I managed to visit Mars for the first time. You know, the red planet, or rather — so it seemed to me — the orange planet. And take my word for it, it was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-on-a-smoke-bomb-of-a-planet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whose-planet-are-we-on/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whose-planet-are-we-on/#respond Sat, 13 May 2023 13:21:10 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1245966 After almost 79 years on this beleaguered planet, let me say one thing: this can’t end well. Really, it can’t. And no, I’m not talking about the most obvious issues ranging from the war in Ukraine to the climate disaster. What I have in mind is that latest, greatest human invention: artificial intelligence. It doesn’t [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whose-planet-are-we-on/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/future-heat-wave/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/future-heat-wave/#respond Mon, 21 Nov 2022 16:45:00 +0000 Believe me, it’s strange to be an old man and feel like you’re living on a new planet. On November 7th, the day before the midterm elections, I took my usual afternoon walk in New York City and I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt! That was a first for me. And no wonder, since it [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/future-heat-wave/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burning-books-or-rather-book-companies/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burning-books-or-rather-book-companies/#respond Wed, 28 Sep 2022 15:52:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1221689 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burning-books-or-rather-book-companies/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-duck-and-cover-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-duck-and-cover-world/#respond Mon, 25 Apr 2022 10:42:45 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1057528 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-duck-and-cover-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-in-perspective/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-in-perspective/#respond Sat, 09 Apr 2022 10:33:54 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1056993 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-in-perspective/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-life-with-maus/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-life-with-maus/#respond Fri, 18 Feb 2022 12:35:29 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1055143 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-life-with-maus/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-the-american-century/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-the-american-century/#respond Tue, 02 Nov 2021 09:01:05 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1051576 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-the-american-century/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-whoops-american-empire/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-whoops-american-empire/#respond Wed, 08 Sep 2021 09:01:58 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1049976 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-whoops-american-empire/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-extreme-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-extreme-world/#respond Fri, 13 Aug 2021 09:04:06 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1049206 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/my-extreme-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-forbidden-word/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-forbidden-word/#respond Wed, 28 Jul 2021 09:01:53 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1048760 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-forbidden-word/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-all-american-horror-story/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-all-american-horror-story/#respond Thu, 01 Jul 2021 09:05:18 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1048011 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-all-american-horror-story/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-at-the-edge/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-at-the-edge/#respond Mon, 07 Jun 2021 09:01:15 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1047348 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-at-the-edge/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/american-style-war-til-the-end-of-time/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/american-style-war-til-the-end-of-time/#respond Fri, 30 Apr 2021 09:01:41 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1046162 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/american-style-war-til-the-end-of-time/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/slaughter-central/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/slaughter-central/#respond Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:02:51 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1045682 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/slaughter-central/feed/ 0