At 2:40 AM on the morning after our country first elected Donald Trump to be our President, David Remnick of the New Yorker wrote these words. I have kept them by my desk for the past 8 years. The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for ...
Twenty years ago President George W. Bush was running for a second term against Sen. John Kerry. The US was a year into our invasion of Iraq. Casualties were high, especially for Iraqi civilians caught in the crossfire between the invaders and the invaded. I remember how I felt about the election as if it ...
The other day Lucy and I were debating who to root for (euphemism for who to bet on) in an NFL game between the Patriots of New England and the Jets of New York. Neither of us has the least bit of affection for either team. So I blurted out that we should ...
The United States’ shameful treatment of Haiti, the world’s oldest Black republic, took another cruel turn this week and we have the MAGA crowd and its leader to thank. Haiti has been our punching bag for more than 160 years. We were the last country to recognize it as a nation, by decades; ...
I could have called this blog Reparations but I didn’t, fearing that even enlightened readers might click delete. Few subjects are more touchy in our country than talking about what might be owed to descendants of the formerly enslaved. Even liberals quake at the enormity and complexity of the issue. The usual reasons that ...
Before the recent French and British elections fade from the headlines, and before the maelstrom of our own unending political war, let’s take a moment to reflect on what happened in Europe. Britain On the surface the election in the United Kingdom went as predicted, but there are some interesting tidbits to glean from the ...
Back in January 2020, I posted a blog titled Musings on 2020. You can find it in the archives. It reviewed the candidates competing to take on Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Here’s what I said about Joe Biden 4½ years ago: “ Sanders and Biden are too old. I have said that until ...
With each day bringing more vexing news about the US presidential election, you may have overlooked some troubling election events rolling across Europe. There, like here, right-wing populist movements similar to MAGA mania are gaining momentum. The truth is, “vexing” and “troubling” aren’t heavy enough words for what’s going on on both sides of the ...
Pardonnez-moi, s’il vous plaît! In my last blog, Elections Everywhere, I suggested we might learn a few things from elections in other countries. Unfortunately, my survey of elections elsewhere didn’t include stunning election news in France. French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved his country’s parliament and called for “snap” elections — “snap” because voting begins ...
Perhaps you didn’t notice, but I’ve been silent for two months. That’s right, no blogs since April 8 yet no one’s asked why. The thought that you didn’t miss me dinged my ego a bit. I’ll get over it, but let me go ahead and answer the unasked question. It’s an alliterative answer: myriad ...
