Author: Tom Cronin
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Historic preservation supporters organize to oppose Trump changes | Bob Loevy
Historic preservation organizations in Colorado Springs, the remainder of Colorado and across the nation are organizing to resist a recent effort to relax and weaken historic preservation laws in the United States. In Washington, D.C., the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has adopted a plan that will greatly reduce the powers of the United…
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Hard-fought Dem primary could put GOP’s Kirkmeyer in governor’s chair | Cronin & Loevy
Colorado state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer has the most political and governmental experience of the many candidates running for the 2026 Republican nomination for governor of Colorado. If she wins the Republican primary, she will have a decent chance of winning the governorship in the general election in November, even though Colorado is a decidedly blue…
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Trends and challenges in higher education | Tom Cronin
Americans are both proud and critical of our higher-education system. More American universities are highly ranked than those in other countries. More international students come here than to any other country. And basic research at U.S. universities has earned more patents and Nobel Prizes than elsewhere. Yet trust in colleges and universities has dramatically declined. Costs have dramatically increased and more parents are…
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Lincoln – Pragmatic, persistent, partisan coalition-builder | Tom Cronin
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 161 years ago this week, six days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Lincoln was 56 years old. Lee was 58 years old. Lincoln, generally regarded as our best president, fascinates us still and teaches us still. A valuable new, well-written book has just…
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Leadership in the age of artificial intelligence | CRONIN
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a feature story asking about when and if AI humanoid robots will be able to be chief executives and manage companies. AI evangelists Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of Tesla and xAI say AI robots already do remarkable engineering and logistical activities, and we can expect them…
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Leadership capital — and its paradoxes | CRONIN
“Leadership capital” is a general metaphor used in business, politics and the military to denote a “leader” has approximately so much prestige or useable “currency.” It is not exactly the same as power or position, yet it is related. One can have an important position, for example, but have lost your leadership capital. Leaders gain capital…
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The CIA — the mission and the challenges | CRONIN
Tom Cronin President Harry Truman established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1947 to prevent future Pearl Harbors and to deal with the developing threats of the Cold War. He did not know this espionage agency would later topple foreign governments, assassinate people, operate overseas torture camps and frustrate virtually every president who came after…
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Evaluating the idea of Elon Musk’s America Party | CRONIN & LOEVY
Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy The United States has had a long history as a two-party electoral system. But many, if not most, Americans are unhappy with what looks like a tired and worn-out party system, where the two old political parties are bankrupting the country. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a famously…
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Islamophobia, the KKK, AI robots, replacement theory and the fear of others | CRONIN
Tom Cronin What do Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Bibi Netanyahu and New York City’s recent political shooting-star Zohran Mamdani all have in common? According to the Human Genome Project, they share 99.9% of their genetic DNA sequences, and they can trace their ancestry back to relatively recent common ancestors. Yet Mamdani is getting the Obama…
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Mark Twain and his politics | CRONIN
Tom Cronin America’s best-known and most-revered storyteller, Mark Twain (1835-1910), is remembered for his novels, satirical punditry and travel writings, but is rarely thought of as a political thinker and activist. A lengthy and remarkably revealing new biography by prize-winning author Ron Chernow (“Mark Twain”, Penguin, 2025) highlights Twain’s evolution from a parochial pro-Confederacy, anti-Abolitionist…