After the Trump assassination attempt at Butler, I’m having an unexpected crisis of faith. What’s unusual is...I’m an atheist. Not just an atheist, but you know, the insufferable kind, the kind that insists on being sworn in without that “so help me God” nonsense.From a young age, I wanted things to make sense with reason my guiding principle. The idea of an all-powerful, all-knowing being whose address—Heaven—doesn’t even come up on Google Maps seemed more preposterous than Santa. At least we knew we could find Santa at the North Pole.Look, I searched for answers, but they were always the same: “You have to have faith.” Yeah, right. Believing things without evidence because you want to beli

We all expected a tumultuous presidential campaign. But I was not prepared to see a Kennedy endorse a Republican, nor the Cheneys endorse a far-Left Democrat. I was equally unprepared for the embrace of Trumpian policies by the very Democrats who hate him with the fire of a thousand suns. The coup that toppled Joe Biden caught me by surprise, as did the coronation of an unelected nominee, Kamala Harris. Not to mention two foiled assassinations buried by the media. And we still have a month to go.Is there any way to make sense of this?Political parties change. The South voted solidly Democratic for 100 years after the Civil War. When the Democrats nominated radical George McGovern in 1972, th

Longtime AT readers will remember my viral 2008 article: Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. That article described the Cloward-Piven Crisis strategy that Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, two radical Columbia University professors, dreamed up. Their first target was the welfare system. They hoped that signing up every person eligible for every public service would overwhelm the system and cause its collapse. In the ashes, they would then suggest the solution: a guaranteed annual income for all Americans. (Note that such proposals have been added to Biden spending bills but were stripped out). They went on to target voting and were the authors of the National Voter Reg

Since Reagan, the GOP had been the party that supported a strong military. Reagan stood against the USSR, pushing up the cost of the arms race to defeat communism. What’s known as the military-industrial complex benefited from this stance. George Bush continued this policy, going to war with Iraq in the early 1990s. W. picked up the mantle despite there being no more cold war to win. His response to 9/11 was regrettable in hindsight. The Bush family stamped the GOP as the party of war.The Democrats, being carefully contrarian with Reagan, had an anti-war minority in their ranks. Most Democrats took that view, but they saw Reagan’s policies as popular and held their fire. It was during the Bu

The benefits of skepticism are twofold. Firstly, it prevents the creep of authoritarianism, ensuring that power remains accountable to the people. By questioning authority, citizens create a culture of transparency, where leaders are compelled to justify their actions and decisions. This fosters a more responsive government, attuned to the needs and concerns of its constituents.Secondly, skepticism fuels innovation and progress. When we challenge prevailing wisdom and conventional thinking, we create space for new ideas and perspectives to emerge. This intellectual curiosity has long been a hallmark of American exceptionalism, driving breakthroughs in science, technology, and entrepreneurshi

Over the past four years the people of the United States have witnessed the choreographed rise and precipitous fall of Joe Biden. Twenty-five hundred years ago the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, wrote “A man’s character is his fate.” An aphorism that aptly applies to Kamala Harris and the vast majority of the Democrat Party hierarchy.Oftentimes it is a series of events or decisions within a certain timeframe that seals one’s fate. Is it a coincidence that Biden’s decisions and actions during the four weeks between July 21 and August 15 in each of the four years of his presidency sealed his inevitable fate to be remembered as an unprincipled, duplicitous, and venal president? Will Kam

The best definition of ‘valor’ I have come across is ‘strength of mind in regard to danger, that quality which enables a man to encounter danger with firmness and courage.’ Reading of vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz and his stolen valor made me think of my father’s service during WWII and, to a lesser extent, my own some thirty years later.My dad, like a great number of young men, was drafted into the military in early 1942. Was spending the next three and a half years in the jungles of the Pacific fighting the Japanese the way he would have preferred to spend that time? I believe the answer is a firm no. He had just become engaged to my mother, and I’m sure marriage and settling down to

Right now, the United Kingdom is barreling toward totalitarianism.  After a second-generation immigrant reportedly murdered several children in a vicious stabbing attack last week, native Brits took to the streets to denounce their country’s criminally dangerous open borders.  If these outraged citizens had been members of Antifa, the press would have compassionately framed their actions as “mostly peaceful protests” deserving of praise.  Instead, because the public’s fury is directed toward one of globalism’s sacred cows — mass migration — angry parents have been condemned for fomenting “violent riots.”  Protecting children from serial killers and sexual predators, it seems, is not “politic

The book “1984” is supposed to be a warning. Today’s leftists are using it as an instruction manual.George Orwell’s classic novel is set in a dystopian world where Big Brother controls the population through information control and surveillance. See if any of this sounds familiar.“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”During her career, especially when running for president in 2020, Kamala Harris took a number of radical positions. She praised efforts to defund the police. She once insinuated Immigration and Customs Enforcement was comparable to the KKK and suggested the agency should be rebuilt “from scratc

USA Today recently published a piece excoriating Project 2025 and all who worked on it as (you guessed it) “racist.” I had very little to do with Project 2025 — I was asked for some thoughts on how best to organize the National Security Council staff, provided those thoughts, and then was never contacted again — but my name ended up on the thing, so I suppose, according to the sketchy rules of “journalistic ethics,” that makes me “fair game.”At any rate, USA Today reported that I did not respond to a request for comment. In fact, I did not receive any word that USA Today wanted a comment, but I guess that doesn’t really matter since I wouldn’t have commented anyway. It’s obvious from the res

Sun Tzu, the Chinese military strategist from around (historians are uncertain) the 6th century BC, is famous for the (still studied at West Point) book The Art of War. There are 13 short chapters, each on a different aspect of warfare. The first chapter is "Laying Plans," and the last, "The Use of Spies." The Art of War is ostensibly about warfare, but it finds many applications in other aspects of life. It is a short book that you can read in an afternoon but study for a lifetime of critical decisions to be made.One such decision is for the upcoming Presidential election. Let us see how following or not the advice of the master during the campaigns can lead to victory or defeat on November

America’s Jacksonian Turn.By Walter Russell MeadDonald Trump was only glancingly wounded on Saturday, but the effects of the attack and of his courageous response will be profound. His chance of victory substantially increased, and the movement he represents will continue to be a powerful force in American policy regardless of November’s result.Mr. Trump is part of a strain of American politics that Andrew Jackson brought to power in 1828. In domestic politics, Jacksonians are skeptical of big business, hate the political and social establishment, and demand “common sense” solutions to complex problems.They support the military but not an officer class seen as distant from the values and fol

Trump’s epitaph must include credit for injecting “fake news” into the lexicon. You are reading these words via alternative media born in response to the industrialization of fake news. The news business is zero-sum. Every lost NY Times or Washington Post subscriber becomes a Twitter, YouTube, Rumble, Gateway Pundit, etc. viewer. The industry just experienced a staggering crisis of trust over the Biden coverup.The overall financial implications of continuous erosion of trust in government have yet to be grasped. For homework, online search: fake+u.s.+government+economic+statistics. Especially significant will be the coming de facto credit downgrading resulting from the Biden fiasco. Credit i

Sixty-seven years ago, we had Sputnik, the start of the second Eisenhower administration, the last "I love Lucy" episode, the first "American Bandstand" on TV, Viet Cong guerrillas attacked a place called South Vietnam, the National Guard was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas, a movie called "Jailhouse Rock" and a number one hit about two kids who fell asleep at the movies, i.e. "Wake up little Susie."Across the Atlantic, something else happened that no one heard about.  On this day in 1957, Paul McCartney saw John Lennon standing there and they started to travel on the long and winding road. John was 16 and Paul had just turned 15.According to The Beatles Bible, the meeting went something like

Ignore stock market valuations as irrelevant.  American business is in big trouble, and the cause is what I call “academic management” in government, politics, and business.  No major business is run logically anymore.Politics definitely feeds off business, and the left has made a huge effort to control both business and the reporting of economics, but no one wants to talk about the 400-pound gorilla: the resulting bad management.An old friend once said, “Big business exists for only one reason: to provide bonuses to middle- and upper-level management.”  He explained that the public, customers, employees, and stockholders are important, but only to be kept mollified in order to keep bonuses

The moral evil of human action divides people and breeds discord. However, it comes in many guises that may easily deceive us. And for those whose heart is empty, nothing is easier than pretending to be good. Outward piety and renunciation may well mask the worst of cruelty.In some periods, there is ample cause for optimism (e.g. around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989), in others for the opposite: pessimism. At present, there are many signs that good is giving way to evil. In the countries of the West, we seem to be setting ourselves up for a strange future. Accumulating events both inside and outside our borders relegate us to a secondary role in the ongoing world drama.For

Once and future President Donald Trump addressed the Libertarian Party convention on May 25. He was reaching out to unify all who oppose a second term for Democrat president Joe Biden. It was not a success, as he was jeered and heckled. Disagreements among the delegates regarding Trump spawned fistfights the day before. Exasperated, Trump told the crowd "Maybe you don't want to win. Keep getting your three to four percent every year." Yet that is exactly what the Libertarians are happy with, wedded to an ideology that rejects being practical in a world they reject.Trump’s visit demonstrated the fundamental divide between “classical liberals” and conservatives which should inform the latter g

Theodore Roosevelt spoke of an invisible government in his presidency (1901-1909). He was alluding to a hidden power behind the visible government that today is referred to as “the deep state.” It is the unofficial target of blame for action against the will of the people. A finger pointed at it in the last century that signaled a change to America that would end its freedom and independence. The following touches on that “dot” among the many that help explain the drive toward a “new world order.”Among the “dots” associated with such an extraordinary change to America are a couple that helped lead the way toward global governance. One was the social turmoil that erupted in the 1960s, a false

It’s interesting to reflect on the implications of American slang for approbation and enthusiasm.  Old-timey slang included terms like “the bee’s knees,” “cat’s pajamas” and “copacetic.”  They were humorous and light-hearted expressions of appreciation, without the expectation of control in the relationship with the admired object.  The 1950s beat slang saw a bemused irreverence for daddio, slouching into passivity when the with-it were cats and chicks, and things were cool, man.The ’60s saw more mind-bended vernacular for enthusiasm like “far out,” “groovy,” “out of sight,” “dig it,” and “down with it.”  Popular music of the ’80s and ’90s contributed baleful terms like “bad” and “bad-ass” f

In the eyes of liberals, there is only one thing worse than Christian nationalism. It is White Christian nationalism. The addition of the adjective “White” supercharges the expression with vitriol and power, turning its followers (especially if they are male) into something everyone should love to hate.Judging from the liberal media uproar, the dangers of White Christian Nationalism (WCN) are immense. It is systemic, found everywhere inside the culture and governing structures of American society. Should something like this triumph, it will be the end of American democracy.People would think that this White Christian Nationalism, being such a broad and imminent threat, must have many ways of