Lawrence Lease
Bio
Alaska born and bred, Washington DC is my home. I'm also a freelance writer. Love politics and history.
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Stories (308)
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FIELD MANUAL FOR THE SAFE DECOMMISSIONING OF A HOUSE
Purpose: To provide clear, repeatable instructions for shutting down a house that no longer functions as intended. Follow all steps in order. Deviations may result in structural failure, emotional leakage, or reactivation.
By Lawrence Lease3 months ago in Poets
My Predictions for Hollywood in 2026
YouTube steamrolls traditional television. Netflix swallows Warner Bros. Bob Iger links Disney’s future to a boundary-pushing tech startup that redraws the rules of entertainment. Donald Trump decides which media empires thrive, extracts massive legal settlements from broadcast newsrooms, and pressures studios to quietly abandon diversity and inclusion initiatives. After a year where reality repeatedly outpaced imagination, trying to predict what 2026 holds may be the most unrealistic idea of all.
By Lawrence Lease3 months ago in Geeks
The French Defense Model Won't Work for Europe
In today’s increasingly multipolar world, power doesn’t just belong to superpowers anymore. It belongs to the states that understand leverage—how to move money, influence, and security through places where sovereignty is weak and attention is scarce. As the United States, China, Europe, and Russia focus on managing their own global rivalries, a different tier of actors has stepped into the gaps.
By Lawrence Lease4 months ago in FYI
Diving Deep into the Crisis in Venezuela
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker. Very large. Largest one ever seized, actually.” That was Donald Trump, speaking on December 10, announcing the latest escalation in Washington’s long-running feud with Venezuela. It was vintage Trump—off-the-cuff, boastful, and ominous. But behind the theatrics was something far more serious: a renewed standoff between the United States and a country that has spent more than a decade unraveling in slow motion.
By Lawrence Lease4 months ago in FYI
Uganda’s Elections are a Critical Flashpoint. Here’s What to Know
On January 15, 2026, Uganda will hold a nationwide general election. The contest will once again pit the country’s long-serving strongman, Yoweri Museveni, against prominent opposition figure Bobi Wine, reprising their 2021 showdown. After decades of uninterrupted rule and multiple re-elections, Uganda’s opposition believes—perhaps more out of necessity than optimism—that this could finally be the year Museveni is forced from power.
By Lawrence Lease4 months ago in FYI
Young People Are Getting REALLY Conservative. Here's Why.
In the early months of 2025, The New York Times published a headline that would have felt almost surreal just a few years earlier: When Your Son Goes MAGA. Not long ago, a story like that would have been treated as a curiosity, a fringe cultural anomaly, or at most an amusing reversal of expectations rather than a serious political trend worthy of sustained attention.
By Lawrence Lease4 months ago in The Swamp
Yemen is Dead. Here's What Will Replace It
If you look at a map of Yemen dated December 1, 2025, it’s already wrong. In just two weeks, a separatist group called the Southern Transitional Council (STC) has upended nearly a decade of assumptions about the country’s balance of power. Through a rapid, coordinated lightning offensive, the STC seized Yemen’s southern coastline, its most valuable oil fields, and the overwhelming majority of the territory once governed by the Cold War–era state of South Yemen.
By Lawrence Lease4 months ago in FYI
ISIS Killed Three Americans in Syria. Much Worse is Coming
On Saturday, December 13, the war that many Americans barely remember reached out and killed three of them. In the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, a lone gunman opened fire during a lunchtime meeting on a joint base shared by U.S. forces and Syrian security personnel. Within moments, two American soldiers and a U.S. civilian interpreter were dead. Three more Americans and three Syrian personnel were wounded before the attacker was finally shot and killed.
By Lawrence Lease4 months ago in FYI
