Published Feb. 13, 2017 in the Washington Monthly. ( Link to article) The FBI must have known that Michael Flynn illegally discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador. On February 10, the Washington Post ran an above-the-fold story stating that — according to multiple government sources — Michael Flynn, President Trump’s national security adviser, took a…
The Rise of Right-Wing Ideological Tourism
Published Feb.1, 1017 in the Washington Monthly. ( Link to article) This trend could have major consequences for Trump’s foreign policy. A few weeks before the election, I phoned an acquaintance who was burrowed into a sinecure in the federal government despite his theoretical conservative detestation of the Beltway Leviathan and its evil works. This phenomenon…
The Myth of Catharsis
Published Jan. 27, 1017 in the Washington Monthly. ( Link to article) Making things worse won’t make things better. One frequently heard sentiment among those appalled by the presidency of Donald Trump is the notion that he will make things so bad that the American people will awake from their trance-like state, take some unspecified…
Is Sean Spicer Gaslighting the Press?
Published Jan. 22, 2017 in the Washington Monthly. ( link to article) In his first official performance as press secretary for a new president barely 24 hours after his inauguration, Sean Spicer delivered a performance that would have made Baghdad Bob look like Diogenes. Looking sour and petulant, Spicer lashed out at the media for…
Worst. Negotiator. Ever.
Published in the Washington Monthly Jan. 20, 2017 ( link to article) Donald Trump’s nuclear arms gambit shows he’s a loser.
Wall Street’s Win-Win with Trump
Published in TheConsortiumnews (link to article) Exclusive: Most Wall Street bigwigs sided with Hillary Clinton in 2016 but now have adroitly shifted affections to Donald Trump whose populist rhetoric is giving way to another super-rich bonfire of the vanities, explains Mike Lofgren. During the 2016 campaign, pundits claimed that Donald Trump’s proposed economic policies would bring…
Trump, Putin, and the Alt-Right International
Published in The Atlantic (link to article) In boosting Trump and funding fringe parties in Europe, Russia has helped construct a new kind of “comintern”—and it’s even more effective than the Cold War version. One of the double-edged aspects of being a writer is that you can become known in all kinds of unlikely circles….