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Local View / Checkmate: Iran seems to know the right moves

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

Published 5/22/2024

I was not invited to the celebration marking the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire in 1971, even though I was living in Iran. But my big boss, David Lilienthal, founder of the Tennessee Valley Authority, was there. The shah and Lilienthal were buddies, as both were big thinkers. I mean, really big: irrigate 300,000 acres, build huge dams, attract Western companies to invest, that sort of thing. Lilienthal was one of hundreds of world leaders to attend the event held at an air-conditioned series of huge tents at Persepolis, the capital of the old Persian Empire. President Richard Nixon was to come but canceled at the last moment and sent VP Spiro Agnew.

Local View: Caribbean cruise the ultimate travel adventure — oh, really

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

Published 2/22/2024

Believe the government or the tour operator?

This from officials in Haiti: “Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens. Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked. Violent crime, often involving the use of firearms, such as armed robbery, carjackings, and kidnappings for ransom that include U.S. citizens are common.”

Latvia: The Mouse that Roared (OK Sang!)

By John Freivalds

Published- TBD

Duluth News Tribune

The year 1959 saw the premiere of  a hilarious movie The Mouse That Roared starring Peter Sellers about a tiny fictious country, The Duchy of Fenwick, which went from irrelevance to world attention because it was rumored to have ”the bomb.”

My native country, Latvia, is lost in the grand scheme of geopolitics (40% the size of Iowa and three Latvia’s can easily fit into Minnesota). It lies across the Baltic Sea from Sweden and Riga , its capital, has been around since the year 1208. Latvia is part of NATO which has been its protection against Russia, its huge aggressive neighbor. But with the threat of a new administration coming in that is saying it will not support NATO or Ukraine in its war against Russia, we wonder what is our plan B?

No High Moral Ground (anywhere) When the Dogs of War are Let Loose.

By John Freivalds

Duluth News Tribune

Published: TBD

Shakespeare was perhaps the first person to use that phrase which aptly fits what is happening in Gaza. The dogs of war is a phrase spoken by Mark Antony William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war."