Kenneth Silber

New Jersey

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Contributor at Splice Today

Writer, editor, fact-checker. Author In DeWitt's Footsteps. Contributor @splicetoday2022. https://t.co/Hq1rlDnuJ1

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Articles

Rules of the Trump Game

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

In 1997,Carl Sagan, contemplating different standards of behavior, coined the Tin Rule: “Suck up to those above you, and abuse those below you.” It was an alternative to the well-known Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”).
The Power of the State

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Politics & Media Mar 19, 2025, 06:29AM You never know who’ll control it in the future. Cast your mind forward to a plausible scenario: It’s 2029. The incoming president’s a Democrat. Concerns that Donald Trump would run for a third term, in violation of the Constitution, proved unfounded, as did fears that the election would be postponed or cancelled altogether.
Crossing at a Ford

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

I got an email from someone I’d never heard of, “directing” me to stop work. It turned out this was the parent company of the staffing agency through which I’m contracted as a magazine copyeditor. The email was legit, and I stopped for a day and a half while a payment meltdown was sorted out. So,I took a hike with my friend Dan, who had the week off, on the “blue trail” starting at Ringwood Manor, which is close to the midpoint of New Jersey’s northern border with New York.
Calling the Marshals

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Keepan eye on the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS). It could play a key role in power struggles emerging within the federal government. The Trump administration has shown willingness to use USMS as a tool of political pressure. After Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations of J6 rioters, marshals arrived to press judges for quick release of the prisoners.
In Metternich’s Footsteps

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Klemensvon Metternich (1773–1859), statesman and diplomat of the Austrian Empire, was a subtle, savvy operator. He made Austria an ally of Napoleon, then a neutral, then an enemy when the time was right to stop the French megalomaniac. At the Congress of Vienna, following the Napoleonic Wars, Metternich was key to establishing the foundations of a long peace in Europe, through collaboration among aristocratic states, with Austria as linchpin.
Scams of the Right

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Isaw friends effusing on social media about how Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, was turning his country into a model of libertarian prosperity. Soon after, Milei was facing fraud allegations, and calls for impeachment, over his promotion on X of $LIBRA, a cryptocurrency that crashed. Critics suspected the incident might’ve been a “rug pull,” a scam in which crypto developers draw investment and then quickly withdraw their own stake, leaving the buyers with worthless tokens.
Secrets of the Spy Satellites

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that builds and operates U.S. spy satellites, was founded in 1961, the year after the shooting-down of a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union made a shift to satellite reconnaissance imperative. NRO’s operations were ultra-secret, and the agency’s existence wasn’t declassified until 1992 (though a congressional report had carelessly mentioned it years earlier). NRO’shad a reputation for technological excellence.
You’ve Been Screwed

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Idisliked Babygirl. A Washington Post piece, saying Nicole Kidman “takes on what may be her most risqué role yet as a high-powered CEO in a steamy psycho-sexual affair with her intern,” stirred my interest in the movie. But the relationship shown reminded me of the scams and coercion that constitute so much of current news.
Power and Accountability

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

On a winter day in 1988, a snowstorm shut down the federal government, except for essential personnel. The snow was heavy in New York as well as D.C., and I was in a midtown office building working on my first article as a non-student journalist. It was for Business International Money Report, a newsletter that (I’d find out long after) once featured the financial journalism of a young Barack Obama.
A Twist on Hubris and Nemesis

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Inthe early-1990s, the CIA commissioned a report as part of a research project into decision-making by foreign leaders who posed threats to the U.S. The concern was that the U.S. government had fallen short in understanding and predicting actions by leaders such as Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milošević and Fidel Castro; and that a better grasp was needed amid proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.