authoritarian regimes

The Ukraine War, September 19, 2023: Lessons from the Ukraine War–On Freedom

When I read about or see on TV Republicans like House Leader Kevin McCarthy question further military aid for Ukraine, which is not in the…

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Ukraine war, August 21, 2023: Ukraine and the Republican debate on Wednesday, August 23






Ukraine War, August 17, 2022: It is time to get serious and end this war


Ukraine War, July 5, 2022: The most important front in the Ukraine war is America, not the Donbas


Ukraine War, June 28, 2022: American diplomacy fails to win support against Russia among non-allied countries; G-7 leaders disappoint, are reminiscent of leaders in 1930’s facing Nazi threat


Ukraine War, April 21, 2022 (I): Biden cancels tactical nuclear weapons program; Yellen worries about impact on global economy of European energy embargo; Biden finally closes American ports to Russian shipping

Developing Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being…


Ukraine War, April 19, 2022: Planes and parts have been transferred to Ukraine; NATO on sidelines, as analysts express premature sense of victory; No viable strategy for ending war

Developing Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being…


Ukraine War, April 15, 2022 (II): Let us not praise Ukrainians’ courage, at least not until we have looked within and found our own; Explaining to citizens what is at stake and why it is important

Developing Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being…


Ukraine War, April 12, 2022 (I): The War’s decisive moment; more than 20,000 killed in Mariupol

Developing Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being…


Ukraine War, March 29, 2022 (I): New Ukrainian position in Istanbul negotiations; Reparations–Russia must pay for this war for generations

Developing Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being…


Reflections on Czechoslovakia (1968) and Ukraine (2022): August 20, 1968 — “Dubček, Svoboda!”

As Russian tanks threaten to invade Ukraine, memories of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia come to mind. What is at stake in Ukraine today is…


Russian intervention in Kazakhstan II (January 7, 2022)

January 7, 2022 See, 1) AFP, “Russia’s ‘mini-Nato’ intervenes in Kazakhstan Clashes reported in Almaty as govt buildings cleared of protesters,” 24newshd.tv January 7, 2022(7:43…


Russian intervention in Kazakhstan

Analysis and Opinion See 1) “Russia and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) decide to send troops to Kazakhstan–text of CSTO Charter,” The Trenchant Observer, January…


Three urgent actions needed to save American democracy

Sometimes political situations and their implications are very clear to the objective observer, someone like the Observer who is far removed from the buzz of Washington, Twitter, and the latest “breaking news” on the Cable News networks. The Observer is a keen and unbiased commentator who reads many newspapers, both American and foreign, and who has been paying attention to political developments in the United States for a long time.

Drawing on this experience and his own original analysis, the Observer believes that there are three major problems that pose a challenge to American democracy, and that there are three active measures that the Democrats and “little d” democrats should take, now, in order to save the Republic.

Taking down Trump is the single most important action the Democrats can take to safeguard American democracy in 2022 and 2024. Together with passing legislation prohibiting the knowing transmission of lies and disinformation on television and radio, and enacting voting rights legislation, indicting Trump is an essential action in any program to protect American democracy against the anti-democratic and authoritarian threat Trump and his supporters represent.

These three problems represent the greatest challenges to American democracy today.

These three urgent actions represent our best hopes for beating back the anti-democratic challenge before it is too late.


Democrats refuse to indict Trump. Biden stumbles. Republicans gear up to steal elections. The fascist threat grows.

The Democrats refuse to prosecute Donald Trump. Moreover, they enforce a conspiracy of silence under which not even the question of whether Trump should be prosecuted can be discussed, or even raised.

Meanwhile, Trump, who appears to have committed numerous felonies in full public view, is left free to hold rallies and breathe air into a growing fascist movement led by the Republican party and his supporters

President Joe Biden continues to stumble, to blow the opportunities his and the Democrats’ narrow victories in 2020 have afforded him.

Neither Biden nor the Democratic leaders seem to understand that fascist threat.  

The country faces a fascist challenge supported by 35-40 million voters living in a propaganda universe, an alternate universe where facts and the truth do not hold sway, plus perhaps another 20 million cynical fellow travelers.

Nowhere are their leaders with the courage to stand up and defend our democracy by taking bold actions, such as indicting Trump.


Trump’s attempted subversion of the Justice Department: When will he be indicted?

New and damning details emerged today with the publication of an Interim Report by the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 7, 2021.

The breadth and extent of Donald Trump’s electoral and other crimes is in the public record.

While the nation pays attention to the latest “breaking news” story, American democracy is in grave peril.

The questions that should be front and center in every newspaper and on every radio and TV news program are the following:

1) Why has Trump not been indicted?

2) Should Trump be indicted?

3) When will Trump be indicted?