Posts Tagged ‘THE DISCOURSES (BOOK)’
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 18, 2025 at 12:10 am
…A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances. And if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him.
The conduct of weak men is very different. Made vain and intoxicated by good fortune, they attribute their success to merits which they do not possess. And this makes them odious and insupportable to all around them. And when they have afterwards to meet a reverse of fortune, they quickly fall into the other extreme, and become abject and vile.
—Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses
Niccolo Machiavelli
When Donald Trump—as a businessman and President—has been confronted by men and women who can’t be bribed or intimidated, he has reacted with rage and frustration.
- Trump boasted that he “never” settled cases out of court. But New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pressed fraud claims against the real estate mogul’s counterfeit Trump University—and Trump settled the case out of court rather than take the stand.
- On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller to investigate links between Russian Intelligence agents and the 2016 Trump Presidential campaign.
- Upon learning of his appointment, Trump wailed: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.”
- Throughout Mueller’s probe, Trump hurled repeated insults at him via Twitter and press conferences. His shills within Fox News and the Republican party attacked Mueller’s integrity and investigative methods. But Trump didn’t risk firing him, fearing impeachment.
Robert Mueller
- When “democratic socialist” Zohran Mamdani declared his candidacy for New York City mayor on October 23, 2024, Trump viciously and repeatedly attacked him as a “communist.” He even threatened to cut off Federal aid to New York City.
- Mamdami’s “communist” goals included support for universal child care and constructing 200,000 new affordable housing units.
- When Mamdani overwhelmingly won election on November 4, he sannounced “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
- Trump responded the next day: “I hope it works out for New York. We’ll help him a little bit, maybe.”
Perhaps the key to Trump’s innermost fear can be found in a work of fiction—in this case, the 1996 historical novel, The Friends of Pancho Villa, by James Carlos Blake.
The book depicts the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1920) and its most famous revolutionary, Francisco “Pancho” Villa. it’s told from the viewpoint of Rodolfo Fierro, Villa’s most feared executioner. In one day, for example, Fierro—using two revolvers—executed 300 captured Federale soldiers.
As in history, Blake’s Fierro presides over the execution of David Berlanga, a journalist who had dared criticize the often loutish behavior of Villa’s men.
On Villa’s command, Fierro approaches Berlanga in a Mexico City restaurant and orders: “Come with me.”
Standing against a barracks wall, Berlanga lights a cigar and requests permission to finish it. He then proceeds to smoke it with such a steady hand that its unbroken ash extends almost four inches.
The cigar finished, the ash still unbroken, Berlanga drops the butt to the ground and says calmly: “I’m ready.”
Then the assembled firing squad does its work.
Later, Fierro is so shaken by Berlanga’s sheer fearlessness that he seeks an explanation for it. Sitting in a cantina, he lights a cigar and tries to duplicate Berlanga’s four-inch length.
But the best he can do is less than three inches. He concludes that Berlanga used a trick—but he can’t figure it out.
Rodolfo Fierro
It had to be a trick, Fierro insists, because, if it wasn’t, there were only two other explanations for such a calm demeanor in the face of impending death.
The first was insanity. But Fierro rules this out: He had studied Berlanga’s eyes and found no madness there.
That leaves only one other explanation (other than a trick): Sheer courage.
And Fierro can’t accept this, either—because it’s disturbing.
“The power of men like me does not come solely from our ability to kill….No, the true source of our power is so obvious it sometimes goes unnoticed for what it is: our power comes from other men’s lack of courage.
“There is even less courage in this world than there is talent for killing. Men like me rule because most men are faint of heart in the shadow of death.
“But a man brave enough to control his fear of being killed, control it so well that no tremor reaches his fingers and no sign shows in his eyes…well. Such a man cannot be ruled, he can only be killed.”
Throughout his life, Trump has relied on bribery and intimidation. He well understands the power of greed and fear over most people.
What he doesn’t understand—and truly fears—is that some people cannot be bought or frightened.
Like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like Robert Mueller. And like Zohran Mamdani.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 17, 2025 at 12:10 am
There’s a reason why Donald Trump loves tariffs—and it has nothing to do with economics.
It has everything to do with fear.
On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, he announced that he would impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting February 1.
He could have opened well-intentioned negotiations with Canada and Mexico over what he considered an unfair trade imbalance. But he sees conciliation as a sign of weakness.
Exactly as Adolf Hitler did.
Robert Payne, author of the bestselling biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), described Hitler’s—and Trump’s—“negotiating” style thus:
“He was incapable of bargaining. He was like a man who goes up to a fruit peddler and threatens to blow his brains out if he does not sell his applies at the lowest possible price.”
A similar example of his aggressiveness occurred during his first administration.
On July 14, 2019, Trump unleashed a brutal Twitter attack on four Democratic members of the House of Representatives who had harshly criticized his anti-immigration policies:
The Democrats—all female, and all non-white—were:
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York;
- Rashida Tlaib of Michigan;
- Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and
- Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Of the Congresswomen that Trump singled out:
- Cortez was born in New York City.
- Tlaib was born in Detroit, Michigan.
- Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Only Omar was born outside the United States—in Somalia. And she became an American citizen in 2000 when she was 17 years old.
Critics assailed Trump as racist for implying that these women were not United States citizens.
Moreover, as members of Congress, they had a legal right to declare “how our government is to be run.” House and Senate Republicans had vigorously—and often viciously—asserted that right during the Presidency of Barack Obama.
Donald Trump
Ocasio-Cortez quickly struck back on Twitter on the same day: “You are angry because you don’t believe in an America where I represent New York 14, where the good people of Minnesota elected , where fights for Michigan families, where champions little girls in Boston.
“You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.
“You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it. Yet here we are.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
But then followed the most significant part of Cortez’ reply:
“But you know what’s the rub of it all, Mr. President? On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don’t fear you, either.
“You can’t accept that we will call your bluff & offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe.”
For all his adult life, Donald Trump—as a businessman, Presidential candidate and twice-elected President—has trafficked in bribery and coercion. First bribery:
- Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (now United States Attorney General) personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.
- After Bondi dropped the Trump University case, he wrote her a $25,000 check for her re-election campaign. The money came from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
- Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.
- Paxton’s office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page internal summary of the state’s case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar.
- After the Texas case was dropped, Trump cut a $35,000 check to the gubernatorial campaign of then-attorney general and now Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Now coercion:
- Throughout his career as a businessman, Trump forced his employees to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements, threatening them with lawsuits if they revealed secrets of his greed and/or criminality.
- In 2016. USA Today found that Trump was involved in over 3,500 lawsuits during the previous 30 years: “At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings” were from contractors claiming they got stiffed.
- On March 16, 2016, as a Republican Presidential candidate, Trump warned Republicans that if he didn’t win the GOP nomination in July, his supporters would literally riot: “I think you’d have riots. I think you would see problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
- An NBC reporter summed it up as: “The message to Republicans was clear: ‘Nice convention you got there. Shame if something happened to it.'”
- Speaking with Bob Woodward, the legendary Washington Post investigative reporter, Trump confessed: “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear.”
- During his Presidential campaign he encouraged Right-wing thugs to attack dissenters at his rallies, even claiming he would pay their legal expenses (which he didn’t).
But when he has confronted men and women who can’t be bribed or intimidated, Trump has reacted with rage and desperation.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 16, 2024 at 12:08 am
On June 25, 2021, justice finally caught up with Derek Chauvin.
Chauvin was the white Minneapolis police officer who, on May 25, 2020, murdered George Floyd, a black unemployed restaurant security guard.
While Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on a city street following an arrest, Chauvin kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for nine and one-half minutes.
A 17-year-old black girl, Darnella Frazier, captured Floyd’s murder on her cellphone. The video was seen by millions on YouTube and network news programs. It played a pivotal role at Chauvin’s trial.
Derek Chauvin
Cities across the United States erupted in mass protests over Floyd’s death—and police killings of black victims generally. Most of these demonstrations proved peaceful. But cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City saw stores looted, vandalized and/or burned.
Chauvin was fired the next day from the Minneapolis Police Department and charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin’s trial began on March 8, 2021, and concluded on April 20 when the jury found him guilty on all three charges.
On June 25—one year and one month to the day after he murdered Floyd—he received his sentence: Twenty-two and one-half years in prison.
Several of Floyd’s family members spoke at the sentencing, but only one of Chauvin’s did. That was his mother, Carolyn Pawlenty.
Carolyn Pawlenty
Standing before Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, Pawlenty said:
“Derek has played over and over in his head the events of that day. I’ve seen the toll it has taken on him. I believe a lengthy sentence will not serve Derek well. Even though I have not spoken publicly, I have always supported him 100 percent and always will.
“Derek always dedicated his life and time to the police department. Even on his days off, he’d call in to see if they needed help.
“Derek is a quiet, thoughtful, honorable and selfless man. He has a big heart and has always put others before his own.
“My son’s identity has also been reduced to that as a racist. I want this court to know that none of these things are true and that my son is a good man.”
She pleaded with Judge Cahill for leniency: “When you sentence him, you will also be sentencing me. I won’t be able to see him or give him our special hug. When he is released, his father and I most likely won’t be here.”
Chauvin was 45. His mother was 73.
One of Floyd’s brothers, Philonise Floyd, said with undeserved generosity: “I understand that because that’s her son. The same way she spoke up for her son, I spoke up for my brother.
“So we all, we all love our loved ones. But the fact that I will never see my brother again is worse because she still will have the opportunity to see her son in the cell anytime she wants to.”
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, argued that Chauvin should be sentenced to just probation with no more prison time:
“He was decorated as a police officer—multiple life-saving awards. He was decorated for valor. He was proud to be a police officer because what he liked to do was help people.”
Clearly lost on—or ignored by—Pawlenty and Nelson was this warning from Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science. He issued this in his masterwork, The Discourses, which offers advice on how to maintain liberty within a republic.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In Chapter 24, he writes: “Well-ordered republics establish punishments and rewards for their citizens, but never set off one against the other.
“The services of Horatius had been of the highest importance to Rome, for by his bravery he had conquered the Curatii. But the crime of killing his sister was atrocious, and the Romans were so outraged by this murder that he was put upon trial for his life, notwithstanding his recent great services to the state.
“It may seem like an instance of popular ingratitude; but a more careful examination, and reflection as to what the laws of a republic ought to be, will show that the people were to blame rather for the acquittal of Horatius than for having him tried.
“…No well-ordered republic should ever cancel the crimes of its citizens by their merits. But having established rewards for good actions and penalties for evil ones, and having rewarded a citizen for conduct who afterwards commits a wrong, he should be chastised for that without regard to his previous merits.
“And a state that properly observes this principle will long enjoy its liberty, but if otherwise, it will speedily come to ruin.
“For if a citizen who has rendered some eminent service to the state should add to the reputation and influence which he has thereby acquired the confident audacity of being able to commit any wrong without fear of punishment, he will in a little while become so insolent and overbearing as to put an end to all power of the law.
“But to preserve a wholesome fear of punishment for evil deeds, it is necessary not to omit rewarding good ones.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on May 1, 2024 at 12:10 am
…A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances. And if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him.
The conduct of weak men is very different. Made vain and intoxicated by good fortune, they attribute their success to merits which they do not possess. And this makes them odious and insupportable to all around them. And when they have afterwards to meet a reverse of fortune, they quickly fall into the other extreme, and become abject and vile.
—Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses
Niccolo Machiavelli
Donald Trump gives daily proof that Niccolo Machiavelli’s warning remains as timely as ever.
Trump constantly brags about how tough he is, and what he will do to his enemies and those of his version of America.
Among his threats:
- Threatening to appoint a special prosecutor to target President Joe Biden and his family if he’s reelected.
- Saying that Mark Miley, the former chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, deserves execution. Miley’s “crime”: Ensuring that war did not erupt between China and the United States during Trump’s last months in office.
- Repeatedly attacking prosecutors and judges, their families, former officials and political opponents.
- Calling for the jailing of former Wyoming Republican Representative Liz Cheney and the other members of the House panel that investigated his inciting a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol.
Yet when he has been confronted with men and women who can’t be bribed or intimidated, Trump has reacted with rage, frustration—and outbursts of whining self-pity.
Among these:
- “If I announced that I was not going to run any longer for political office the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop,” Trump said at a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona. “But that is not what I do. I can’t do that, I can’t do that. Can’t do that. Because I love this country and I love you.”
- Facing trial for defrauding New York in taxes, Trump addressed Judge Arthur F. Engoron: “What’s happened here, sir, is a fraud on me. They want to make sure that I don’t win again, and this is partially election interference.”
- “I am a victim,” Trump said in his speech announcing his presidential run. “I will tell you I’m a victim. We will be attacked. We will be slandered. We will be persecuted just as I have been.”
- Accused of raping and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, Trump said in a deposition: “She said that I did something to her that never took place. There was no anything. I know nothing about this nutjob. She’s accusing me of rape, a woman that I have no idea who she is.”
Donald Trump
- At his New York fraud trial in January, Trump whined: “This is a political witch-hunt that was set aside by – should be set aside. We should receive damages for what we’ve gone through, for what they’ve taken this company through.”
- Of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is prosecuting him for engaging in years of financial fraud and illegal conduct, Trump said: “We have a situation where I’m an innocent man. I’ve been persecuted by somebody running for office. They want to make sure that I don’t win again, that this is partially election interference. But, in particular, the person in the room right now hates Trump and uses Trump to get elected.”
- Of Special Counsel Jack Smith, Trump said: “The prosecutor in the case, I will call our case, is a thug. I have named him ‘Deranged Jack Smith….He does political hit jobs. He’s a raging and uncontrolled Trump hater, as is his wife, who happened to be the producer of that Michelle Obama puff piece. This is the guy I’ve got.”
- Speaking of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago to recover hundreds of highly classified documents Trump had illegally taken upon leaving the White House, Trump said: “The political persecution of President Donald J. Trump has been going on for years, with the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, Impeachment Hoax No 1, Impeachment Hoax No 2, and so much more, it just never ends. It is political targeting at the highest level!”
In his masterwork, The Discourses, published in 1531, Florentine statesman Niccolo Machiavelli laid out his advice for preserving liberties within a republic. Among this was the foregoing description of the difference between great leaders and weak ones.
Donald Trump likes to portray himself as a courageous leader. But he is “brave” only when facing those far weaker than himself.
He feels most compatible with ruthless dictators—such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un and Xi Jinping. He envies their life-or-death power over their subjects. And he lusts to possess the same.
He is a coward, who demands total immunity for all his actions—most importantly, his criminal ones.
No other President—not even Richard Nixon—has ever made such a demand. Or faced prosecution for so many crimes.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 25, 2024 at 12:11 am
No well-ordered republic should ever cancel the crimes of its citizens by their merits….For if a citizen who has rendered some eminent service to the state should add to the reputation and influence which he has thereby acquired the confident audacity of being able to commit any wrong without fear of punishment, he will in a little while become so insolent and overbearing as to put an end to all power of the law.
—Niccolo Machiavelli, “The Discourses”
When the Justice Department declared war on John Gotti, “Boss of all Bosses” of the most powerful Mafia family in the nation, no holds were barred.
The FBI employed wiretaps, electronic bugs, informants, round-the-clock surveillance and pretrial detention against the so-called “Teflon Don.”
John Gotti
Now consider the DOJ’s approach to the criminality of former President Donald J. Trump.
On January 6, 2021, Trump incited thousands of his fanatical supporters to attack Congress, where Electoral College votes for the 2020 Presidential election were being counted.
About 140 police officers were assaulted; many lawmakers’ offices were vandalized; frightened lawmakers huddled in a barricaded room.
Yet Trump was allowed to remain in office for the next two weeks until the election’s victor—Joseph Biden—legally took office.
Donald Trump
Not until November 18, 2022, did Attorney General Merrick Garland appoint Jack Smith Special Counsel to prosecute Trump for his attempted coup.
To date, there is no evidence that the agency has employed wiretaps, electronic bugs and/or round-the-clock surveillance against Trump. Nor has Trump been held in pretrial detention as a continuing threat to democratic rule.
When Trump left the White House on January 20, 2021, he illegally took hundreds of highly classified documents—and stored them at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
He then refused to return them when asked by the Justice Department—forcing the agency to send in an FBI force to retrieve them.
In March, 2023, Trump threatened “death and destruction” if he were criminally charged in New York for making “hush money” payments to porn “actress” Stormy Daniels. Trump shared an image of himself threatening Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with a baseball bat on his Truth Social platform.
Not even Mafia bosses like Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Albert “The Executioner” Anastasia dared issue such a threat.
Yet Trump has not been arrested, let alone jailed, for an act that would have gotten anyone else charged with a felony.
Nor has Trump limited himself to attacking local New York authorities.
He has branded Jack Smith “a deranged lunatic” and “psycho” for indicting him for his theft of national security documents. He has also attacked Smith’s wife, Katy Gale Chevigny, thus exposing her to possible violence from his fanatical supporters.
Specifically: “His wife is a Trump Hater, just as he is a Trump Hater—a deranged ‘psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice,’ other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!”
Jack Smith
Trump’s attacks on Smith have led to an increase in security for the Special Counsel. Yet Smith has not moved to have Trump remanded to federal custody for actions that would have put anyone else behind bars.
History warns us of the consequences of allowing a ruthless dictator to pursue his goals with impunity.
On November 9, 1923, Nazi Party Fuhrer Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government in Munich, Bavaria.
About 2,000 Nazis marched to the center of Munich, where they confronted heavily-armed police. A shootout erupted, killing 16 Nazis and four policemen.
Hitler was injured during the clash, but managed to escape. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with treason.
Put on trial, he found himself treated as a celebrity by a judge sympathetic to Right-wing groups. He was allowed to brutally cross-examine witnesses and even make inflammatory speeches.
At the end of the trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Serving time in Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria. he was given a huge cell, allowed to receive unlimited visitors and gifts, and treated with deference by guards and inmates.
Nine months later, he was released on parole—by authorities loyal to the authoritarian Right instead of the newly-created Weimar Republic.
Adolf Hitler leaving Landsberg Prison, December, 20, 1924
Hitler immediately began rebuilding the shattered Nazi party—and deciding on a new strategy to gain power. Never again would he resort to armed force. He would win office by election—or intrigue.
Writes historian Volker Ullrich, in his monumental new biography, Hitler: Ascent 1889 – 1939: “Historians have perennially tried to answer the question of whether Hitler’s rise to power could have been halted….
“There were repeated opportunities to end Hitler’s run of triumphs. The most obvious one was after the failed Putsch of November 1923. Had the Munich rabble-rouser been forced to serve his full five-year term of imprisonment in Landsberg, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been able to restart his political career.”
The democratic Weimar Republic of Germany (1919 – 1933) found itself menaced by ruthless Fascists, betrayed by its supposed allies, and defended by liberals unwilling to forcefully defeat its enemies.
The same combination of forces is now on full display in the United States.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 24, 2024 at 12:12 am
On December 11, 1990, FBI agents and NYPD detectives raided the Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan.
They had arrest warrants for John Gotti, boss of the Gambino Mafia Family, and his two lieutenants: Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, his underboss, or second-in-command, and Frankie Locascio, his Consigliere, or adviser.
Federal prosecutors charged Gotti with five murders, conspiracy to murder, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion.
From the date of his arrest to the date of his conviction on all charges on April 2, 1992, Gotti remained in pre-trial detention at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.
Although he had never threatened prosecutors or judges, he had bribed juries and ordered the murders of gangland associates. The Justice Department considered him too dangerous to be allowed outside confinement.
Gotti had become boss of the Gambino Family in December, 1985—by arranging the execution of its then-boss, Paul “Big Paul” Castellano, on December 16.
Since then, he had moved his headquarters from Queens to the Ravenite. And, like a king holding court, he had ordered all of his captains to report to him at the Ravenite once a week.
Word quickly reached the FBI—and agents in vans shot video as they staked out Prince Street.
Gotti had handed the FBI a mob organization chart.
FBI Seal
It was only a matter of time before the FBI’s Technical Surveillance Squad (TSS) breached the security of the Ravenite.
In 1989, the TSS planted a hidden microphone in an apartment above the Ravenite where Gotti held his secret meetings. Tape recorders were running when he bragged that he had ordered three murders—and was running a criminal enterprise: The Gambino Mafia Family.
When he wasn’t bragging, Gotti was badmouthing virtually everyone—past and present—in the Mafia: Paul Castellano, Carlo Gambino, Vincent “The Chins” Gigante. And, most fatally, his own underboss: Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.
John Gotti
On December 12, 1989, the electronic bug picked up the following conversation between Gotti and his Consigliere, or adviser, Frankie Locascio.
The subject: The murders of three former Gambino Family mobsters: Robert “Deebee” DiBernardo, Louis Milito and Louis DiBono.
DiBernardo had been murdered over Gravano’s objections. A fellow mobster had told Gotti that DiBernardo had made “subversive” comments behind Gotti’s back.
But that wasn’t the way Gotti told it.
GOTTI: “Deebee, did he ever talk subversive to you?”
LOCASCIO: “Never.”
GOTTI: “Never talked it to Angelo, never talked it to [Joseph Armone] either. I took Sammy’s word that he talked about me behind my back….I was in jail when I whacked him. I knew why it was being done. I done it anyway. I allowed it to be done anyway.”
Next Gotti focused on the murders of Louis Milito and Louis DiBono. Milito had been “whacked” for questioning Gotti’s judgment. And DiBono had been hit because he refused to answer a Gotti summons.
But Gotti was determined to lay the blame on Gravano. He claimed that both men had been killed because Gravano had asked for permission to remove his business partners.
Sammy “The Bull” Gravano
And there was more: Gotti accused Gravano of excessive greed—and hoarding money for himself at the expense of the Family.
GOTTI: “That’s Sammy….Every fucking time I turn around there’s a new company poppin’ up. Building. Consulting. Concrete. Where the hell did all these new companies come from? Where did five new companies come from?”
He accused Gravano of creating “a fuckin’ army inside an army,” adding: “You know what I’m saying, Frankie? I saw that shit and I don’t need that shit.”
At a pretrial hearing following the arrests of Gotti, Gravano and Locascio, prosecutors played the FBI’s tapes of Gotti’s unintended confessions—including his badmouthing of Gravano.
Gravano suddenly realized that his future in the Mafia was nil.
Gravano, Gotti and Locascio were all facing life imprisonment as targets of RICO—the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act.
And if the Feds didn’t send him to prison, mob gunmen—sent by Gotti—would eventually get him. Gotti clearly planned to make him the fall guy—in court or in a coffin—for murders that Gotti himself had ordered.
Only John Gotti was shocked when Gravano agreed to testify against him—and other Mafiosi—in exchange for a five-year prison sentence.
Gravano, as Gotti’s second-in-command, had literally been at the seat of power for five years. He knew the secrets of the Gambino Family—and the other four Mafia families who ruled New York.
On April 2, 1992, a jury convicted Gotti of five murders, conspiracy to murder, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion. He drew a life sentence, without possibility of parole.
Gotti was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, in virtual solitary confinement. He died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002, at the age of 61.
Donald Trump resembles his fellow New Yorker, John Gotti, in more ways than he would like to admit: In his greed, arrogance, egomania, love of publicity and vindictiveness.
But there is a huge difference between the no-nonsense way that federal prosecutors and judges treated Gotti—and the way they have cringed before Trump.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 26, 2023 at 12:20 am
Donald Trump has no doubt heard of Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman of the Renaissance.
But he certainly hasn’t learned anything from him.
Consider the way he has repeatedly insulted his nemesis, Jack Smith.
Smith was appointed Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice on November 18, 2022.
Jack Smith
His assignment: Oversee the criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump’s behavior regarding:
- The January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol; and
- His taking and storage of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Since then, Trump has launched a series of vicious attacks on Smith—despite the fact that Smith holds the power to indict and prosecute him for multiple felonies.
For example: On June 8, Smith indicted Trump on 37 federal felony counts for illegally retaining hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Boxes of classified documents in Mar-a-Lago bathroom
At a press conference, Smith defended his team’s work and emphasized the seriousness of the charges: “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced.”
He also emphasized that Trump “must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
Trump quickly responded: “The prosecutor in the case, I will call our case, is a thug. I have named him ‘Deranged Jack Smith. He’s a behind-the-scenes guy, but his record is absolutely atrocious. He does political hit jobs. He’s a raging and uncontrolled Trump hater, as is his wife, who happened to be the producer of that Michelle Obama puff piece. This is the guy I’ve got.”
On June 27, Trump, using his social network Truth Social, continued his attack on Smith:
COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO THE DERANGED, TRUMP HATING JACK SMITH, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS FRIENDS, THAT AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I COME UNDER THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY THE CLINTON SOCKS CASE, NOT BY THIS PSYCHOS’ FANTASY OF THE NEVER USED BEFORE ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917. “SMITH” SHOULD BE LOOKING AT CROOKED JOE BIDDEN AND ALL OF THE CRIMES THAT HE HAS PERPETRATED ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, INCLUDING THE MILLIONS & MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HE EXTORTED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES!
Donald Trump
So: Where does Niccolo Machiavelli enter this story?
In his masterwork, The Discourses, published in 1531, Machiavelli laid out his advice for preserving liberties within a republic.
His counsel on gratuitously handing out insults and threats could have been written with Donald Trump in mind:
-
“I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one.
-
“For neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy—but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
Meanwhile, Smith has not responded to Trump’s slanders.
“Smith is not going to play this case out in public,” said Steve Friedland, a law professor at Elon University and a former federal prosecutor. “We’ve seen that in other cases, and that’s true for most prosecutors.” “
“Trump has done this with [New York Attorney General] Letitia James, he has done this with [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis, just every prosecutor that’s investigated him,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told ABC News.
James has sued Trump for fraud and Willis is investigating Trump’s efforts to gain unearned votes in Georgia to overturn the 2020 electoral victory of Joe Biden.
According to Machiavelli, Trump’s continued outbursts against Smith illustrate another great truth: That it’s possible to tell a truly great man from an imposter:
“A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances. And if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him.
“The conduct of weak men is very different. Made vain and intoxicated by good fortune, they attribute their success to merits which they do not possess, and this makes them odious and insupportable to all around them. And when they have afterwards to meet a reverse of fortune, they quickly fall into the other extreme, and become abject and vile.
“Thence it comes that princes of this character think more of flying in adversity than of defending themselves, like men who, having made a bad use of prosperity, are wholly unprepared for any defense against reverses.”
Trump is desperately trying to appear as the victim of a “weaponized” Justice Department eager to eliminate him as a 2024 Presidential candidate. He has railed against the “Deep State”—by which he means agencies he no longer controls.
And he has called on his allies within the Republican party to derail the continuing probes—especially by defunding Smith’s office or the entire Justice Department.
So far, neither Trump’s whining nor his allies have deterred Smith from his prosecutorial efforts.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 22, 2023 at 12:40 am
On March 17, a federal judge sentenced Larry Rendall Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, to two years’ imprisonment for joining a mob that tried to overturn a legitimate Presidential election.
It was a decision that would have appalled Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science.
U.S. District Judge John Bates had convicted Brock after a bench trial in November, 2022, of one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanor counts for his role in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt.
Larry Brock (in helmet) on the floor of the Senate
Prosecutors asked Bates to sentence Brock to five years in prison, owing to his calls for violence on Facebook before the coup attempt:
- “When we get to the bottom of this conspiracy we need to execute the traitors that are trying to steal the election, and that includes the leaders of the media and social media aiding and abetting the coup plotters.”
- “I bought myself body armor and a helmet for a civil war that is coming.”
- “Do not kill LEO [law enforcement officers] unless necessary. Gas would assist in this if we can get it.”
But Bates rejected a significant enhancement against Brock for threatening bodily injury. Bates’ decision reduced his sentencing guideline range to 24-30 months.
U.S. District Judge John Bates
Brock’s defense attorney, Charles Burnham, tried to put the best spin possible on Brock’s behavior: “It is inconceivable that he was motivated by anything other than genuine concern for democracy.
“If Mr. Brock was sincerely motivated by high ideals, it significantly reduces his culpability even if the Court should privately disagree with his view.”
Brock, 55, of Grapevine, Texas, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989. He was on active duty until 1998 and served in the reserves until 2014.
Bates credited Brock’s distinguished military service, which included five Air Medals and multiple deployments during the War on Terror, as well as his community involvement and his lack of any criminal history.
And that is where—according to Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science—-Bates went dangerously wrong.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In his masterwork, The Discourses, Machiavelli provides clear instructions on how to preserve liberty within a republic. In Book 1, Chapter 24, he advises: “Well-Ordered Republics Establish Punishments and Rewards for Their Citizens, But Never Set Off One Against the Other.”
Specifically:
“The services of Horatius had been of the highest importance to Rome, for by his bravery he had conquered the Curatii. But the crime of killing his sister was atrocious, and the Romans were so outraged….that he was put upon trial for his life.
“…It may seem like an instance of popular ingratitude, but a more careful examination…will show that the people were to blame rather for the acquittal than for having him tried.
“And the reason for this is, that no well-ordered republic should ever cancel the crimes of its citizens by their merits. But having established rewards for good actions and penalties for evil ones, and having rewarded a citizen for conduct who afterwards commits a wrong, he should be chastised for that without regard to his previous merits.
“And a state that properly observes this principle will long enjoy its liberty, but if otherwise, it will speedily come to ruin.
“For if a citizen who has rendered some eminent service to the state should add to the reputation and influence which he has thereby acquired the confident audacity of being able to commit any wrong without fear of punishment, he will in a little while become so insolent and overbearing as to put an end to all power of the law.”
No better proof of this can be found in the unwillingness of local, state and federal courts to hold accountable former President Donald Trump for a decades-long history of criminality.
This includes two attempts to impeach him as President—in 2019 and 2021.
The first impeachment trial centered on two charges: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The second trial centered on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” against the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The evidence against Trump was overwhelming in both trials, but his Right-wing allies in a Republican-controlled Senate twice acquitted him.
And although he was banned from Youtube, Facebook and Twitter in the wake of his inciting an attack on Congress, the oligarchs who own these websites have since fully restored his accounts.
He is once again free to use their platforms to spread his “Big Lie” gospel that he was robbed of the Presidency in 2020 through massive voter fraud.
Moreover, he is doing so as a candidate for President of the United States.
There is a very real danger that his millions of Fascistic followers could return him to the Oval Office—and thus put an end to the 245-year history of democratic government in the United States.
And the fact that so many of his followers have gotten slap-on-the-wrist sentences for their treasonous coup attempt only incites them to similar future violence.
All of which would lead Machiavelli to declare: “This bodes ill for your republic.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 21, 2023 at 12:10 am
Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science, would have been appalled.
On March 17, a federal judge sentenced Larry Rendall Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, to two years’ imprisonment for joining a mob that tried to overturn a legitimate Presidential election.
The date was January 6, 2021, and the site was the United States Capitol Building. Inside, members of Congress were counting Electoral College votes from the 2020 Presidential race.
Officially, the popular vote had already been counted: On November 3, 2020, 81,255,933 Democratic voters had elected former Vice President Joseph Biden the 46th President of the United States. Donald Trump, running for a second term as President, got 74,196,153 votes.
That should have been enough to decide who would be the next President of the United States. But in America, the winner isn’t chosen according to the popular vote—but according to the number of Electoral College votes s/he receives
Brock—and the mob—knew how that vote would go. It would—like the popular vote—end Donald Trump’s dream of a second term. And it would usher Joe Biden into the Oval Office. :
But having repeatedly “joked” about how wonderful it would be if the United States—like China—had a “President-for-Life,” Trump wasn’t ready to concede office.
He immediately began spreading “The Big Lie”: That he had been defeated by massive voter fraud. And that this had been made possible through Dominion Voting Systems.
On January 6, 2021, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol Building to express their anger at the voting process and to intimidate their elected officials to reject the results.
Donald Trump addresses his Stormtrumpers
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media.
“Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal….
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back….And we’re going to have to fight much harder….
“And after this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave Senators and Congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
“Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
Capitol Police facing off with Stormtrumpers
- Members of the mob attacked police with chemical agents or lead pipes.
- A Capitol Hill police officer was knocked off his feet, dragged into the mob surging toward the building, and beaten with the pole of an American flag.
- One attacker was shot as protesters forced their way toward the House Chamber where members of Congress were sheltering in place.
Stormtrumpers scaling Capitol Building walls
- Several rioters carried plastic handcuffs, possibly intending to take hostages.
- Others carried treasonous Confederate flags.
- Shouts of “Hang [Vice President Mike] Pence!” often rang out.
- Improvised explosive devices were found in several locations in Washington, D.C.
- Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite Right-wing target.
Stormtrumpers inside the Capitol Building
More than three hours passed before police—using riot gear, shields and batons—retook control of the Capitol.
Larry Brock made his contribution to the attempted coup by entering the floor of the Senate Chamber, wearing a combat helmet and tactical vest and carrying zip-tie handcuffs. He examined paperwork on Senators’ desks while inside the building for approximately 37 minutes.
For their safety, members of Congress had been evacuated from their joint session.
Fortunately for those members, Brock was unable to carry out the goals laid out in a manifesto he sent to another military veteran on Christmas Eve, 2020. Titled “Plan of Action if Congress fails to act on 6 January,” the document laid out eight points that Brock described as “main tasks,” including:
- Seizing all Democratic politicians and Biden key staff and select republicans [sic], including Senators John Thune and Mitch McConnell, and interrogating them using “measures we used on Al Queda” [sic].
- Seizing national media figures. Brock wrote they should “eliminate them. Media silence except for White House communications.”
- President Trump would issue a general pardon “for all crimes up to and including murder” for those who put down “the Democratic Insurrection.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on June 28, 2021 at 12:10 am
On June 25, justice finally caught up with Derek Chauvin.
Chauvin was the white Minneapolis police officer who, on May 25, 2020, murdered George Floyd, a black unemployed restaurant security guard.
While Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on a city street following an arrest, Chauvin kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for nine and one-half minutes.
A 17-year-old black girl, Darnella Frazier, captured Floyd’s murder on her cellphone. The video was seen by millions on YouTube and network news programs. It played a pivotal role at Chauvin’s trial.
Derek Chauvin
Cities across the United States erupted in mass protests over Floyd’s death—and police killings of black victims generally. Most of these demonstrations proved peaceful. But cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City saw stores looted, vandalized and/or burned.
Chauvin was fired the next day from the Minneapolis Police Department and charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin’s trial began on March 8, 2021, and concluded on April 20 when the jury found him guilty on all three charges.
On June 25—one year and one month to the day after he murdered Floyd—he received his sentence: Twenty-two and one-half years in prison.
Several of Floyd’s family members spoke at the sentencing, but only one of Chauvin’s did. That was his mother, Carolyn Pawlenty.
Carolyn Pawlenty
Standing before Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, Pawlenty said:
“Derek has played over and over in his head the events of that day. I’ve seen the toll it has taken on him. I believe a lengthy sentence will not serve Derek well. Even though I have not spoken publicly, I have always supported him 100 percent and always will.
“Derek always dedicated his life and time to the police department. Even on his days off, he’d call in to see if they needed help.
“Derek is a quiet, thoughtful, honorable and selfless man. He has a big heart and has always put others before his own.
“My son’s identity has also been reduced to that as a racist. I want this court to know that none of these things are true and that my son is a good man.
She pleaded with Judge Cahill for leniency: “When you sentence him, you will also be sentencing me. I won’t be able to see him or give him our special hug. When he is released, his father and I most likely won’t be here.”
Chauvin is 45. His mother is 73.
One of Floyd’s brothers, Philonise Floyd, said with undeserved generosity: “I understand that because that’s her son. The same way she spoke up for her son, I spoke up for my brother.
“So we all, we all love our loved ones. But the fact that I will never see my brother again is worse because she still will have the opportunity to see her son in the cell anytime she wants to.”
Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, argued that Chauvin should be sentenced to just probation with no more prison time:
“He was decorated as a police officer—multiple life-saving awards. He was decorated for valor. He was proud to be a police officer because what he liked to do was help people.”
Clearly lost on—or ignored by—Pawlenty and Nelson was this warning from Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science. He issued this in his masterwork, The Discourses, which offers advice on how to maintain liberty within a republic.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In Chapter 24, he writes: “Well-ordered republics establish punishments and rewards for their citizens, but never set off one against the other:
“The services of Horatius had been of the highest importance to Rome, for by his bravery he had conquered the Curatii. But the crime of killing his sister was atrocious, and the Romans were so outraged by this murder that he was put upon trial for his life, notwithstanding his recent great services to the state.
“It may seem like an instance of popular ingratitude; but a more careful examination, and reflection as to what the laws of a republic ought to be, will show that the people were to blame rather for the acquittal of Horatius than for having him tried.
“…No well-ordered republic should ever cancel the crimes of its citizens by their merits. But having established rewards for good actions and penalties for evil ones, and having rewarded a citizen for conduct who afterwards commits a wrong, he should be chastised for that without regard to his previous merits.
“And a state that properly observes this principle will long enjoy its liberty, but if otherwise, it will speedily come to ruin.
“For if a citizen who has rendered some eminent service to the state should add to the reputation and influence which he has thereby acquired the confident audacity of being able to commit any wrong without fear of punishment, he will in a little while become so insolent and overbearing as to put an end to all power of the law.
“But to preserve a wholesome fear of punishment for evil deeds, it is necessary not to omit rewarding good ones.”
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WHEN THREATS AND BRIBES FAIL: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 18, 2025 at 12:10 am…A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances. And if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him.
The conduct of weak men is very different. Made vain and intoxicated by good fortune, they attribute their success to merits which they do not possess. And this makes them odious and insupportable to all around them. And when they have afterwards to meet a reverse of fortune, they quickly fall into the other extreme, and become abject and vile.
—Niccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses
Niccolo Machiavelli
When Donald Trump—as a businessman and President—has been confronted by men and women who can’t be bribed or intimidated, he has reacted with rage and frustration.
Robert Mueller
Perhaps the key to Trump’s innermost fear can be found in a work of fiction—in this case, the 1996 historical novel, The Friends of Pancho Villa, by James Carlos Blake.
The book depicts the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1920) and its most famous revolutionary, Francisco “Pancho” Villa. it’s told from the viewpoint of Rodolfo Fierro, Villa’s most feared executioner. In one day, for example, Fierro—using two revolvers—executed 300 captured Federale soldiers.
As in history, Blake’s Fierro presides over the execution of David Berlanga, a journalist who had dared criticize the often loutish behavior of Villa’s men.
On Villa’s command, Fierro approaches Berlanga in a Mexico City restaurant and orders: “Come with me.”
Standing against a barracks wall, Berlanga lights a cigar and requests permission to finish it. He then proceeds to smoke it with such a steady hand that its unbroken ash extends almost four inches.
The cigar finished, the ash still unbroken, Berlanga drops the butt to the ground and says calmly: “I’m ready.”
Then the assembled firing squad does its work.
Later, Fierro is so shaken by Berlanga’s sheer fearlessness that he seeks an explanation for it. Sitting in a cantina, he lights a cigar and tries to duplicate Berlanga’s four-inch length.
But the best he can do is less than three inches. He concludes that Berlanga used a trick—but he can’t figure it out.
Rodolfo Fierro
It had to be a trick, Fierro insists, because, if it wasn’t, there were only two other explanations for such a calm demeanor in the face of impending death.
The first was insanity. But Fierro rules this out: He had studied Berlanga’s eyes and found no madness there.
That leaves only one other explanation (other than a trick): Sheer courage.
And Fierro can’t accept this, either—because it’s disturbing.
“The power of men like me does not come solely from our ability to kill….No, the true source of our power is so obvious it sometimes goes unnoticed for what it is: our power comes from other men’s lack of courage.
“There is even less courage in this world than there is talent for killing. Men like me rule because most men are faint of heart in the shadow of death.
“But a man brave enough to control his fear of being killed, control it so well that no tremor reaches his fingers and no sign shows in his eyes…well. Such a man cannot be ruled, he can only be killed.”
Throughout his life, Trump has relied on bribery and intimidation. He well understands the power of greed and fear over most people.
What he doesn’t understand—and truly fears—is that some people cannot be bought or frightened.
Like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like Robert Mueller. And like Zohran Mamdani.
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