Leadership

Mine Alone: The Weight of Command

Eisenhower’s Absolute Accountability on D-Day Last year we honored the raw courage of Rudder’s Rangers at Pointe du Hoc and the big guns of the Battleship Texas pounding the Normandy beaches. This anniversary, let us look higher in the chain: to the supreme commander who carried the loneliest burden of all. On the evening of June 5, 1944, at Greenham Common airfield in England, General Dwight D. Eisenhower walked among the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division. The iconic photograph captures the moment: Ike in simple uniform, surrounded by young men in full jump gear, faces darkened with camouflage, some with…

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Coaching Series: Lou Holtz

Lou Holtz: The Coach Who Built Champions for Life Today, March 4, 2026, the college football world lost one of its greatest teachers. Lou Holtz, the legendary coach who led Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship and inspired generations with his no-nonsense wisdom, passed away at age 89 in Orlando, Florida. Notre Dame Football captured the moment perfectly in their tribute: “Remembering the life and legacy of Lou Holtz.” If you haven’t watched the video yet, pause and take it in. It’s a powerful reminder of the man who didn’t just win games; he changed lives. Remembering the life and…

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Trump’s Greenland Gambit

Echoes of the 1990 Budget Brinkmanship in "The Art of the Hemisphere" In the high-stakes arena of international relations, President Donald Trump's recent tariff threats against eight European nations over Greenland bear an uncanny resemblance to a pivotal domestic fiscal showdown from over three decades ago. Just as House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski dangled a politically toxic proposal during the 1990 budget negotiations to force President George H.W. Bush to concede on tax hikes, Trump is wielding economic leverage to compel Europe-particularly Denmark-to yield on a strategic asset. This isn't mere bullying; it's a calculated play in what I've…

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America First in Our Backyard

Donroe Rising: How Trump Restored U.S. Dominance in the Western Hemisphere In the early hours of January 3, 2026, President Donald Trump shattered years of diplomatic paralysis with a swift military operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, extraditing him to New York to face narco-terrorism charges. This bold stroke, launched from 20 U.S. bases with 150 aircraft, not only toppled a regime long allied with adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran but also signaled a seismic shift in U.S. hemispheric policy. Contrast this with the 2009 Honduran crisis, where President Manuel Zelaya's illegal bid to rewrite the constitution for reelection…

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The Art of the Hemisphere, Part II

Trump's Corollary in Action: Choking the Narco-Nexus Three weeks ago, I laid out how President Trump's pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH)-a man convicted of turning his country into a cocaine superhighway-was no act of mercy, but a stroke of asymmetric genius. Low domestic cost, high strategic yield: Flip Honduras, isolate Nicolás Maduro, and dangle a "golden bridge" of exile and asset unfreezing in exchange for Venezuelan oil concessions, base closures, and a clean break from his narco-terror cronies. Critics howled hypocrisy; I called it the biggest real-estate deal since Manhattan, with 300 billion barrels of Orinoco heavy…

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The Triumph of Trump’s Moral Compass

Outthinking and Outworking Western Leaders in the Gaza Peace Deal President Trump leading the wo The Middle East stands at a historic juncture, with the release of all 20 living hostages held by Hamas marking a decisive victory in the Gaza conflict. This achievement, cemented by the implementation of Phase One of President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza Peace Plan, stands as a testament to his unparalleled leadership and moral clarity. Unlike the Western leaders at Monday’s Peace in the Middle East summit in Sharm El Sheikh, who offered muted applause and pushed for excessive Israeli concessions, Trump, alongside his formidable team-Marco…

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Reviving the Raven

The Democrat Party Needs a Sam Houston to Reject Insurrectionist Rhetoric and Economic Hypocrisy In today’s polarized America, the Democrat Party’s resistance to federal immigration law enforcement, cloaked in claims of "state sovereignty" and justified by assertions that illegal alien labor prevents economic collapse, echoes the antebellum South’s economically driven defiance of federal authority. This rhetoric, as David Strom notes today in a Hot Air column, risks “open rebellion” by reviving Confederate-era states’ rights arguments. The party’s stance mirrors the South’s defense of slavery as economically vital, a path Sam Houston rejected in his 1854 Senate speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Act…

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Coaching Series: Hank Stram

Coaching Series: Hank Stram – The Innovator in the Red Vest Hank Stram wasn’t just a coach; he was a showman, a strategist, and a football visionary who turned the Kansas City Chiefs into a powerhouse and changed the game forever. If you’ve ever watched a sideline prowling with a coach in a sharp blazer, barking plays through a headset, or seen a team stack the line with a “Stack Defense,” you’ve brushed up against Stram’s legacy. He wasn’t the loudest name in football history, but he was one of the most influential-a man who brought flair, brains, and a Super…

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Coaching Series: Lou Saban

Lou Saban: The Unyielding Fire of a Genuine Soul Among football coaches, where legends like Vince Lombardi preached like prophets and Bill Belichick schemed like sorcerers, Lou Saban stands apart-not as the loudest voice or the most decorated, but as the most human. He was the nomad who wandered 21 coaching stops across five decades, from AFL champions in Buffalo to Division III rebuilds in North Carolina at age 80. His win-loss record? Respectable but not regal: 191 victories against 200 defeats and 11 ties. Yet, ask anyone who played for him, and they'll tell you Saban wasn't measured in stats.…

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Coaching Series: Norm Van Brocklin

The Dutchman: A Volatile Flame That Lit Football's Soul In the pantheon of football legends, few burn as brightly-or as erratically-as Norm Van Brocklin. "The Dutchman," born Norman Mack Van Brocklin in 1926 to Dutch immigrant parents in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, wasn't just a quarterback who etched his name in the NFL record books with a still-legendary 554-yard performance against the New York Yanks on September 28, 1951. He was a force of nature: a chain-smoking philosopher-coach whose gravelly wisdom and hair-trigger temper shaped a generation. Volatile? He'd explode at officials like a misfired shotgun, once fined $500 for chasing…

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