Dan Gardner has an academic and professional resume that evokes immediate respect. He has a degree from Osgoode Hall Law School and an MA History from York University. Gardner was an advisor in Justin Trudeau’s PMO and is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa. He lectures internationally on forecasting, risk, and decision-making. More importantly, Gardner is a highly regarded columnist and author.

Gardner’s publications include:

January 3, Gardner published When Good Neighbors Go Bad on his Substack account. It’s worth attention. This is only a part:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood the United States and all other countries needed to restore international trade while avoiding war. So he included the following resonant observation.

“In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor — the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others — the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.“

Without offering so much as a coherent explanation for his actions, Trump bombed Venezuela, had its president and his wife kidnapped, and declared the United States would “run” Venezuela until a government to Trump’s liking is installed. Nicolas Maduro and his wife will also be tried for trafficking cocaine, which wouldn’t qualify as a legal pretext for the invasion even if the courtroom were run by Judge Pam Bondi — but it looks even sillier given that a mere month ago Trump bestowed a full pardon on the wealthy and connected Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras convicted of industrial-scale cocaine trafficking. No, the war on drugs is not Donald Trump’s thing. Money and power are.

Few things deliver money and power like oil, which is why, on many occasions, Donald Trump publicly insisted that the dumbest thing the US did in Iraq — this is no small claim — was “not taking the oil.” …Venezuela will be a bonanza for American oil companies…

If I had said that in fewer than 365 days after taking office Donald Trump would threaten to invade Panama and Greenland, launch a global trade war, bomb five countries, and invade South America — all while griping about being denied the Nobel Peace Prize — you would have thought I was completely nuts. Yet here we are.

In the Trump era, the real crazies are those sober-minded sorts who won’t speculate about the ridiculous.