Author: Toby Zimmerman

Old Habits Die Hard in Haiti

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Since Haiti’s independence from France in 1804, the United States has made a concerted effort to control politics and economics in Haiti to promote American interests in the Caribbean. Following the Haitian Revolution for independence, many southerners feared that slaves in America would take inspiration from the forceful expulsion of French colonialists. Slaveholders sought to […]

Effective Altruism on Trial with FTX

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Most of his employees were gone — quit, fired, or arrested — so only one colleague and his parents remained in the $35 million Bahamian penthouse when the police arrived for Sam Bankman-Fried. In a New York City federal court, Bankman-Fried faces one count of wire fraud, two conspiracy charges, and a count of money […]

What J. Robert Oppenheimer Can Teach Us About China

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On December 3, 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a memo installing a “blank wall” between J. Robert Oppenheimer and any government operations, cutting him off from any future classified research and his atomic project. This communique was the conclusion of a months-long audit filled with anti-communist fear-mongering rhetoric. Led by Lewis Strauss, commissioner of the […]

Atlantic Herring v. Alphabet Soup

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Capital letters have ruled the American government since 1933. Following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s implementation of the New Deal, three-letter agencies, also known as “Alphabet Soup Agencies,” have monopolized the American political system. From the FBI to the FDA, sequences of triplet capitals are omnipresent and inescapable. These organizations have become central to the basic […]

5 Takeaways From Israel’s ‘Hand of God’

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Through the lens of a security camera, the world watches as a man in a baseball hat picks fruit out of a basket at a Beirut market. Suddenly, he collapses to the ground, clutching his chest as bystanders scramble for safety. This same scene played out thousands of times across Lebanon on September 17, as […]

The JCPOA is Dead, Long Live the JCPOA

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On the campaign trail in 2020, President Joe Biden promised a renewal of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In exchange for reduced sanctions to the tune of several billion dollars, Iran dismantled most of its nuclear program and allowed international inspections. The JCPOA was reached in July 2015 between Iran, the European Union, […]