Compromise - A Dirty Word
Edifice of Trust Podcast
Senator Chuck Schumer has announced that the Democrats will shut down the government if their demands aren’t met. President Trump vilifies and tries to punish anyone who puts their conscience ahead of absolute loyalty to the MAGA agenda. The word compromise is alien to these two radical factions. But compromise is essential for a working democracy. In this commentary we investigate why compromise is so important.
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No Safe Haven
Edifice of Trust Podcast
Does the rising price of gold signal a looming financial crisis? The price of gold is just one of the forbidding economic signals we are confronting. In this commentary we look at a range of warnings and what we should do about them.
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In Search of Order
Edifice of Trust Podcast
CNBC’s Squawk Box crew will probably not have to make their annual pilgrimage to Davos next year. The American-led rules-based world order that the World Economic Forum had tried to reshape to match the good intentions of the global elite is dead. President Trump’s speech at Davos was its eulogy. In this commentary we will try to peer into what is coming next.
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Unconstrained
Edifice of Trust Podcast
President Trump’s actions at home and abroad appear to be unconstrained by custom, decency or any rule of law. Hoover Institute fellow Thomas Sowell pointed out in his book, A Conflict of Visions, how an unconstrained vision can ignore the trade-offs the real world imposes on human activities leading to sometimes disastrous unintended consequences. In this commentary we look at how President Trump has adopted a vision normally associated with leftist ideology.
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Donroe in Action
Edifice of Trust Podcast
President Trump is wasting no time to put into action the principles expounded in the recently published National Security Strategy (NSS 2025). It is a strategy based on American power and American interests but not on American values. In this commentary we look at alternatives to a great power multipolar world but these alternatives must await the departure of Donald Trump.
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Adios Maduro. Bienvenidos a Quien?
Edifice of Trust Podcast
Maduro is now gone but many of the factors that precipitated his capture and arrest are still in place. The socialist government is still in charge. The Venezuelan armed forces are more or less intact. Far left “colectivos” still control the streets of Caracas. Cartels and drug runners still have a lots of product for the American market. In this commentary we look at the current situation and discuss what to look for in the coming weeks and months.
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Urgent Priorities in a New World Order
Edifice of Trust Podcast
As we enter the year 2026, we must confront the reality that we are living in a new world order. The old American led rules-based world order that was able to avoid great power conflict and provide economic growth and improved living standards across the globe is gone. In this commentary we look at how this new world order changes America’s priorities.
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Trumpified Security
Edifice of Trust Podcast
I promise this will be the last commentary on Trump’s National Security Strategy. Much of the controversy about NSS 2025 has been about the Trump administration’s attitude toward Europe accusing the countries of Europe of losing their traditional cultures amid waves of mass migration. In addition, their lagging economies and heavy expenditures on social welfare have caused them to underfund their own defenses and made them reliant on America to come to their rescue if needed. NSS 2025 basically says, Europe, you are now on your own. In this commentary we look to Trump’s solution for...
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I Hate It when Trump's Right
Edifice of Trust Podcast
The Trump administration’s recently published National Security Strategy of the United States has been praised by the right and condemned by the left. But mostly for the wrong reasons. NSS 2025 is a rejection of the ideals and principals on which America was founded, the ideals and principals that made America exceptional. In this commentary we look at how this document seeks to reinstate policies that the American Revolution opposed.
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Look in the Mirror
Edifice of Trust Podcast
Our political leaders try to blame others for all the problems we face. Illegal immigrants, greedy corporations, drug cartels, white men, you name it. They want us to believe that we are victims not responsible for the difficulties that afflict us. But like the Michael Jackson song, Man in the Mirror, if we want to make the world a better place, the first thing we must do is change ourselves. In this commentary we look at why change is up to us.
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The situation in the Middle East is changing quickly. The euphoria of a ceasefire and exchange of hostages has deteriorated into the reality of public executions on the streets of Gaza. But the war against Israel is only one front of the larger war against the West. In this commentary we look at the threats to the peaceful Middle East we hoped would follow this ceasefire.