“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” — Dante Alighieri The world came together almost as one on February 24, 2022, when the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. This was a unique moment where the world order, based on the rule of law, rallied around [...]
These past few days Vladimir Putin’s invasion forces have attacked the largest nuclear power plant in Europe located at Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. This unnecessary attack put not only the citizens of Ukraine in grave danger, but also all of Europe. The attack caused a fire which has been extinguished, yet the Russian attack on the plant [...]
The United Nations was founded in 1945 on the premise that the use of force was to be used only as a last resort. Yet, several decades later a tyrant once again is using force to resolve a “dispute”. In 1945, the world had just finished a war where Europe had been devastated. Stung by [...]
We all recall the famous photo in 1938 of the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepping off his plane holding up an agreement with Adolf Hitler that averted a possible conflict with Germany. He gave away the Sudetenland and the political independence of Czechoslovakia to do so. Chamberlain proudly declared “peace in our time.” [...]
As we come closer to the opening of the Winter Olympiad in Beijing, China, a peoples in Western China is being destroyed “in whole or in part.” The world will assemble in the name of sport ignoring what is happening a few hundred miles away. It is a state-sponsored genocide by the very nation that [...]
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy Fukuyama’s “The End of History” paper claimed that the western liberal democracy is the final form of the human-governance evolution. His argument relied on the Democratic Peace Theory, originating from the early 1700s, which states that most democratic [...]
In Trump v. Mazars, the Supreme Court appeared to reject President Trump’s claim to an executive privilege protecting him from a subpoena seeking private financial information under United States v. Nixon, in keeping with its holding in Clinton v. Jones that no special privilege protects the President from private lawsuits. When executive privilege applies, the [...]
Dictators use fear as a tool to stay in power. Politicians use various techniques to govern as well. In liberal democracies governance is based on incentives, good governance, rule of law, and service. Strongmen use other techniques to govern, such as fear, outside threats, coercion, and incentives. Another technique to govern seen largely in totalitarian [...]
Thomas Jefferson is reported to have said: “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” I have investigated and prosecuted dictators and their henchmen for most of my professional life. I have studied their lives, personalities, their rise to power and how they governed once achieving [...]
The President only has two enumerated constitutional duties, to be the Chief Executive of the Executive Branch and be Commander in Chief of the Armed forces during time of war. That is it. His oath in Article II of the Constitution requires him to protect and defend that Constitution. Additionally, he is constitutionally bound to [...]
