The iPINIONS Journal

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International Affairs

Flávio Bolsonaro Leads Into Presidential Runoff… to Spring His Daddy From Prison and Hand Brazil to Trump

Monday, October 5, 2026 at 8:32 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Brazil’s runoff is about more than Lula versus another Bolsonaro. iPINIONS contends it’s about whether voters will spring the father through the son, reward Trump’s meddling, or hand the would-be emperor another humiliating lesson in unintended consequences. Read my full take on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/flavio-bolsonaro-leads-into-presidential Read more.

If Trump Is Putin’s Puppet, and Putin Is Xi’s Bitch, That Makes Trump Xi’s Lapdog, No?

Friday, September 25, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Trump keeps warning MAGA Republicans that Democrats are bent on turning America communist. Yet he trashes democratic norms at home while genuflecting before Xi Jinping abroad, treating the Chinese strongman with the kind of deference he rarely shows America’s democratic allies. iPINIONS argues that the hypocrisy is as revealing as the spectacle. Read my full… Read more.

US Welcomes Iranians to UN General Assembly but Bars Palestinians, Again.

Monday, September 21, 2026 at 8:22 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Trump is rolling out the welcome mat for Iranian leaders while barring Palestinians from the UN General Assembly. iPINIONS argues that the hypocrisy reflects a broader pattern of alienating friends, courting enemies, and turning self-created crises into supposed triumphs. Read my full take on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/us-welcomes-iranians-to-un-general Read more.

Milei Plays the Trump of Latin America Over the Falklands

Wednesday, September 9, 2026 at 8:36 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Milei is playing the Trump of Latin America, demanding Britain hand over the Falklands and citing Hong Kong as his precedent. But the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain British, and Argentina already lost the war in 1982. As iPINIONS argues, nationalist chest-thumping is no substitute for military power. And Britain is no Venezuela. Read my… Read more.

Taliban 2.0 in Afghanistan, Where Taliban Rule Condones Raping Boys

Monday, August 31, 2026 at 8:33 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Five years after America’s ignominious retreat from Afghanistan, the Taliban are back to veiling women, excluding girls from school, and presiding over a culture in which powerful men rape vulnerable boys under the euphemism bacha bazi. iPINIONS argues that Taliban 2.0 preaches sexual purity for the powerless while allowing powerful men to profane it. Read… Read more.

Netanyahu Campaigning for Reelection by Defaming Mamdani and Defying Trump

Wednesday, August 19, 2026 at 8:32 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Benjamin Netanyahu is using New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a bogeyman in Israel’s reelection campaign, while openly defying the American president who boasts that Bibi does whatever he says. But iPINIONS contends that, from Gaza and Lebanon to Saudi Arabia’s new security alignment with nuclear-armed Pakistan, Netanyahu’s manipulation of Trump is producing consequences that… Read more.

“Hormuz Strait” US Territory? Because American Fatalism Has Normalized Trump’s Pathological Lying

Monday, August 17, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Trump says he’ll declare the “Hormuz Strait” US territory. iPINIONS contends the absurdity is almost beside the point. The real danger is how MAGA loyalty and American fatalism have trained millions to accept his lies, cruelty, and autocratic whims as normal. Read my full take on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/hormuz-strait-us-territory-because Read more.

Forget Lucy and the Football. Iran Keeps Moving the Goalposts on Trump

Monday, August 10, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Trump thought overwhelming American military power meant he held all the cards. Instead, Iran keeps moving the goalposts, tightening its grip on Hormuz and raising the price every time Trump thinks he has found a way out. Now he is reportedly even considering walking away without the nuclear deal he claimed this war was supposed… Read more.

The Ceuta Migration Crisis Is a Test of Border Control and Statehood

Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Spain’s Ceuta crisis is not an argument against immigration. It is an indictment of a government that lost control of its border and forced Europe to react. iPINIONS argues that immigration can invigorate a country, but compassion without control is national abdication. Read my full take on Substack: https://ipinionsdaily.substack.com/p/the-ceuta-migration-crisis-is-a-test Read more.

Condoleezza Rice Recycles Her Advice to Bush on Iraq for Trump on Iran

Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 8:25 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Condoleezza Rice helped sell Bush’s Iraq War by warning that the smoking gun could become a mushroom cloud. iPINIONS contends that she is recycling that same preventive-war logic for Trump in Iran, where a supposedly quick campaign has metastasized into mounting deaths, destruction, and conflict over the Strait of Hormuz. Read my full take on… Read more.