Apr 17RUSSIA: THE DINOSAUR LIVES ONVladimir Putin clearly began his invasion of Ukraine as a way to weaken the influence of what might be called the American system. In virtually every way, the political organizations in the United States and the Russian Federation are polar opposites. The writers of the Constitution at that famous convention…Vladimir Putin5 min read
Apr 1RUSSIA: HOW THE KGB WONDuring the last week it has become increasingly clear that Vladimir Putin’s effort to destroy Ukraine has become so obviously a failure that he is, in desperation, threatening the very people that he needs in order to continue in office. Referring to his domestic opposition as “Gnats” is hardly designed…Russia4 min read
Mar 17THINKING ABOUT RUSSIAWe are now near the end of the third week of Vladimir Putin’s attempt to place himself among Russia’s historic leaders by adding Ukraine back into Russia by military conquest. It is, as we know, not going well. …Vladimir Putin5 min read
Mar 3VLADIMIR, THE INVADERPeople in the capitals of the world are in shock. The Russian Federation led by its authoritarian leader Vladimir Putin is in the seventh day of an all-out military invasion of Ukraine. The shock is not because we didn’t know that there were huge numbers of Russian troops surrounding Ukraine…Vladimir Putin6 min read
Feb 14THOUGHTS ON RUSSIA/VLADIMIR PUTINThis article was originally printed in THE RISHEL REPORT at the end of December, 2016, when Donald Trump was yet to take office. Now several years later, Vladimir Putin is threatening to invade Ukraine to return it to a Russian empire reborn. I thought that readers might find that Russia’s…Vladimir Putin6 min read
Feb 1WHAT TRUMP WROUGHTIt is hard not to argue that we live in a profoundly different political world than we did when Donald Trump began his run for the presidency in 2016. Since then, the institutions of government have experienced an acceleration of the dysfunctional turmoil that began with the election of Ronald…Donald Trump4 min read
Jan 18BIDEN FACES THE FACT FREE FUTUREBack at it: Let us begin by thinking about the recent past. Democracy depends on voting citizens. …Joe Biden4 min read
Nov 30, 2021REPUBLICANS: WHY DOING NOTHING WINS!Those of you who read my two recent blogs on psychology remember that I suggested that each of us works hard to create a personal universe whose function is to keep internal conflict (experienced as anxiety) at a comfortable level. …Joe Biden4 min read
Oct 10, 2021WHY THE POLITICAL PARTIES CONFUSE RATIONAL VOTERSThe last two articles in this series were an attempt to convince readers that the voters really are rational. …4 min read
Sep 26, 2021VOTERS ARE RATIONAL (II OF II)In Part I of this discussion we suggested that each of us, in order to keep down internal conflict, creates a personal universe. And that we use everything in that smaller world to keep internal conflict as low as possible. …Donald Trump4 min read