Links
Mobbed Up?
Published Feb. 23, 2017 in the Washington Monthly. ( Link to article) Connecting the dots between Trump and the Russian mafia. For more than a year, the media have been abuzz with facts, rumors, and speculation regarding President Trump’s ties to the Russian government – his own personal ties, and those of advisers like Michael…
“Another Piña Colada, and Hold the Sanctions!”
The incredible recklessness of Michael Flynn. It is usually in year three or year seven of a presidency that the scandals hit with full fury, but Donald J. Trump is shaking up all the staid conventions of Washington. The departure of his national security adviser after only 23 days on the job amid a growing…
The Mysterious James Comey
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…
Evolution of the “Deep State”: Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the NSA
Link to interview While spending 16 years as the Chief National Security Analyst on the House and then Senate Budget Committees, Mike Lofgren, furnished with top security clearance, began to visualize an invisible power structure running the U.S. government. He recently joined the Financial Sense Newshour for a special interview to explain the group of…
Press Agent for the Super-Rich
Published Oct. 17, 2011 in the Washington Monthly. ( Link to article) It is hardly surprising that the super-rich hire press agents to sing their praises. Since time out of mind, the powerful have tossed a few pieces of silver to writers willing to extol them. So it appears to be with John Steele Gordon,…