This isn’t spin. It’s seasoned analysis.
The Future That Showed Up Early
In the early 1990s, I sat down with Dr. David Hayes-Bautista at UCLA to talk about a provocative book he had just published: The Burden of Support. At the time, the national conversation about Latinos in America was dominated by deficit thinking — stories about...
America’s Slipways for Sale: How We Are Outsourcing the Arsenal of Democracy
South Korea’s HD Hyundai says it wants in on American shipbuilding. That’s right: the world’s biggest shipbuilder, already running circles around us in commercial yards, is sniffing at buying a U.S. yard to feed President Trump’s new “revival” plan for American...
The Machines Just Lapped the Nerds
You know the ICPC, the International Collegiate Programming Contest? It's an annual academic bloodsport where the brightest college coders on the planet cram into hotel ballrooms and try to outsmart the universe in five hours flat? Well, this year, the real winner...
Government v. Free Speech: When the Right Embraces Cancel Culture
I commit the First Amendment every day. I write, I publish, I dissent. So do you. Every text, every post, every gripe at the bar is protected by the same amendment. That’s the deal in America: speech is speech. You don’t need a license. You don’t need permission. But...
From Clinton to Trump: The Long Road to Kill Lists and Silence
Let’s not pretend we didn’t see this coming. If you're just now waking up to the idea that the U.S. president can kill people overseas—even American citizens—with no trial, no charges, and no oversight ... you’ve been asleep since the Clinton administration. President...
Big Boats, Big Talk, and a Little Common Sense
Well, look who just shook hands in the shipyard. Austal USA and Master Boat Builders out of Bayou La Batre are teaming up to do what the Pentagon hasn’t figured out in decades—build ships faster, better, and without the bureaucratic fog. The two companies signed what...
Why the U.S. Treats Smugglers as Pirates in the Caribbean and Criminals in the Pacific
Same crime. Same kind of boats. Two totally different endings. In the Caribbean, smugglers are “narco-terrorists.” No boarding, no warning, no court date. The Navy tracks them, calls them combatants, and sinks them in international waters. Eleven dead. No drugs...
From Bust to Blast: U.S. Sinks Smuggler Boat to Send Maduro a Message
For decades, busting drug boats in the Caribbean followed the same script. Spot the target, give chase, board, bag the dope, and haul the crew into court. It was law enforcement with a naval flavor. Not anymore. The other day, somewhere in the southern Caribbean, the...
The Dumbest Front in the Trade War
Let me tell you about my friend up in Canada. She’s not some corporate shark gaming loopholes in trade law. She’s an artisan—sews intricate patterns into a quilt. Her friend paints mugs with flowers so delicate they’d make your grandma’s china blush, and sells them on...
Isaac Cubillos
This isn’t journalism for the polite table.
This is truth with grit under its nails and dirt on its boots.







