“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” – George Orwell. This strand of freedom means nothing at all to Donald Trump. At every turn he shows no grasp, and certainly no reverence, for the fundamental liberty enshrined in our Constitution: to speak…
He started out as a radar image on the outer reaches of the American psyche, with little likelihood of harming anyone. Winds shifted. He became a threat to the mainland. His image appeared on our TV screens. The breathless watch ensued. Now the threat has passed. No longer a storm: Steve Bannon is not even…
Watching terrifying radar of what scientists predicted — Irma’s march up the Florida peninsula — a thought occurred about a tranquil and serendipitous observation days earlier. That brilliant day we knew exactly when the sun and moon would intersect – the solar eclipse. Yes, down to the second. Science gave us a drumroll. We trusted…
It took only a few days and 50 inches of rain. President Trump, who was threatening to shut down the government just the other day, suddenly realizes that, maybe, government has some things to do other than deliver to him his shiny border-wall bauble. Texas Sens. Ted Cruz, John Cornyn and other Texas anti-spending posers suddenly find…
The headline said, “Echoes of Vietnam in Trump’s about-face on Afghanistan.” Said my wife, “He’d have to have a face for that to happen.” Yep. Here was a guy who in 2013 tweeted that U.S. involvement there was “a complete waste.” Now he says it’s worth thousands more American troops. He’s just a bundle of…
Adventures in spinelessness: The year Jesse Owens burned bright under Nazism’s glare, a grave injustice was obscured beneath the Olympic flame. Avery Brundage, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, held out two American Jewish sprinters from the 1936 Games so as not to anger Adolph Hitler should Jews mount the medal stand. Why? Simple. Brundage…
Where was Sebastian Gorka to set us straight? When a Nazi sympathizer ran down people protesting a “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia, why didn’t the Trump administration have Gorka speak for it like he did when a bomb destroyed a mosque in Bloomington, Minn.? At that time, Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, cautioned…
Historians will note how Donald Trump used social media to say what he wanted — unfiltered by media gatekeepers. Let history note, however, that the tables have turned. With so many insiders so willing to leak what they know, Americans are getting boatloads of damning information — unfiltered by Trump. Right now Trump wants us…
Where does one begin? Maybe with a sneeringly political speech – that part of it which was remotely coherent — to captive Boy Scouts. (Donald Trump gauged crowd size as a personal tribute. No, Sir. Big numbers can be anticipated at a national jamboree.) Maybe with a cross-eyed game of…
Newt Gingrich told a gathering the other day that state and local leaders should embrace “Trumpism.” Not surprisingly, he did not define his terms. Racism? Sexism. Infantilism? Whatever. The former House speaker, whose greatest gift to democracy – correction, to Democrats – was to shut down government in 1996, observes the wreckage Trump wreaks in…