If your interest here is intonation and inflection in a presidential debate, read no more. If your worry is words fumbled along with political chances, forward your attention elsewhere. The internet is long and wide, so if you want to fixate on any rhetorical opportunities Joe Biden may have squandered, you will find others to…
KYOTO, Japan – A laundromat is the very last place at which an American in the Orient expects a political discussion. Then again, the subject was Donald Trump. I didn’t bring him up. A well-read, quite elderly lady did. Oriental travelers must launder their T-shirts and shorts. There I was one night doing that in…
The unsigned newspaper editorial is a vaunted tradition: a local institution taking – one hopes — a gutsy group position. Most of my working life I wrote them for editorial boards of which I was a member. Most times I felt good — that the editorial I wrote was not a repeat of a rerun of…
As far back as 2016, clinicians determined they had identified Patient Zero, the first carrier of the horrifying illness. Initially misread by science, now it is known by a feared acronym. The first carrier was IDed as a former business person turned reality TV star who got himself elected to office, got impeached twice, got…
From “Grab ‘em by the p–ssy,” to, “Sh–hole countries,” to, “I fired his a— so fast,” to so much more: Donald Trump’s ride to reckoning has been paved with expurgations. With his criminal fraud conviction in Manhattan, one of them just took on new and deeper meaning: “I’m f—ed.” Extended: “Oh, my God. This is terrible. This…