The Planet 🌎

Exploring our world's beauty and challenges through stories of nature, climate, and human resilience. Join our collective journey of hope and understanding.

By Alexander Verbeek

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Trump's America Is Restructuring the Business Elite. History Shows What Comes Next.

Independent wealth is a threat. Dependent wealth is a pillar of support. Strongmen have always known the difference.

Jun 21•Alexander Verbeek

Before Trump, There Was Franco. The Playbook for Silencing Journalism Is Old.

How Mussolini, Perón, Franco, and Marcos silenced the press — and why the technique looks different today but works the same way.

Jun 14•Alexander Verbeek

🎙️ Watch: The Strongman's Playbook Starts With the Courts — Always

Every Strongman's First Move: How Trump Follows a Pattern History Knows Well

Perón, Orbán, and Marcos all neutralized their judiciaries before anything else. The pattern is older than Trump — and more dangerous for that.

Jun 7•Alexander Verbeek

How This Ends: What Ten Revolutions Teach Trump's America

The fall comes slowly, and then faster than anyone expected. A European's reading of where America stands today.

May 31•Alexander Verbeek

Ukraine Had Two Revolutions and One Lesson Trump's America Cannot Afford to Ignore

Removing a leader is one thing. Removing the system that produced him is another. Ukraine learned this the hard way. Twice.

May 24•Alexander Verbeek

🌎 Inside the Mountain: I Visited What Europe Is Building for the War It Hopes Never Comes

Norway, Finland, and many NATO nations are preparing civilians for war. The shelter upgrades and mass evacuation plans that American media is not…

May 19•Alexander Verbeek

The Candlelight Revolution: What Trump's America Can Learn from South Korea.

Korea's candlelight revolution is the most recent proof that sustained, nonviolent mass mobilization works. The question is whether America will sustain…

May 17•Alexander Verbeek

How Chile Voted Out a Dictator in 1988: Lessons for Trump's America

The No campaign chose joy over fear and won. It is the most underrated political lesson of the twentieth century.

May 10•Alexander Verbeek

The Balcony Moment: What Ceaușescu's Last Speech Teaches Trump's America

Part 6 of The Fall examines the bloodiest revolution of 1989 — and what it teaches about who takes power after the fall.

May 3•Alexander Verbeek

From Prague 1989 to Washington 2026: What Trump's America Can Learn From the Velvet Revolution

The regime fell in six weeks. The structural conditions that had made it possible did not. The difference matters for America.

Apr 26•Alexander Verbeek

The Crowd That Toppled a Dictator — and the Warning Trump's America Needs to Hear Now

THE FALL Part 4: When Marcos was removed in 1986, the structural conditions that made him possible remained. This is the lesson America needs.

Apr 19•Alexander Verbeek

Hungary's Victory Is Real. And So Are the Lessons Trump Will Draw Before the Midterms.

THE FALL Part 3: The SAVE Act, ICE, and the difference between Orbán's playbook and Trump's.

Apr 13•Alexander Verbeek

Orbán Is Gone. Trump's Closest European Ally Just Lost. Here Is What History Teaches Next.

As I was finishing this newsletter this evening, Hungary was voting.

Apr 12•Alexander Verbeek

The Planet 🌎

Exploring our world's beauty and challenges through stories of nature, climate, and human resilience. Join our collective journey of hope and understanding.