Did Boris Johnson just show Nancy Pelosi how to destroy Trump?
OK, hear me out on this. It’s going to get weird. The guy on the right is secure in his power. The guy on the left is not. Donald Trump just got impeached on two articles of impeachment: abuse of power (230–197–Tulsi) and obstruction of Congress (229–198–Tulsi). The common belief is that the impeachment trial will […]
How much of history is random?
It’s the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall today, and it’s got me to thinking. Everyone knows that’s one of the most momentous events in history, but how did it happen? And did how it happened give us any guidance as to the complex situation we Americans find ourselves in today? Thinking […]
The Butt Fumble: Rudy Giuliani and the incompetence gambit.
Smart. At first glance, Rudy Giuliani and Mark Sanchez might not seem to have a lot in common. Sure, they both played on the biggest stage in New York, leading to fascinating moments of Big Apple pride. You can’t tell the recent history of NYC without either of them. Giuliani was an autocratic mayor who […]
Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump, and the bet against America.
Nobody ever asks me how I feel about Amy Klobuchar. I don’t get peppered with questions about my confidence in Julián Castro or Bill Weld. Mark Sanford’s not a strange being, except for that thing he did that one time. Folks look to Cory Booker for inspiration, Beto O’Rourke for animation, Kamala Harris to channel […]
Game theory and the four magic words that will convict Trump.
The GOP armageddon. More than two years ago, I kicked off this series on game theory and politics with a column called “Game theory and the two magic words that will impeach Trump.” Those two words were “and Pence.” The logic was that since then-House Speaker Paul Ryan yearned to be president, a movement to […]
The Epstein–Barr virus: Why conspiracies beget more conspiracies.
“Conspiracies have generally been set on foot by the great, or the friends of the prince; and of these, as many have been prompted to it by an excess of benefits as by an excess of wrongs.”—Machiavelli In case you didn’t feel enough like you’re living in that comic book version of Earth where the […]
Mr. Trump’s crime code.
“It would be no different if I said, ‘That’s the nicest looking tie I’ve ever seen, isn’t it?’ What are you gonna do, you gonna fight with him? The answer is no, so you say, ‘Yeah, that’s the nicest looking tie I’ve ever seen.’ That’s how he speaks. He doesn’t give you questions. He doesn’t […]
I put my essays into a book that you can get right now.
If you’ve read my essays over the last two years, you know I’ve used game theory to analyze Donald Trump’s actions and many other political issues. I decided to put them into a book called Game Theory in the Age of Chaos. For the next two weeks, you can preorder it on Kickstarter and get […]
Seizing children is good policy (if you’re a complete monster).
Today’s lesson: We’re complete monsters. Note that her shoelaces have been seized, apparently so she doesn’t hang herself in captivity. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.) “Some of them heard their children screaming for them in the next room. Not a single one of them had been allowed to say goodbye or explain to them what […]
The Democrats pick the right strategy (even though it hurts).
Walkouts: Good for protests, bad for governance. Where did the #Resistance go? In the last month, Democrats gave up a principled government shutdown and a deadlock on the Dreamers because of what? How dare they! Why did they sell out the… Wait, hold on. What did they get? Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program […]