Harlan Ullman

To take liberties with Voltaire, "liars figure and figures lie." Taken more broadly, all of us are prone to exaggeration, stretching the truth and occasionally telling "white lies."  Outright lying is hopefully less common although virtually every political leader often succumbs to the untruth. "I am not a crook" and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" are perhaps two of the … [Read more...] about Can lies destroy a nation?

Although November 2020 is twenty-one months away, the presidential campaign has begun.  Seven Democrats have declared or established exploratory presidential committees.  More will follow. Above all, America, Americans and the world at large desperately need a competent president.  But will we get one? The president has established his re-election organization.  While the Mueller investigation … [Read more...] about America needs a competent president

A century ago, Oswald Spengler published The Decline of the West. In it, Spengler predicted that around the year 2000, Western civilization would enter a "pre-death emergency." A question: are Brexit in the United Kingdom and a partial government shutdown in the U.S. precursors of this "pre-death emergency?" Or are these examples symptomatic of political and governmental gridlock in which leaders … [Read more...] about Petulance is no substitute for politics

As this column goes to press, the partial governmental shutdown in America may be entering its fourth week--the longest in our history.  The battle lines are drawn.  President Donald Trump is very much betting his presidency on forcing Congressional Democrats to fund his "wall" with Mexico.  While superimposed on a $4.4 trillion federal budget, the $5.8 billion requested by the president for this … [Read more...] about Build bridges not walls

Last week's column portrayed 2019 as more Hobbesi an than Panglossian with the Trumpian swamp deteriorating into a more dangerous quagmire. The other side of this coin also needs to be examined. What can be done to make things better? The first is to prevent an unnecessary arms race and military competition with Russia. The White House has declared it will exit from the Intermediate Nuclear … [Read more...] about Can it get better —

As 2019 looms, for the United States, can the new year be any worse than the final weeks of 2018? Donald Trump promised to drain the Washington swamp. Instead, he has turned his administration and the White House into the mother of all swamps where incompetence has become the common denominator and chaos the dominant descriptor. The president’s base believes the president can do no wrong. The … [Read more...] about Can it get worse?

At a time when much of America's political dialogue is determined by sound bites and tweets, Donald Trump's difficulties could be summarized as presidential M-Problems. Internationally, the Western alliance is being shaken by the tenuous toeholds on power of the Big Three M's: UK Prime Minister Theresa May; Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel; and France's President Emmanuel Macron. In … [Read more...] about Trump’s M problems

Technologists and political scientists are describing the shape of things to come in terms of a “cognitive age” in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep and machine learning will create a societal transformation equal to or surpassing the effects of the industrial and information revolutions. In this revolution, information and data will become the new oil and fossil fuels that powered the … [Read more...] about The shape of things to come: 2084 and an AI world

Compared with much of the last century, for America, the world is less dangerous and unstable. Yet, in an age of pernicious tweet fueled politics, how much ruin can this nation endure? One wonders America and Americans face a profound paradox. Compared with the past, today’s challenges and dangers arguably are not existential and in many ways less than we have experienced before. But anger, … [Read more...] about Can America cope with a lot of ruin in an era of twitter?