Tick Tock Sheptock

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have now held the first of three presidential debates . This means that those suffering from "election stress disorder" will soon find relief after hearing Mr. Trump's senseless rants for over 15 months as he eliminated 16 other GOP candidates (most of whom were more qualified than he is to become president). Then again, they might jump from the frying pan into the fire by having even more.....MUCH more to worry about if Trump were to win. Sadly, a Trump victory is not completely unrealistic given the fact that the candidates are in a virtual tie less than six weeks before election day. Though Mr. Trump gave his best performance to-date on September 26th (which isn't saying much),  he still got "Trumped" by Secretary Clinton . However, political scientists don't think that the debates will move the needle of public opinion -- no matter how well Hillary Clinton does or how poorly Donald Trump does. (Let's hope the...

In this post I'll attempt to show patterns and draw parallels between several major events of the past 100 years on either side of the Atlantic. I hope to provoke thoughts about lessons that the world should have learned by now. I'll also make some political predictions – things that I hope for as well as unfavorable things that I foresee happening: It's a madder, madder, madder, madder world . That truth is especially evident when one looks at the last 100 years – from World War I right up to Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign season. The logic of the world's most learned political elites has been turned on its head time and time again – leaving any reasonable person to wonder if there's any hope of us voting for and/or appointing a set of leaders who can display a sufficient level of geopolitical sanity and if it's possible for those who don't come from privileged backgrounds to do any better . After all, numerous entertainers have brou...

Let's be clear: I don't like Donald Trump. Truth be told, it's not because he is an aspiring dictator. After all, I liked Hugo Chavez BECAUSE he tried to become a benevolent dictator who operated above the fray of congressional bickering and BECAUSE he succeeded and sending the message to greedy capitalists that, if they harvested oil or other resources from Venezuela, they would have to put money into his country's economy and thereby help the poor. Dictators tend to be very organized thinkers who are good at uniting their administrations under consistent themes that run across all departments of their respective governments. A certain friend who is retired from USAID has told me that he felt safe while walking the streets of Moscow at 2 AM when Russia had a dictator; but, he wouldn't dare do that now. He emphasized that dictators don't tolerate street crime. That said, a dictator is as good as his theme/agenda. In a free country like the “Untied States” peop...

Events beginning with the 9/11 attacks and ending with the October 13 th , 2015 Democratic debate point to a Clinton/Sanders “GALiphate” on January 20 th , 2017. I'm all for it and believe that American voters will bring it to pass. Let's start with the last item in the timeline: the Democratic debate of October 13 th , 2015. It was actually quite pleasant to watch. The candidates weren't focused on the faults of their opponents; but rather, on what they would do if elected. They discussed matters of general principle. Senator Bernie Sanders said unabashedly that capitalism is a terrible system that leaves the few with much while the many are scraping by on very little – my stance, to be sure. Secretary Hillary Clinton watered down his statements by suggesting that we merely rein in the negative effects of capitalism gone awry but leave it intact. I hold that against her. Social media is now rife with comments opposing the determination by political pundits and the ma...