THE EXTRAORDINARY MAKEOVER OF KAMALA HARRIS on August 19, 2024At a time when a current president decides not to run for re-election and a past president is shot, what could possibly be an even more remarkable event? Certainly, the transformation and makeover of Vice President Kamala Harris from, at best, a second class politician finding difficulty in speaking plain English to Superwoman status wins […]
Another Tonkin Gulf Rush To Judgment Over Who Killed Haniyeh? on August 7, 2024History may or may not repeat and may or may not rhyme. But certain events can only be ignored or dismissed with great peril. Sixty years ago this month, the United States Congress recklessly and foolishly raced to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on August 7th, 1964 with just two dissenting votes in the Senate. […]
Did Biden Do The Right Thing? on July 24, 2024Did Joe Biden take the correct course of action when, last Sunday, he decided to stand down from the presidency and not seek a second term of office? He then reverted to the default position of recommending his vice president to succeed him. Whether or not Kamala Harris will be his replacement, Biden’s wisdom or […]
Donald Trump Is No Private Ryan on June 7, 2024Over the past week, two events of profound historical significance in the American story reflected the polar extremes of euphoria and despair. Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy and the destruction of Hitler’s Third Reich. Some 200,000 American, British, Canadian and a few French troops landed in five beachheads […]
America First: New Bottles, Old Wine on May 30, 2024As November 5th and the general elections grow closer in the US, regarding foreign policy, Donald Trump’s embrace of “America First” should engage and enrage public debate. But that will not be the case. One major reason is that foreign policy rarely makes much of a difference in presidential elections unless, as with Vietnam, the […]
CONDUCT MOST UNBECOMING on May 19, 2024 The New York trial of former President Donald Trump is, at best, a national embarrassment. But whether you are pro or against Trump, for acquittal or conviction or see the court case as a travesty, one conclusion is inescapable. Donald Trump’s conduct is and has been most unbecoming for his entire career. Trump denies […]
American Strategic Amnesia on May 12, 2024To put it charitably, America and Americans suffer from a bad case of strategic amnesia. This condition has affected not only how the US is responding to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. More importantly, how the US is dealing with its “enemies” is very concerning. Despite forgetting history, a bit of recall is instructive. […]
Does Anyone Know Why April 4 Is Important? on April 8, 2024April 4th is an important date in American history and particularly after World War II. On that date seventy-five years ago, twelve states gathered in Washington to sign a treaty of the same name that created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO is and was a defensive military alliance originally conceived to contain and […]
Can this Become the Best of Times? on April 2, 2024Dickens called it the “best and worst of times” in his Tale of Two Cities. His great novel contrasted the relative stability and prosperity in London with the chaos and confusion in revolutionary Paris. In some ways, this mirrors the profound differences between our two political parties. The US public appears irreversibly divided on virtually […]
A Day With The Donald on March 25, 2024Has the teflon or kevlar coating protecting Donald Trump finally been penetrated? Has the serial entrepreneur who almost impossibly was able to turn every adversity, no matter how damning, into profit finally lost that touch? And will the final inability to post a $454 billion bond put an end to Trump’s political career when 91 […]