by G. Murphy Donovan Celebrity is the knife that cuts two ways; fame on the left, shame on the right. David Hogg is learning that lesson today. Alas, Mister Hogg is a child trying to navigate puberty on national television. He casts himself as a victim, a “survivor,” a spokesman, if not a ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan “There are three “musts” that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy.”  -  Albert Ellis Branding is everything if you are in the “activist” business. More than a few bizarre brands are trending these days. Black Lives Matter ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan Tone is always set at the top. The early years of the 21st Century may come to be known as the era of invective. One candidate in the 2016 presidential election maligned voters as a “basket of deplorables.” That slur may have prompted enough indignation to give Donald ...Read More...

Together Again by G. Murphy Donovan Say what you will about Donald Trump, but beyond ego, bluster, and stable manners; you will often find the courage of truth, a kind of candor too painful to ignore. The recent “official” recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a dramatic example ...Read More...

And other prophylactics by G. Murphy Donovan “Those capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.” - Spooner Mendacity is the currency of modern American politics. Truth, it seems, is now a function of what an advocate is willing to sell and gulls are willing to buy. Words like ...Read More...

Iconoclasm on the Left by G. Murphy Donovan Washington, DC, 2017 Inauguration Day riots A few years after the Martin Luther King riots of 1968, I was driving through Harlem in upper Manhattan. At several traffic lights I was greeted by a corner chorus of “right on man, Chocolate City.” ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan In April, I wrote a piece for the Small Wars Journal, “Why We Lose,” that recommended some new initiatives that might change the vectors of foreign policy under the Trump administration. The principal recommendation for NATO reform was to expel Turkey, recognize Kurdistan, ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan “Our values (sic) will prevail, never giving in to terror,” - Theresa May The fight against Islamic terror has two faces today, public relations and strategic hokum. The recent meeting of the ministers of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS in Washington illustrates ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan Barack Obama era national security acolytes, now serving under Donald Trump, are not doing much to help with or clarify American foreign policy or national security futures. The Ummah provides the best example. Just days after the Trump inauguration, the newly minted ...Read More...

Business as Usual? by G. Murphy Donovan Donald Trump has only been in office for a couple of months. Any performance evaluation to date is probably premature. Nonetheless, early on, there are some good and bad omens. The good news is domestic. President Trump seems to be focused on health ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan Regime change zealots are now working the home front.  Billy Kristol, erstwhile editor of white blight and right fright at the Weekly Standard, says that he would rather have the “deep state” than the Trump state. If you ever wondered why neo-conservatives are often confused ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan No stereotype is possible without elements of truth. Some received clichés, however, are more reliable than others. Take Ireland and Germany for example; where journalists shed the guise of civility recently to validate long-standing national tropes, fake Irish piety and ...Read More...

Moscow 1991 and Washington 2016 by G. Murphy Donovan The other day I received an email from a schoolgirl in Moscow; New Year’s salutations, thanks for a gift, and a request that read: “Get your troops out of Poland; love, your Russky niece.” I laughed about her presumption about my influence ...Read More...

Requiem for a Lightweight by G. Murphy Donovan “Character is destiny.” - Heraclitus Critics often make for strange bedfellows. Louis Farrakhan and Cornell West are examples. Both argue that Barack Obama was not ready for prime time. For Farrakhan, Obama failed on race and social issues. ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared on Public Television shortly before the presidential election for an extended interview with Charlie Rose. Mister Rose, like many of his peers these days, swings between hard news at dusk and bimbo chat at dawn. Indeed, ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan Edward Albee died on 16 September. The death of America’s greatest modern playwright was obscured by the run-up to the first 2016 presidential debate. You can’t help but think of the parallels between an evening with Donald and Hillary and an evening with Albee’s George and ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan “Time spent arguing is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.”  - Christopher Hitchens The impending presidential debates are likely to be the best attended in the history of American politics. The viewing and listening audience will set a standard for political discussions ...Read More...

by G. Murphy Donovan Rabbi Jeremy Gimpel should be nominated for video of the month. He provides the most lucid and succinct analysis of the Islamist threat and Obama administration vacuity that has appeared in a while. Trump is correct too. POTUS is either stupid, ignorant, or possessed by a hidden ...Read More...

“To harbor spiteful feelings against ordinary people for not being heroes is possible only for narrow-minded or embittered man.” - Chekhov The Republican primaries began as an opportunity to vote for someone. When the choices went from two dozen or more to three, the last few primaries became about ...Read More...

“If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable.” - JFK                      The probability that any American political candidate will propose any “revolutionary” domestic reforms in 2016 is slim to none. Even means testing for entitlements is anathema across ...Read More...

“We are not at war with Islam.” – Barack Hussein Obama We could begin with: “ISIS comes to America.” But that would suggest that the latest mutant strain of Muslim terror is somehow new or unique. The sad truth is, alas, that contemporary imperial Islam, a kind of cultural sewage, has been flowing ...Read More...

On 25 November a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter, allegedly flown by NATO Turkish pilots, shot down a Russian Sukhoi bomber over Syria. The Turks claimed that the SU-24 violated their airspace, apparently by a few kilometers - or seconds in flight time at most. The Turks claimed to have issued 10 warnings ...Read More...

“The influence of the (Islamic) religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.”  -  Winston Churchill Islamic fanatics struck another blow for cynicism last Friday night in Paris; wholesale and gratuitous slaughter in the name of some sanguinary Muslim god. History teaches few ...Read More...

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”    - Virginia Woolf                     The coronation of Hillary Rodham as presidential nominee for 2016 is proceeding apace if the debate schedule provides any evidence. The first Democrat “debate” is scheduled ...Read More...

The Republican establishment in America is perplexed. Democrats are distraught.  A liberal Media is having a hissy fit. Indeed, all of the usual whiners are groping for explanations. Even FOX News is stammering and sputtering for clarity. Going into the first debate of the 2016 presidential season, ...Read More...