Donald J. Trump’s second four years in the White House are shaping up to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys, as the old saying goes. I have it from several sources, who cannot be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, as the old saying at The New York Times goes, that... Read More

Recent developments in Washington relating to Ukraine and the Middle East remind me that there is a big difference between maintaining secrecy when a situation warrants it and lying over issues where there is no compelling reason to do so beyond political expediency. Having spent more than twenty years in American intelligence agencies where secrecy... Read More

Kevin McCarthy is still losing very badly, with more and more members of Congress opposing his ascension to Speaker of the House. McCarthy did the 6th vote on Wednesday. He doesn’t have the votes. He has people out there threatening people who won’t support him, and it’s not working. He is making no attempt to... Read More

The popular narrative of plucky little Israel prevailing over hordes of bloodthirsty Arabs has captured the Western imagination even though it is manifestly false in almost every detail. But Israel’s greatest accomplishment might well be something else, it’s ability to make things disappear. It plausibly all began in June 1967 when Israel attacked the USS... Read More

Israel has been involved in several stories currently making their way through the US media. The most fascinating tale concerns Republican Party Congressman from Florida Matt Gaetz. Gaetz is a Donald Trump loyalist who has up until recently been touted as the party’s future. Young, photogenic and a “firebrand” defender of GOP priorities, he has... Read More

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL-1) led the charge against Rep. Adam Schiff’s Star Chamber impeachment this week—literally. Gaetz and 25 other Republicans burst into an impeachment hearing in a secure Capitol Hill conference room on Wednesday [House Republicans Literally Storm the Impeachment Hearings, by Sam Brodey and Sam Stein, The Daily Beast, October 23, 2019].... Read More