“The mob is easily deceived, for it judges by appearances.” Aristotle’s words speak to a dangerous flaw in human nature: how easily fear can be stoked, trust compromised, and institutions dismantled from within. In 1947, amid growing fears of communist influence, President Harry Truman issued an executive order authorizing a “loyalty investigation of every person entering civilian employment” in the...

In his weekly column in the Washington Post, Nicholas Kristof writes that despite Trump’s clear call for insurrection last week, “…a new poll finds that 75 percent of Republican voters continue to approve of Trump’s presidency. “As I was writing my column,” Kristof says, “I had a call with a childhood friend who told me about his ‘inside information’ that...

The Incitement — There’s an old Russian fable that goes like this… A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river on the frog’s back. Afraid of being stung, the frog hesitates. The scorpion argues that if it did that, they’d both drown. The frog considers this sensible and agrees to carry the scorpion. Midway across the river,...

Will return to commentary central on Friday. “Are you worried about getting it? “No.” “Why not?” “I don’t know.” – Reporter Bob Woodward asking President Trump if he’s worried about getting the coronavirus. After the president was diagnosed with Covid-19 — a virus that has claimed more than 209,000 American lives —  » Read more about: The Height of Irresponsibility  »...

We are, all of us, standing at a crossroads. How we respond will determine whether we continue with a constitutional form of government with three co-equal branches, or a neo-fascist regime administered by an authoritarian, aided by a rogue attorney general, a self-assured Senate majority leader, a majority of silent Republicans, and a transparently dishonest cable opinion network that acts...

He is an angry, arrogant, bigoted, unprincipled narcissist who was elected to the U.S. presidency by the slimmest of margins. He is the most illiterate, contradictory, and inarticulate individual who has ever held the highest office in the land. According to the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), he has more than 3,000 conflicts of interest....

Captain Brett Crozier, the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt who was reprimanded and removed from his command as a result of a letter he sent to Navy officials in Washington imploring their support in removing sailors from his ship due to an outbreak of coronavirus on board, appears to be on track to be reinstated to his command…...

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”   — George Santayana, Spanish philosopher At the most critical juncture of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy was facing the very real possibility of nuclear war with Russia. In a speech to the American people, Kennedy details the crisis and expresses his desire for full and complete denuclearization....