Podbit · The Rest Is History
At 84, weeks before his death, Franklin published a satirical pamphlet under a Muslim pseudonym deploying pro-slavery arguments to condemn the Barbary States' enslavement of Europeans. It was the exact language used by American slaveholders — turned against them. A former slave owner's last act was a work of anti-slavery genius.
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When Franklin returned from France in 1785 after 9 years, cannon fire, church bells, and huzzahs greeted him in Philadelphia — a genuine popular hero. Two years later, aged 81, barely able to walk, he attended the Constitutional Convention as Pennsylvania's oldest delegate by 15 years and twice the average age of other members. He could do no heavy lifting, but his presence was a benediction, a living link to the Republic's earliest days [1] — Tom Holland "At 81, barely able to walk, Franklin delivered the Constitutional Convention's most memorable speech. He acknowledged the Constitution's fl…" 1:06:08 . His house, a short walk from the State House, provided a crucial pressure valve: delegates could retire to sit beneath the mulberry tree in his garden and negotiate the compromises that eluded them in the chamber. When the Constitution was finally endorsed on 17 September 1787, Franklin's closing address was characteristically measured: he acknowledged the document's imperfections but urged everyone to sign it, saying simply, 'I consent, sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best.' Tom calls this the spirit in which revolutions should be attempted — pragmatic compromise rather than the white-hot certainty of a Cromwell, Robespierre, or Lenin.
At 81, barely able to walk, Franklin delivered the Constitutional Convention's most memorable speech. He acknowledged the Constitution's flaws, urged everyone to sign it anyway, and said simply: 'I expect no better.' In a century of ideological fanatics, Franklin chose the harder path — pragmatic compromise.
At age 84, just weeks before his death in April 1790, Franklin published a brilliant Swiftian satire using pro-slavery arguments to mock the enslavement of Europeans by Barbary States, his final published work.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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