Harlan Ullman.

2017: A Year Of Outrage

Defining a year with a single word defies logic and common sense.  Yet, in many ways, 2017 was a year defined by the word outrage that crossed political, economic, social, cultural and emotional boundaries in the United States. The source of much of this outrage was fear of the future. Fear unleashed anger.  And anger became outrage. Diminishing standards of living; wage stagnation; the skyrocketing costs of health care and education; and the increasing gaps between rich and poor were grounds for fear of the future.  In this highly polarized, divisive and entirely partisan political environment, for many Americans, the target for this outrage was failed and failing government. Cleaning [...]

By |2018-02-27T19:48:55+02:00January 4th, 2018|America, Harlan Ullman.|0 Comments

Suppose Hillary Won

As 2017 draws to a close, how different might the last year have been if Hillary Rodham Clinton had been elected 45th president of the United States?  Clearly, where one stands on the political scale defines this hypothetical answer.  Yet, the tragedy is that the highly polarized, divisive and pernicious condition of American politics today suggests that no matter how unpopular President Donald Trump is today, a President Clinton may not have been much better received. For Republicans, President Hillary would have been a catastrophe. In their view, America would have continued to proceed down the disastrous path of President Barack Obama.  Obamacare would have survived.  There would have been [...]

By |2018-02-27T19:31:32+02:00December 28th, 2017|America, Harlan Ullman.|0 Comments

A Christmas Carol

HO, HO, HO. Christmas and New Years are upon us. In the Dickensian spirit, how might the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future haunt us as they did poor old Ebenezer Scrooge? And who might play the role of Tiny Tim whose own future was very much in doubt? Today’s Christmas Past would challenge us to answer the question of what has happened to America? While an imperfect democracy, America did serve to help win two world wars, the second against truly evil enemies in the form of fascism and Nazism.  Through the Marshall Plan, America turned enemies into functioning democracies. Through its vision it helped create [...]

By |2018-02-27T19:24:23+02:00December 22nd, 2017|America, Harlan Ullman.|0 Comments

Why PUTIN Will Fail

Here is a prediction: Vladimir Putin is on a course to fail as president of the Russian Federation.  Do not expect failure this year or even next.  However, it is as inevitable as was the overthrow of party leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 and the implosion of the Soviet Union less than three decades later. The reason is the fatal flaw in autocratic rule: the inability to keep powerful centrifugal political forces in check forever. Despite Putin’s popularity---which is transient---and his huge electoral majority in the Duma, irreversible political, economic, social and cultural forces are at work.  One reason that these forces have not yet reached a critical mass has [...]

By |2017-11-14T21:27:37+02:00October 4th, 2016|Blogs, Harlan Ullman.|0 Comments

How does PUTIN do it?

An expected 100 million Americans and probably an equal or greater number of overseas viewers will be watching the first presidential debate tonight between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Expected at the least are fireworks and the likely shedding of a great deal of rhetorical blood, bile and vitriol.  But no matter how the debate turns out, either candidate could only imagine achieving after the vote on November 8th what Vladimir Putin accomplished in Russia’s election of the Duma last week.  With a personal favorability rating of over 80% and 343 of 450 Duma, Putin exceeded the most stunning electoral victories of any American president. Of course, Russia is not [...]

By |2017-11-14T21:27:37+02:00September 28th, 2016|Blogs, Harlan Ullman.|0 Comments
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