OUT OF EVIL, CHAOS: PART FOUR (OF FIVE)
The first year of Trump’s White House has seen more firings, resignations, and reassignments of top staffers than any other first-year administration in modern history. His Cabinet turnover exceeds...
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OUT OF EVIL, CHAOS: PART FIVE (END)
The first year of Donald Trump’s White House has seen more firings, resignations, and reassignments of top staffers than any other first-year administration in modern history. His Cabinet turnover...
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LEARNING FROM THE MUNICH DISASTER: PART ONE (OF FIVE)
Robert Payne, author of the bestselling biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), described Hitler’s “negotiating” style thus: “Although Hitler prized his own talents as a negotiator, a...
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LEARNING FROM THE MUNICH DISASTER: PART TWO (OF FIVE)
After selling out Czechoslovakia, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England a hero. Holding aloft a copy of the worthless agreement he had signed with Germany’s dictator, Adolf Hitler, he...
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LEARNING FROM THE MUNICH DISASTER: PART THREE (OF FIVE)
“If we do not have these negotiations over border security with an open government, this president will continue to use this tool. And if we give in, if we pay the ransom now, what will happen the...
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LEARNING FROM THE MUNICH DISASTER: PART FOUR (OF FIVE)
Billionaire Wilbur Ross—the Trump administration’s Secretary of Commerce—had a suggestion for the 800,000 Federal employees made destitute by the government shutdown: Take out a loan. “So the 30 days...
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LEARNING FROM THE MUNICH DISASTER: PART FIVE (END)
On January 25, 2019—the 35th day of the Federal Government shutdown—President Donald Trump did what no one expected. He caved. In a White House press conference, he said: Lawmakers would have until...
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NANCY PELOSI: THE LION AND THE FOX: PART ONE (OF TWO)
It’s one of the most famous passages in The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli’s classic work on Realpolitik. “A prince…must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and...
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NANCY PELOSI: THE LION AND THE FOX: PART TWO (END)
Donald Trump couldn’t believe that Nancy Pelosi meant it when she politely refused to let him give his State of the Union address in the House of Representatives until he reopened the Federal...
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MACHIAVELLI ADVISES, TRUMP REJECTS IT: DISASTER FOLLOWS
Hear that sound? It’s the sound of Niccolo Machiavelli laughing at President Donald J. Trump. Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) was an Italian Renaissance historian, diplomat and writer. Two of his books...
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TRUMP VS. MACHIAVELLI: TRUMP 0, MACHIAVELLI 10
After his untimely assassination, President John F. Kennedy became the subject of a flood of adoring biographies. Among these: With Kennedy, by Pierre Salinger; A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the...
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PRESIDENTS RULE BY CONSENT, DICTATORS RULE BY FEAR: PART ONE (OF TWO)
Donald Trump has often been compared to Adolf Hitler. But his reign bears far more resemblance to that of Joseph Stalin. Germany’s Fuhrer, for all his brutality, maintained a relatively stable...
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PRESIDENTS RULE BY CONSENT, DICTATORS RULE BY FEAR: PART TWO (END)
In January, 2018, the White House banned the use of personal cell phones in the West Wing. The official reason: National security. The real reason: To stop staffers from leaking to reporters. More...
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MORE THAN FETUSES MAY BE ABORTED
In The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science, raised the question of “whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared more than loved.” And he answered it: “The...
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SOME ARE LOVED, SOME ARE FEARED, SOME ARE HATED: PART ONE (OF THREE)
It’s probably the most-quoted passage of Niccolo Machiavelli’s infamous book, The Prince: “From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared more than loved. The...
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SOME ARE LOVED, SOME ARE FEARED, SOME ARE HATED: PART TWO (OF THREE)
Is it better to be loved or feared? That was the question Florentine statesman Niccolo Machiavelli raised more than 500 years ago. Presidents have struggled to answer this question—and have come to...
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SOME ARE LOVED, SOME ARE FEARED, SOME ARE HATED: PART THREE (END)
American Presidents—like politicians everywhere—strive to be loved. There are two reasons for this. First, even the vilest dictators want to believe they are good people—and thus rewarded by the love...
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TRUMP: IGNORING MACHIAVELLI—AND INFLAMING RELATIONS
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) was an Italian Renaissance historian, diplomat and writer. Two of his books continue to profoundly influence modern politics: The Prince and The Discourses on the...
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THE MEDIA AND MUELLER: JUDGING BY THE EYE, NOT THE HAND
….For men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are…. So wrote Niccolo...
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TRUMP’S PREVIEW OF ADMINISTRATIVE INCOMPETENCE: PART ONE (OF THREE)
“The first impression that one gets of a ruler and his brains is from seeing the men that he has about him. “When they are competent and loyal one can always consider him wise, as he has been able to...
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