Why the UN Intransigence?

On February the 23rd in 2022, Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations, issued a challenge to the governing body. He said: “Mr. Secretary-General, please instruct the secretariat to distribute among the members of the Security Council and the members of the General Assembly a decision by the Security Council dated December 1991 that … Read more

Vladimir Putin’s Real Motives

While Russia’s leader may surround himself with tacticians, he is by no means a strategist. There is no such thing as a coherent strategy in the absence of a coherent value proposition. And likewise, tactics seldom lead to meaningful victory when divorced from strategic thought. Like so many other kleptocrats, Vladimir Putin is willing to … Read more

Best Hope for the United Nations

On February 23, 2022, the Ambassador of Ukraine issued a challenge to the Secretariat of the United Nations. He was highlighting the way the Russian Federation held, by arbitrary assumption, a seat on the United Nations Security Council after the demise of the Soviet Union. Such short circuiting of due process, within the United Nations, … Read more

Evolving NATO

In Washington D.C. on April the 4th in 1949, the 12 founding members of NATO signed what became known as The North Atlantic Treaty. The agreement is short. It contained only 14 articles each characterized by internal flexibility. The treaty was founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. The signatories … Read more

Alexei Navalny’s Video w/ Subtitles

Alexei Navalny is the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation and the leader of a party for Russia of the Future. Earlier, he was a Russian Opposition Coordination Council member. In August 2020, Navalny was hospitalized in serious condition after he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He was medically evacuated to Berlin and discharged … Read more

They Want All of the Rhythm & None of the Blues

The struggle between the the players and the owners within the USA’s National Football League is hardly unique within our country’s great economic divide. And, as similar struggles within major league baseball discount the interests of host cities that actively and financially courted teams, such marginalized stakeholders continue to eat major losses. Few citizens are … Read more

Shouting Fire!

Just why is it considered criminal to yell “fire” in a movie theatre? While the applicable law within various locales is nuanced, the common thread is that people rely on the word of the screamer to their detriment. Clearly, when the screamer deliberately misleads people, in a way that is the proximate cause for crush … Read more

Vladimir Putin’s Useful Idiots

As Biden’s push to defend democracy is seen by many as too little too late, the twenty first century’s John Birchers continue to deny that the United States was ever intended to be a democracy. They parrot the talking points of earlier demagogues while exhibiting no depth of knowledge and little interest in developing any. … Read more

The Light Sabre

Obie-Wan Kenobi once described the Light Sabre as an elegant weapon. We might add: Especially when it is energized by just the right combination of physical light, intellectual insight, and Spirit luminosity. In the Gospel According to Matthew, the author wrote: If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! I’ve come to believe … Read more

Focus on the Filibuster

On March the 7th in 2021, on Fox News Sunday, Senator Joe Manchin said “The filibuster should be painful, it really should be painful and we’ve made it more comfortable over the years.” On NBC’s Meet the Press, Manchin also said “If you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there … Read more