Ethics Run Amok President Trump’s decision for the U.S. government to accept an airplane from Qatar valued at almost $400 million to serve as Air Force One raises many ethical issues. Before examining those issues, here is a summary of what led up to the decision including why Trump decided... Read more →

Are Trump’s EOs a “Bridge Too Far?” President Donald Trump has issued 147 Executive Orders (EO) as of last week. Most Presidents would have issued much less at this point in their Presidency. An EO is a declaration by the president which has the force of law, usually based on... Read more →

Federal Funding of Universities and DEI Programs Under Attack Last week I blogged about the accomplishments and questionable actions by President Donald Trump during his first 100 days in office. I did not tackle the question of the fairness of cutting federal funding to the elite and other universities because... Read more →

How to Lose Friends and the Exercise of Influence Over Others There are many ways to characterize President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Words such as chaos are the overarching description. More specifically, we can label Trump a disrupter, unpredictable, unreliable, punitive, closed-minded, egotistical, and, perhaps, most apropos—a bully.... Read more →

A Period When the 'Ends Justified the Means' Today is my birthday--March 21. I won't tell you how old I am other than to say that I was in college when JFK got shot. I lived through that horrific event and the murders of Robert Kennedy (RFK). Martin Luther King,... Read more →

Americans Do Not Trust Established Institutions According to Gallup and Pew Gallup published its 2023 results of a survey of honesty/ethics in the professions last year. The results speak volumes about which professions are trusted by most Americans. The most ethical profession is nurses with a 78% positive rating—high or... Read more →

Trump Removes Top Government Ethics Official By now you have likely heard that President Trump removed the head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) from his post in one of many executive orders issued since he took office just three weeks ago. The agency’s director, David Huitema, was confirmed... Read more →

We Need a National Primary All on One Day The presidential primary system is where candidates compete for delegates and seek the nomination for their parties’ next president. It’s a broken system. There are a variety of reasons why, not the least of which is the outrageous amounts of money... Read more →

From NIL to Paying Athletes, to Making Them Employees. What’s Next? I recall the furor about paying college athletes for their efforts just a few years ago. Some said it was the end of amateurism in college sports, especially football. College amateur athletics used to be a moniker worth being... Read more →

What Can We Do About It? It will come as no surprise to the readers of my blogs that I believe civility is in decline. In a 2021 blog, I examined some of the examples of the lack of civility in society including: Smash and grab incidents. Mass shootings. Random... Read more →