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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 13, 2026 at 12:10 am
James Comey has had a long and distinguished career in American law enforcement:
- 2002 – 2003: United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
- 2003 – 2005: United States Deputy Attorney General
- 2013 – 2017: Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
As a result, Comey has firsthand experience in attacking organized crime—and in spotting its leaders.
In his bestselling memoir, A Higher Loyalty, he writes:
“As I found myself thrust into the Trump orbit, I once again was having flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the mob. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and the truth.”
On May 9, 2017, President Donald Trump fired Comey as FBI director. There were five reasons for this:
- Comey had refused to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump. Trump had made the “request” during a private dinner at the White House in January.
- Comey told Trump that he would always be honest with him. But that didn’t satisfy Trump’s demand that the head of the FBI act as his personal secret police chief—as was the case in the former Soviet Union.
- Trump had tried to coerce Comey into dropping the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, for his secret ties to Russia and Turkey. Comey had similarly resisted that demand.
- Comey had recently asked the Justice Department to fund an expanded FBI investigation into well-documented contacts between Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.
- The goal of that collaboration: To elect Trump over Hillary Clinton, a longtime foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
James Comey
Trump and his shills have adamantly denied that he demanded that Comey serve as his private police chief.
But then Trump proved that he—and not Comey—was the liar. And more like a mobster than a President.
On August 21, 2018, his former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud. And, more worrisome for Trump, Cohen said he had made illegal campaign contributions “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office”—Donald Trump.
On August 23, on the Fox News program, “Fox and Friends,” Trump attacked Cohen for “flipping” on him:
“For 30, 40 years I’ve been watching flippers. Everything’s wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they—they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go. It—it almost ought to be outlawed. It’s not fair.
“You know, campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly. But if somebody defrauded a bank and he’s going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail but if you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you’ll go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made.”
Making “flipping” illegal would undo decades of organized crime prosecutions—and make future ones almost impossible.
“It takes a small bum to catch a big bum,” as one deputy U.S. marshal once stated.
Boy Scouts simply won’t hang out with career criminals. To penetrate the secrets of criminal organizations, investigators and prosecutors need the testimony of those who are parties to those secrets.
The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 gave Justice Department prosecutors unprecedented weapons for attacking crime syndicates across the country. One of these was the authority to give witnesses immunity from prosecution on the basis of their own testimony.
Thus, a witness to a criminal conspiracy could be forced to tell all he knew—and thus implicate his accomplices—and bosses. In turn, he wouldn’t be prosecuted on the basis of his testimony. (He could, however, be prosecuted if someone else accused him of criminal acts.)
Organized crime members aggressively damn such “rats.” There is no more obscene word in a mobster’s vocabulary.
But no President—until Trump—has ever attacked those who make possible a war on organized crime.
His former lawyer and mentor, Roy Cohn, represented some of the most notorious Mafiosi in the country—such as John Gotti and Carmine Galante. And both Gotti and Galante went to prison owing to “flippers.”
In 1973, former White House Counsel John Dean testified before the United States Senate on a litany of crimes committed by President Richard M. Nixon. Dean didn’t lie about Nixon—who ultimately resigned in disgrace.
For Trump, Dean’s sin is that he “flipped” on his former boss, violating the Mafia’s code of omerta, or silence.
For Donald Trump, there is no greater nightmare than becoming the victim of those who know—and are willing to share—his criminal secrets.
That’s why he fought the release of the “Epstein files,” which document his social relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein from the late 1980s to at least the early 2000s.
Since their partial release, he’s repeatedly tried to divert attention from their revelations. On January 3, 2026, he ordered the invasion of Venezuela to kidnap its dictator/president, Nicolás Maduro. Then on February 28 he launched an attack on Iran.
Both these assaults have only partially succeeded in obscuring revelations of the Epstein files.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 12, 2026 at 12:39 am
On February 28, 2022, CNN’s website published the following headline: RUSSIA FACES FINANCIAL MELTDOWN AS SANCTIONS SLAM ITS ECONOMY.
The story opened:
“Russia was scrambling to prevent financial meltdown Monday as its economy was slammed by a broadside of crushing Western sanctions imposed over the weekend in response to the invasion of Ukraine.”
That unprovoked attack had opened on February 24, with missile and artillery attacks, striking major Ukrainian cities, including Kiev.
Ukraine vs. Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin believed that the conquest of Ukraine would be a cakewalk. Intent on restoring the borders of the former Soviet Union, he had swept from one successful war to the next:
- In 1999-2000, he waged the Second Chechen War, restoring federal control of Chechnya.
- In 2008, he invaded the Republic of Georgia, which had declared its independence as the Soviet Union began to crumble. By war’s end, Russia occupied 20% of Georgia’s territory.
- In 2014, Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched only verbal condemnations.
The reasons:
- Fear of igniting a nuclear war;
- Belief that Russia was simply acting within its own sphere of influence; and/or
- Then-President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on NATO and displays of subservience to Putin.
NATO emblem
Russia had began massing troops on the Ukrainian border in 2021.
When the invasion came, the United States and its Western European allies retaliated with unprecedented economic sanctions.
Among the resulting casualties:
- The ruble crashed.
- Russia’s central bank more than doubled interest rates to 20%.
- Economists predicted the Russian economy could decline by five percent.
- The West—especially the United States—froze at least half of the $630 billion in international reserves that Putin had amassed to stave off tough sanctions.
Then the war bogged down for Russia. By 2026:
- Russia occupied approximately 20% of Ukraine.
- Russia made slow expansions in the east, but Ukraine regained about 400 square kilometers of territory.
- The war has become a conflict fought with drones, Vehicle movement near the front has become impossible.
- Russian drones and missiles target civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
- Ukraine has launched deep-strike operations against Russian military production and energy facilities.
- Russian casualties are estimated between 1.1 million and 1.3 million.
- Ukrainian casualties are estimated between 500,000 and 600,000.
- In short: The war is not going the way Putin assumed it would.
Vladimir Putin
Пресс-служба Президента РФ, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Putin attacked Ukraine to prevent it from joining NATO. But:
- It has frightened Sweden and Finland into joining NATO.
- Russia has suffered a series of humiliating battlefield defeats and its draft has enraged millions of Russians.
- Putin has refused to withdraw from Ukraine and become bogged down in a seemingly endless war.
- As a result, Putin has locked himself into a no-win position.
- And NATO is now fully revitalized to meet future Russian threats.
This is not the first time a dictator has guessed wrong about the results of his actions.
On September 1, 1939, German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ordered his armies to invade Poland.
Almost a year earlier—on September 29, 1938—he had bullied British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier into surrendering the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia, inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans.
The Munich Agreement whetted Hitler’s appetite for greater conquests—and fueled his contempt for England and France: “Our enemies are little worms,” he said in a conference with his generals. “I saw them at Munich.”
He believed he could conquer Poland, and Chamberlain and Daladier would meekly ratify his latest acquisition.
Adolf Hitler
So he was stunned when, on September 3, 1939, Britain and France—however reluctantly—honored their pledged word to Poland and declared war on Germany.
“What now?” Hitler furiously asked his Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Ribbentrop had no answer.
Knowing that Germany lacked the resources for a long war, Hitler had intended to fight a series of quick, small wars, gobbling up one country at a time. Now he found himself locked in an endless war with heavyweights France and England—and eventually the Soviet Union and the United States.
He stayed locked into that war until he committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and the Third Reich officially collapsed on May 7.
Fifty-eight years later, on March 21, 2003, President George W. Bush’s attacked Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
George W. Bush
The war started impressively, with 1,700 air sorties and 504 Cruise missiles.
Within two weeks, American ground forces entered Baghdad. After four days of intense fighting, the Iraqi regime fell. By April 14, the Pentagon reported that major military operations had ended.
On May 1, 2003, Bush declared that the war was won.
But then American forces became embroiled in an endless, nationwide guerrilla war. Eighteen years later, the United States was still fighting in Iraq.
The war that Bush had deliberately provoked:
- Took the lives of 4,484 Americans.
- Cost the United States Treasury at least $2 trillion.
- Allowed Iran—Iraq’s arch enemy—to eagerly fill it the vacuum.
- Killed at least 655,000 Iraqis.
- Frightened China and Russia into expanding the size of their militaries.
On February 28, 2026, President Donald J. Trump—in collusion with Israel—launched massive airstrikes against Iran, predicting, on March 9: “It’s going to be ended soon….”
Thus do the worst intentions of hubristic dictators often come undone.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 11, 2026 at 12:51 am
On January 27, 1944, Adolf Hitler convened a meeting of 100 of his military chiefs, including all the army group commanders of the Eastern front.
The war against the Soviet Union was going badly while the Americans and British were preparing to invade France. And Hitler believed he had the recipe for assuring victory: The Wehrmacht needed to be inoculated with the spirit of National Socialism.
At the end of his long-winded speech, he addressed this challenge to his generals:
“If the worse ever comes to the worst, and I am ever abandoned as Supreme Commander by my own people, I must still expect my entire officer corps to muster around me with daggers drawn—just as every field marshal or the commander of an army corps, division or regiment expects his subordinates to stand by him in the hour of crisis.”
Adolf Hitler
Sitting in the front row was Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, perhaps the most brilliant member of the German General Staff. It was Manstein who had designed the “Sickle Cut” attack on France in May, 1940.
Bypassing the much-vaunted Maginot Line, the Wehrmacht struck through Belgium, taking the French completely by surprise. As a result, it defeated France in six weeks—something Germany had been unable to do during the four years of World War 1.
Now, in a loud voice, Manstein proclaimed: “And so it will be, Mein Fuhrer!”
Hitler froze; it had been more than a decade since anyone had dared interrupt him. Then, trying to make the best of a bad moment, he continued: “Very well. If this is the case, it will be impossible for us to lose this war.”
Hitler hoped that Manstein had intended to reassure him of his loyalty. But Martin Bormann, his all-powerful secretary, told him that the generals had interpreted the outburst differently: That the worse would indeed come to the worst.
Erich von Manstein
And, which, in fact, happened.
Fast forward 76 years.
As summer neared its end in 2020 and millions of students faced returning to school, President Donald Trump offered his latest “solution” to the Coronavirus pandemic: Send children back to school—and not through virtual classes at home.
Trump wanted children to return to possibly COVID-19-infected classrooms. And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school. He was ordering them to.
Donald Trump
On July 8, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes that fall.
Trump knew that before parents could return to work, their kids needed to return to class. He hoped that would boost the economy—for which he could take credit.
And that would boost his chances for re-election in November.
Just as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed their children to the god Moloch, so did Trump expect his followers—and opponents—to risk their children’s lives for him.
Despite his demands, he lost the 2020 Presidential election to Joe Biden
Child sacrifices to Moloch
Four years later, in January, 2024, meteorologists warned of “life-threatening” conditions in Iowa as the state prepared to cast votes in the Republican caucuses.
And Trump, now the Republican front-runner lusting for a second term as President, took that advice. Scheduled for four in-person Iowa events on January 14, he canceled three of them the day before voting, due to the freezing cold and snow.
But the didn’t share the same concern for those he urged to vote for him. With wind chill projected to be as low as -40 degrees in parts of the state on January 15, Trump had an urgent message for his legions of followers:
“If you want to save America from crooked Joe Biden, you must go caucus tomorrow. First step, very first step. We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna do it big. You got to get out.
“You can’t sit home. If you’re sick as a dog, you say, ‘Darling, I gotta make it,’” Trump said at an Indianola rally on January 14.
“Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it, remember.
“If you’re sick, if you’re just so sick, you can’t, darling, I don’t think I can. Get up. Get up. You get up, you’re gonna vote,” Trump said, imitating a woman urging her husband to vote. “Yes, darling, because ultimately, we know who calls the shots, right?”
On October 12, 2024, despite intense heat that soared to over 100 degrees, thousands of Trump supporters traveled to Coachella Valley, California, to hear him speak. During the rally, some supporters collapsed because of the stifling heat.
Trump loves to brag about the size of his rallies. So, prior to the event, buses were provided to transport supporters to the rally location, which was situated about five miles from where they had parked their vehicles.
After the speech, many Stormtrumpers were left stranded in 93 degree heat. No buses showed up to return them to their cars, which were miles away. This left many attendees scrambling to find their way home.
For Trump, as for Hitler, loyalty goes only one way—from others to him. No one who served either man—no matter how loyally or how long—could be certain when he would be deemed disposable.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 10, 2026 at 12:12 am
A reputation for being feared can be useful.
But it’s dangerous to constantly employ cruelties or punishments.
Whoever does so, warns Niccolo Machiavelli, “is always obliged to stand with knife in hand, and can never depend on his subjects, because they, owing to continually fresh injuries, are unable to depend upon him.”
Such a President is Donald Trump, who, as a Presidential candidate in 2016, told journalist Bob Woodward: “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear.”
As a Presidential candidate and President, Trump has repeatedly used X to attack hundreds of real and imagined enemies in politics, journalism, TV and films.
From June 15, 2015, when he launched his Presidential campaign, until October 24, 2016, Trump fired almost 4,000 angry, insulting tweets at 281 people and institutions that had somehow offended him.
Donald Trump
The New York Times needed two full pages of its print edition to showcase them. Making one inflammatory statement after another, he offended one group of potential voters after another. Among those groups:
- Latinos
- Asians
- Blacks
- The disabled
- Women
- Prisoners-of-war
Since becoming President in 2017 and 2025, Trump has attacked and/or infuriated a wide array of influential agencies or groups. Among these:
- “Obamacare” patients: Trump authorized the directors of Federal agencies to waive requirements of the Affordable Care Act—which provides medical insurance to 22 million otherwise uninsured Americans—to the “maximum extent permitted by law.”
- The CIA: Appearing at CIA headquarters on his first full day in office, Trump addressed about 400 case officers. Standing before the star-studded memorial wall honoring 117 CIA officers who had fallen in the line of duty. Trump ignored their sacrifice. Instead, he boasted of the size of his Inaugural crowd and how many times he had appeared on the cover of Time.
- Civil rights advocates: Trump signed an executive order banning Muslims from entering the United States.
- He also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to massively expand the number of people subject to detention and deportation.
- Women: Trump has publicly insulted numerous women—such as Carly Fiorina, Megyn Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell—on their looks.
- He’s been accused by 22 women of making improper sexual advances.
- And he successfully backed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whom Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accused of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers.
- Medicare patients: During the 2016 campaign, Trump said he would allow Medicare to negotiate down the price of prescription drugs. But after meeting with pharmaceutical lobbyists on January 31, 2017, Trump said: “I’ll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller, younger companies to take the risk of bringing their product to a vibrantly competitive market. That includes price-fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare.”
And he has bullied and insulted even White House officials and his own handpicked Cabinet officers:
- Jeff Sessions: Trump waged a Twitter-laced feud against his Attorney General. Sessions’ “crime”? Recusing himself from investigations into well-established ties between Russian Intelligence agents and members of Trump’s Presidential campaign.
- On the day after the November, 2018 mid-term elections, Trump fired him.
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: Trump told him: “I don’t trust you. I don’t want you doing any more negotiations….You’re past your prime.”
- Chief of Staff Reince Priebus: Suffered repeated humiliations by Trump—such a being ordered to kill a fly that was buzzing about.
- On another occasion, Trump told an associate that Priebus was “like a little rat. He just scurries around.”
- On July 28, 2017, Priebus resigned.
- Chief of Staff John Kelly: Trump similarly ridiculed Priebus’ replacement, a former Marine Corps general. Kelly tried to limit the number of advisers who had unrestricted access to Trump—and bring discipline to his schedule.
- Instead of being grateful, Trump became furious. Kelly told colleagues: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”
John Kelly
- The United States Secret Service: Before taking office as President, Trump infuriated this agency by keeping his longtime private security force—and adding its members to the elite federal agency. Thus, he clearly sent the insulting message: “You’re not good enough, and I don’t trust you.”
Trump’s repeated humiliations—and firings—of high-ranking administration officials led to a near-paralysis of his government. Many agencies were plagued by staff shortages. And many of the replacements were not of “top drawer” quality.
If Trump ever read Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, he’s clearly forgotten the Florentine’s warning on the need to avoid hatred at all costs.
The new musical version of the play/movie A Bronx Tale allows Mafia capo Sonny to sing his lesson on fear versus love to Calogero, the teenager who idolizes him:
Listen now what I tell ya
This advice is you know whose
Love or fear—
It’s up to you kid
But you live with what you choose.
And it’s true: You live with what you choose.
Make being loved your top priority, and you risk being labeled a weakling who can be rolled—as Bill Clinton did.
But make being feared your goal, and you risk creating an atmosphere of hatred and paranoia—as Donald Trump has.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 9, 2026 at 12:10 am
It’s probably the most-quoted passage of Niccolo Machiavelli’s infamous book, The Prince:
“From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved.
“For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger and covetous of gain. As long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours: they offer you their blood, their goods, their life and their children, when the necessity is remote, but when it approaches, they revolt.
“And the prince who has relied solely on their words, without making other preparations, is ruined. For the friendship which is gained by purchase and not through grandeur and nobility of spirit is bought but not secured, and at a pinch is not to be expended in your service.
“And men have less scruple in offending one who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared. For love is held by a chain of obligations which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose. But fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
So—which is better: To be feared or loved?
In the 1993 film, A Bronx Tale, 17-year-old Calogero (Lillo Brancato) poses that question to his idol, the local Mafia capo, Sonny (Chazz Palminteri).
“That’s a good question,” Sonny replies. “It’s nice to be both, but it’s very difficult. But if I had my choice, I would rather be feared.”
Sonny has “done 10 years in the joint.” There he got an education in power—from the works of Machiavelli. Now he wants to pass on those hard-learned lessons to Calogero.
“Fear lasts longer than love. Friendships that are bought with money mean nothing. You see how it is around here. I make a joke, everybody laughs. I know I’m funny, but I’m not that funny. It’s fear that keeps them loyal to me.”
Sonny gives advice to his adopted son, Calogero
But Sonny warns there is a trick to being feared: “The trick is not being hated. That’s why I treat my men good, but not too good.
“I give too much, then they don’t need me. I give them just enough where they need me, but they don’t hate me.”
Many who quote Machiavelli in defense of being feared overlook this vital point: “Still a Prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred, for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together.”
Presidents who desire above all to be loved risk inviting their enemies to see them as weaklings.
Case in point: Bill Clinton.
Bill Clinton
Clinton needed to be loved. He once said that if he were in a room with 100 people and 99 of them liked him but one didn’t, he would spend all his time with that one person, trying to win him over.
But while he could charm voters, he could not bring himself to retaliate against his sworn Republican enemies.
Clinton sought to endear himself to Republicans by:
- Adopting NAFTA—the Republican-sponsored North American Free Trade Act—which later proved so devastating to American workers;
- Siding with Republicans against poor Americans on welfare; and
- Championing the gutting of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law, which barred investment banks from commercial banking activities.
In 1998, emboldened by Clinton’s refusal to stand up to them, House Republicans moved to impeach him over a sex scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But his Presidency survived when the Senate refused to convict.
To establish a fearful reputation, a leader must act decisively and ruthlessly when the interests of the organization are threatened. Punitive action must be taken promptly and confidently.
One or two harsh actions of this kind can make a leader more feared than a reign of terror.
Case in point: Ronald Reagan.
Always smiling, quick with a one-liner (especially at press conferences), seemingly unflappable, he projected a constantly optimistic view of his country and its citizens.
Ronald Reagan
But there was a steely, ruthless side to Reagan that appeared when he felt crossed.
On August 3, 1981, nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers walked out after contract talks with the Federal Aviation Administration collapsed. As a result, some 7,000 flights across the country were canceled on that day at the peak of the summer travel season.
Reagan branded the strike illegal. He threatened to fire any controller who failed to return to work within 48 hours.
On August 5, Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who hadn’t returned to work. The mass firing slowed commercial air travel, but it did not cripple the system as the strikers had forecast.
Reagan’s action stunned the American labor movement. Reagan was the only American President to have belonged to a union—the Screen Actors Guild. He had even been president of this, from 1947 to 1954.
There were no more strikes by Federal workers during Reagan’s tenure in office.
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In History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 6, 2026 at 12:11 am
On the night before the final Mexican assault, one man escaped the Alamo to testify to the defenders’ courage. Or so goes the most famous story of the 13-day siege.
He was Louis Rose, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and the dreadful 1812 retreat from Moscow. Unwilling to die in a hopeless battle, he slipped over a wall and sneaked through Mexican siege lines.
At Grimes County, he found shelter at the homestead of Abraham and Mary Ann Zuber. Their son, William, later claimed that his parents told him of Rose’s visit–and his story of Travis’ “line in the sand” speech.
In 1873, he published the tale in the Texas Almanac.
But many historians believe it is a fabrication. The story comes to us third-hand—from Rose to the Zubers to their son. And it was published 37 years after the Alamo fell.
Even if Travis didn’t draw a line in the sand, every member of the garrison, by remaining to stay, had crossed over his own line.
After a 12-day siege, Santa Anna decided to overwhelm the Alamo.
The first assault came at about 5 a.m. on Sunday, March 6, 1836.
The fort’s riflemen—aided by 14 cannons–repulsed it. And the second assault as well.
But the third assault proved unstoppable. The Alamo covered three acres, and held at most 250 defenders—against 2,000 Mexican soldiers.
When the Mexicans reached the fort, they mounted scaling ladders and poured over the walls.
Travis was among the first defenders to fall—shot through the forehead after firing a shotgun into the Mexican soldiery below.
Death of William Barrett Travis (waving sword)
Mexicans broke into the room where the ailing James Bowie lay.
In Three Roads to the Alamo, historian William C. Davis writes that Bowie may have been unconscious or delirious. Mistaking him for a coward, the soldiers bayoneted him and blew out his brains.
But some accounts claim that Bowie died fighting—shooting two Mexicans with pistols, then plunging his famous knife into a third before being bayoneted. Nearly every Alamo movie depicts Bowie’s death this way.
As the Mexicans poured into the fort, at least 60 Texans tried to escape over the walls into the surrounding prairie. But they were quickly dispatched by lance-bearing Mexican cavalry.
The death of David Crockett remains highly controversial.
Baby boomers usually opt for the Walt Disney version: Davy swinging “Old Betsy” as Mexicans surround him. Almost every Alamo movie depicts him fighting to the death.
David Crockett’s Death
But Mexican Lieutenant Colonel Jose Enrique de la Pena claimed Crockett was one of seven Texans who surrendered or were captured and brought before Santa Anna after the battle. Santa Anna ordered their immediate execution, and they were hacked to death with sabers.
Only the 2004 remake of The Alamo has dared to depict this version. Although this version is now accepted by most historians, some still believe the de la Pena diary from which it comes is a forgery.
An hour after the battle erupted, it was over.
That afternoon, Santa Anna ordered the bodies of the slain defenders stacked and burned in three pyres.
Contrary to popular belief, some of the garrison survived:
- Joe, a black slave who had belonged to William B. Travis, the Alamo’s commander;
- Susanah Dickinson, the wife of a lieutenant killed in the Alamo, and her baby, Angelina;
- Several Mexican women and their children.
Also contrary to legend, the bravery of the Alamo defenders did not buy time for Texas to raise an army against Santa Anna. This didn’t happen until after the battle.
But their sacrifice proved crucial in securing Texas’ independence:
- The Alamo’s destruction warned those Texans who had not supported the revolution that they had no choice: They must win, die or flee their homes to the safety of the United States.
- It stirred increasing numbers of Americans to enter Texas and enlist in Sam Houston’s growing army.
- Santa Anna’s army was greatly weakened, losing 600 killed and wounded—a casualty rate of 33%.
- The nearly two-week siege bought time for the Texas convention to meet at Washington-on-the-Brazos and declare independence from Mexico.
On April 21, 1836, Santa Anna made a crucial mistake: During his army’s afternoon siesta, he failed to post sentries around his camp.
That afternoon, Sam Houston’s 900-man army struck the 1,400-man Mexican force at San Jacinto. In 18 minutes, the Texans—shouting “Remember the Alamo!”—killed about 700 Mexican soldiers and wounded 200 others.
The next day, a Texas patrol captured Santa Anna–wearing the uniform of a Mexican private. Resisting angry demands to hang the Mexican dictator, Houston forced Santa Anna to surrender control of Texas in return for his life.
The victory at San Jacinto won the independence of Texas. But the 13-day siege and fall of the Alamo remains the most famous and celebrated part of that conflict.
In 480 B.C., 300 Spartans won immortality at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass in ancient Greece, by briefly holding back an invading Persian army of thousands.
Although they died to the last man, their sacrifice inspired the rest of Greece to defeat its invaders.
Like Thermopylae, the battle of the Alamo proved both a defeat—and a victory.
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In History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 5, 2026 at 12:10 am
Friday, March 6, 2026, marks the 190th anniversary of the most famous event in Texas history: The fall of the Alamo, a crumbling former Spanish mission in the heart of San Antonio.
After a 12-day siege, 180 to 250 Texans were overwhelmed by 2,000 Mexican soldiers.
Mexican troops advancing on the Alamo
Americans “remember the Alamo”—but usually for the wrong reasons.
Some historians believe the battle should have never been fought.
The Alamo was not Thermopylae—a narrow mountain pass blocking the Persian march into ancient Greece. Santa Anna could have simply bypassed it.
In fact, several of Santa Anna’s generals urged the Mexican dictator to do just that—leave a small guard to hold down the fort’s defenders and wipe out the undefended, widely-separated Texas settlements.
But pride held Santa Anna fast to the Alamo. His brother-in-law, General Perfecto de Cos, had been forced to surrender the old mission to revolting Texans in December, 1835.
Santa Anna meant to redeem the fort—and his family honor—by force.
In virtually every Alamo movie, its two co-commanders, James Bowie and William Barret Travis, are portrayed as on the verge of all-out war—with each other.
In John Wayne’s heavily fictionalized 1960 film, The Alamo, Bowie and Travis agree to fight a duel as soon as they’ve whipped the Mexicans besieging them.
James Bowie
William B. Travis
In fact, the frictions between the two lasted only a short while. Just before the siege, some of Bowie’s volunteers—a far larger group than Travis’ regulars—got drunk.
Travis ordered them jailed—and Bowie ordered his men to release them. Bowie then went on a roaring drunk. The next day, a sober Bowie apologized to Travis and agreed they should share command.
This proved a wise decision, for just as the siege started, Bowie was felled by worsening illness—typhoid-pneumonia or tuberculosis.
In almost every Alamo movie, Bowie repeatedly leaves the fort to ambush unsuspecting Mexicans.
In reality, he stayed bed-ridden and lay close to death throughout the 13-day siege.
The Texans intended to make a suicidal stand.
False.
From the first day of the siege-–February 23, almost to the last, March 6, 1836—messengers rode out of the Alamo seeking help. The defenders believed that if they could cram enough men into the three-acre former mission, they could hold Santa Anna at bay.
No reinforcements reached the Alamo.
False.
On March 1, 32 men from Gonzalez—the only ones to answer Travis’ call—sneaked through the Mexican lines to enter the Alamo.
Meanwhile, the largest Texan force lay at Fort Defiance in Goliad, 85 miles away. This consisted of 500 men commanded by James Walker Fannin, a West Point dropout.
Fannin was better-suited for the role of Hamlet than military commander.
Upon receiving a plea of help from Travis, he set out in a halfhearted attempt to reach the mission. But when a supply wagon broke down, he returned to Fort Defiance and sat out the rest of the siege.
When the Mexican army approached Fort Defiance, Fannin and 400 of his men panicked and fled into the desert. They were surrounded, forced to surrender, and massacred on March 27
The Alamo garrison was fully prepared to confront the Mexican army.
False.
When the Mexicans suddenly arrived in San Antonio on the morning of February 23, 1836, they caught the Texans completely by surprise.
The previous night, they had been celebrating the birthday of George Washington. The Texans rushed headlong into the Alamo, hauling all the supplies they could hastily scrounge.
Santa Anna sent a courier under a flag of truce to the Alamo, demanding unconditional surrender. In effect, the Texans were being given the choice of later execution.
Travis replied with a shot from the fort’s biggest cannon, the 18-pounder (so named for the weight of its cannonball).
Santa Anna ordered the hoisting of a blood-red flag and the opening of an artillery salvo. The siege of the Alamo was on.
San Houston, who was elected general of the non-existent army of Texas, desperately tried to relieve the siege.
False.
At Washington-on-the-Brazos, 169 miles east of San Antonio, Texan delegates assembled to form a new government. When news reached the delegates that Travis desperately needed reinforcements, many of them wanted to rush to his defense.
But Houston and others declared they must first declare Texas’ independence. On March 2, 1836, they did just that. Meanwhile, Houston spent a good deal of that time drunk.
Did Travis draw a line?
Easily the most famous Alamo story is that of “the line in the sand.”
On the night of March 5—just prior to the final assault—there was a lull in the near-constant Mexican bombardment. Travis assembled his men and gave them a choice:
They could try to surrender and hope that Santa Anna would be merciful. They could try to escape. Or they could stay and fight.
With his sword, Travis drew a line in the dirt and invited those who would stay to cross over to him.
Travis draws the line
The entire garrison did—except for two men.
One of these was bed-ridden James Bowie. He asked that his sick-bed be carried over to Travis. The other was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars—Louis Rose.
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In History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 4, 2026 at 12:12 am
On March 2, 1836–190 years ago this year—Texas formally declared its independence from Mexico, of which it was then a province.
Sixty-one delegates took part in the convention held at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
Their signed statement proclaimed that the Mexican government had “ceased to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived.”
Meanwhile, 169 miles away, the siege of the Alamo—a crumbling former Spanish mission in the heart of San Antonio—had entered its ninth day.
The mission that became a fortress has since become a shrine.
The Alamo Chapel
By Daniel Schwen – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
The combatants: 180 to 250 Texans (or “Texians,” as many of them preferred to be called) vs. 2,000 Mexican soldiers.
On the Texan side three names predominate: David Crockett, James Bowie and William Barret Travis. “The Holy Trinity,” as some historians ironically refer to them.
Crockett, at 49, was the most famous man in the Alamo. He had been a bear hunter, Indian fighter and Congressman. Rare among the men of his time, he sympathized with the Indian tribes he had helped subdue in the War of 1812.
David Crockett
He believed Congress should honor the treaties made with the former hostiles and opposed President Andrew Jackson’s effort to move the tribes further West. Largely because of this, his constituents turned him out of office in November, 1835. He told them they could go to hell; he would go to Texas.
James Bowie, at 40, had been a slave trader with pirate Jean Lafitte and a land swindler. But his claim to fame lay in his skill as a knife-fighter.
James Bowie
This grew out of his participating in an 1827 duel on a sandbar in Natchez, Mississippi. Bowie was acting as a second to one of the duelists who had arranged the event.
After the two duelists exchanged pistol shots without injury, they called it a draw. But those who had come as their seconds had scores to settle among themselves—and decided to do so. A bloody melee erupted.
Bowie was shot in the hip and then impaled on a sword cane wielded by Major Norris Wright, a longtime enemy. Drawing a large butcher knife he wore at his belt, he gutted Wright, who died instantly.
The brawl became famous as the Sandbar Fight, and cemented Bowie’s reputation across the South as a deadly knife fighter.
William Barret Travis, 26, had been an attorney and militia member. Burdened by debts and pursued by creditors, he fled Alabama in 1831 to start over in Texas. Behind him he left a wife, son, and unborn daughter.
William Barret Travis
From the first, Travis burned to free Texas from Mexico and see it become a part of the United States.
In January, 1836, he was sent by the American provisional governor of Texas to San Antonio, to fortify the Alamo. He arrived there with a small party of regular soldiers and the title of lieutenant colonel in the state militia.
On the Mexican side, only one name matters: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, president (i.e., absolute dictator) of Mexico. After backing first one general and would-be “president” after another, Santa Anna maneuvered himself into the office in 1833.
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
Texas was then legally a part of Mexico. Stephen F. Austin, “the father of Texas,” had received a grant from Spain—which ruled Mexico until 1821—to bring in 300 American families to settle there.
The Spaniards wanted to establish a buffer between themselves and warring Indian tribes like the Comanches. This immigration continued after Mexico threw off Spanish rule and obtained its independence.
But as Americans kept flooding into Texas, the character of its population changed, alarming its Mexican rulers.
The new arrivals did not see themselves as Mexican citizens but as transplanted Americans. They were largely Protestant, as opposed to the Catholic Mexicans. And many of them not only owned slaves but demanded the expansion of slavery—a practice illegal under Mexican law.
In October, 1835, fighting erupted between American settlers and Mexican soldiers.
In November, Mexican forces took shelter in the Alamo, which had been built in 1718 as a mission to convert Indians to Christianity. Since then it had been used as a fort—by Spanish and then Mexican troops.
Texans lay siege to the Alamo from October 16 to December 10, 1835. With his men exhausted, and facing certain defeat, General Perfecto de Cos, Santa Anna’s brother-in-law, surrendered. He gave his word to leave Texas and never take up arms again against its settlers.
Most Texans rejoiced. They believed they had won their “war” against Mexico. But others knew better.
One was Bowie. Another was Sam Houston, a former Indian fighter, Congressman and protégé of Andrew Jackson.
Still another was Santa Anna, who styled himself “The Napoleon of the West.” In January, 1836, he set out from Mexico City at the head of an army totaling about 7,000.
He planned the 18th century version of a blitzkrieg, intending to arrive in Texas and take its “rebellious foreigners” by surprise.
His forced march proved costly in lives, but met his objective. He arrived in San Antonio with several hundred soldiers on February 23, 1836.
The siege of the Alamo—the most famous event in Texas history—was about to begin.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 3, 2026 at 12:13 am
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) published over 60 children’s books, which were often filled with imaginative characters and rhyme.
Among his most famous books were Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.
Honored in his lifetime (1904-1991) for the joy he brought to countless children, Dr. Seuss may well prove one of the unsung prophets of our environmentally-threatened age.
Dr. Seuss
In 1949, he penned Bartholomew and the Oobleck, the story of a young page who must rescue his kingdom from a terrifying, man-made substance called Oobleck.
The story is quickly told:
Derwin, the King of Didd, announces he’s bored with sunshine, rain, fog and snow. So he calls in his black magicians and orders them to create a new kind of weather.
The magicians assure him they can create it.
“What will you call it?” asks the king.
“We’ll call it Oobleck,” says one of the magicians.
“What will it be like?” asks King Didd.
“We don’t know, Sire,” the magician replies. “We’ve never created Oobleck before.”
The next morning, Oobleck—a greenish, glue-like substance—starts raining.
The king orders Bartholomew, the royal page, to tell the Bell Ringer that today will be a holiday. But the bell doesn’t ring—because it’s filled with Oobleck.
The Oobleck rain intensifies.
The falling blobs—now as big as buckets full of broccoli—break into the palace, immobilizing the servants and guards.
Bartholomew warns the Royal Trumpeter about the Oobleck, but the trumpet gets stopped up with the goo.
The Captain of the Guards thinks the Oobleck is pretty and sees no danger in it—until he eats some. Instantly, his mouth is glued shut.
At the climax of the story, Bartholomew confronts King Derwin for giving such a rash order: “If you can’t do anything else,” says Bartholomew, “at least you can say you’re sorry.”
King Derwin refuses, and Bartholomew says, “If you can look at all the horror you’ve caused and not say you’re sorry, you’re no sort of king at all.”
In real-life, such a king would have instantly ordered Bartholomew’s execution. But this is a children’s story.
So, overcome with guilt, King Derwin utters the magic words: “You’re right, this is all my fault, and I am sorry.”
Suddenly the Oobleck stops raining and the sun melts away the rest.
With life returning to normal, King Derwin mounts the bell tower and rings the bell. He proclaims a holiday dedicated not to Oobleck, but to rain, sun, fog, and snow, the four elements of Nature—of which Man is but a part.
* * * * *
Flash forward to the following Donald Trump tweets:
November 6, 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
December 6, 2013: “Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee – I’m in Los Angeles and it’s freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!”
January 1, 2014: “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.”
Donald Trump
Upon taking office in 2017, Trump
- Released a budget proposal to eliminate $100 million in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate work, including scientific research;
- Ordered his administration to rewrite the Clean Power Plan. His objective: To gut former President Barack Obama’s landmark restrictions on power plant emissions;
- Announced that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate-change agreement deal.
Upon taking office again in 2025, Trump:
- Repealed the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which officially determines that greenhouse gases threaten public health;
- Increased oil and gas exploration on federal land, rolled back methane emission requirements for oil and gas companies, and directed the Department of Defense to buy coal-fired electricity;
- Halted, paused, or cut funding for offshore/onshore wind and solar projects, and ended federal tax incentives for electric vehicles (EVs);
- Reduced the authority of the EPA to regulate pollutants from power plants, cut climate-preparedness grants, and remoed or altered climate data from federal websites.
There are forces in Nature far more powerful than anything Man and his puny strength can defy—or harness. And we invoke the wrath of those forces at our own peril.
In the world of children’s stories, it’s possible for a king to undo the terrible damage he’s unleashed by finding the courage to say: “I’m sorry.”
In real-life, tyrants almost never say “I’m sorry,” no matter how enormous their mistakes and/or crimes.
From 1936 to 1938, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin slaughtered the cream of his own Army and Air Force. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin blamed his remaining generals for the massive defeats inflicted by the Wehrmacht.
And as Soviet forces finally closed on Berlin in April, 1945, and Adolf Hitler prepared to commit suicide in his underground bunker, he blamed the German people for losing the war he had started.
Saying “I’m sorry” cannot reverse decades of rampant environmental abuse. To believe that it can is as ridiculous as believing that self-righteous tyrants will ever take responsibility for their own crimes and follies.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 2, 2026 at 12:18 am
Victory Through Air Power is a 1943 Walt Disney animated Technicolor feature film released during World War II. It’s based on the book—of the same title––by Alexander P. de Seversky.
Its thesis: By using bombers and fighter aircraft, the United States can attain swift, stunning victory over its Axis enemies: Germany, Italy and Japan.
Although not explicitly stated, the clear impression given is: By using air power, America can defeat its enemies without deploying millions of ground troops.
The movie has long since been forgotten except by film buffs, but its message has not. Especially by the highest officials within the U.S. Air Force.
The Air Force regularly boasted of the tonnage of bombs its planes dropped over Nazi Germany. But it failed to attain its primary goal: Break the will of the Germans to resist.
Just as the German bombings of England had solidified the will of the British people to resist, so, too, did Allied bombing increase the determination of the Germans to fight on.
Nor did the failure of air power end there.
On June 6, 1944—D-Day—the Allies launched their invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
It opened shortly after midnight, with an airborne assault of 24,000 American, British, Canadian and Free French troops. This was followed at 6:30 a.m. by an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armored divisions on the French coast.
The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in history. More than 160,000 troops landed—73,000 Americans, 61,715 British and 21,400 Canadians.
Allied air power bombed and strafed German troops out in the open. But it couldn’t dislodge soldiers barricaded in steel-and-concrete-reinforced bunkers or pillboxes.
Those had to be dislodged, one group at a time, by Allied soldiers armed with rifles, dynamite and flamethrowers.
American soldier using flamethrower
This situation proved true throughout the rest of the war.
Then, starting in 1964, the theory of “Victory Through Air Power” once again proved a dud—in Vietnam.
From 1964 to 1975, seven million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—more than twice the amount of bombs dropped on Europe and Asia in World War II.
Yet the result proved the same as it had in World War II: The bombing enraged the North Vietnamese and steeled their resolve to fight on to the end.
American bomber dropping its cargo over North Vietnam
The belief that victory could be achieved primarily—if not entirely—through air power had another unforeseen result during the Vietnam war.
To bomb North Vietnam, the United States needed air force bases in South Vietnam. This required that those bombers and fighters be protected.
So a force to provide round-the-clock security had to be maintained. But there weren’t enough guards to defend themselves against a major attack by North Vietnamese forces.
So more American troops were needed—to guard the guards.
North Vietnam continued to press greater numbers of its soldiers into attacks on American bases. This forced America to provide greater numbers of its own soldiers to defend against such attacks.
Eventually, the United States had more than 500,000 ground troops fighting in Vietnam—with no end in sight to the conflict.
Nor did it work for America in the 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq.
Both wars opened with massive barrages of American missiles and bombs. The 1991 war—launched by President George H.W. Bush—saw the first use of the vaunted “stealth bomber,” which could avoid detection by enemy radar.
The 2003 war—launched by President George W. Bush—opened with an even greater bombardment intended to “shock and awe” the Iraqis into surrendering.
They didn’t.
Baghdad under “shock and awe” bombardment
Nor did air power prove effective on the Iraqi insurgency that erupted after American forces occupied Baghdad and much of the rest of the country.
That war had to be fought by U.S. Army regulars and Special Operations soldiers—especially Navy SEALS. It was a dirty and private effort, marked by nightly kidnappings and torture of suspected Iraqi insurgents.
The war devolved into a long, violent insurgency, occupation and sectarian civil war that lasted until 2011, when American troops were withdrawn. The United States failed to achieve control of Iraqi oil and unite the country under American control.
Then, in 2014, with forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launching a blitzkrieg throughout Iraq, President Barack Obama caught the “Victory Through Airpower” disease.
ISIS had thrown the American-trained Iraqi Army into a panic, with soldiers dropping their rifles and running for their lives.
This led Republicans to accuse the President of being about to “lose” Iraq.
As a result, he shipped at least 300 American “advisors” to Iraq, to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad.
And he authorized American Predator drones to traverse Iraq, keeping tabs on the advancing ISIS forces. Then, in September, 2014, Obama ordered airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.
Yet that didn’t alter the balance of power in Iraq.
Finally, on February 11, 2015, Obama called on Congress to formally authorize the use of ground forces against ISIS. This would include supporting and training Iraqi forces and Syrian insurgents on the ground.
On February 28, 2026, President Donald Trump ordered a massive bombardment of Iran
The rerun of the Vietnam/Iraq experience will begin showing in the months ahead.
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WHAT TRUMP MOST FEARS–WITNESSES
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on March 13, 2026 at 12:10 amJames Comey has had a long and distinguished career in American law enforcement:
As a result, Comey has firsthand experience in attacking organized crime—and in spotting its leaders.
In his bestselling memoir, A Higher Loyalty, he writes:
“As I found myself thrust into the Trump orbit, I once again was having flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the mob. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and the truth.”
On May 9, 2017, President Donald Trump fired Comey as FBI director. There were five reasons for this:
James Comey
Trump and his shills have adamantly denied that he demanded that Comey serve as his private police chief.
But then Trump proved that he—and not Comey—was the liar. And more like a mobster than a President.
On August 21, 2018, his former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud. And, more worrisome for Trump, Cohen said he had made illegal campaign contributions “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office”—Donald Trump.
On August 23, on the Fox News program, “Fox and Friends,” Trump attacked Cohen for “flipping” on him:
“For 30, 40 years I’ve been watching flippers. Everything’s wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they—they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go. It—it almost ought to be outlawed. It’s not fair.
“You know, campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly. But if somebody defrauded a bank and he’s going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail but if you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you’ll go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made.”
Making “flipping” illegal would undo decades of organized crime prosecutions—and make future ones almost impossible.
“It takes a small bum to catch a big bum,” as one deputy U.S. marshal once stated.
Boy Scouts simply won’t hang out with career criminals. To penetrate the secrets of criminal organizations, investigators and prosecutors need the testimony of those who are parties to those secrets.
The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 gave Justice Department prosecutors unprecedented weapons for attacking crime syndicates across the country. One of these was the authority to give witnesses immunity from prosecution on the basis of their own testimony.
Thus, a witness to a criminal conspiracy could be forced to tell all he knew—and thus implicate his accomplices—and bosses. In turn, he wouldn’t be prosecuted on the basis of his testimony. (He could, however, be prosecuted if someone else accused him of criminal acts.)
Organized crime members aggressively damn such “rats.” There is no more obscene word in a mobster’s vocabulary.
But no President—until Trump—has ever attacked those who make possible a war on organized crime.
His former lawyer and mentor, Roy Cohn, represented some of the most notorious Mafiosi in the country—such as John Gotti and Carmine Galante. And both Gotti and Galante went to prison owing to “flippers.”
In 1973, former White House Counsel John Dean testified before the United States Senate on a litany of crimes committed by President Richard M. Nixon. Dean didn’t lie about Nixon—who ultimately resigned in disgrace.
For Trump, Dean’s sin is that he “flipped” on his former boss, violating the Mafia’s code of omerta, or silence.
For Donald Trump, there is no greater nightmare than becoming the victim of those who know—and are willing to share—his criminal secrets.
That’s why he fought the release of the “Epstein files,” which document his social relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein from the late 1980s to at least the early 2000s.
Since their partial release, he’s repeatedly tried to divert attention from their revelations. On January 3, 2026, he ordered the invasion of Venezuela to kidnap its dictator/president, Nicolás Maduro. Then on February 28 he launched an attack on Iran.
Both these assaults have only partially succeeded in obscuring revelations of the Epstein files.
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