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…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsAs 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…
DetailsFrom “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…
DetailsI couldn’t agree more. Americans of all colors and creeds should be outraged by the sickening overkill in Gaza. As they should be sickened by what maniacal Hamas butchers did Oct. 7. But here’s something just as sickening: Too many young Americans, images from Gaza parading past their eyes on social media, want to strike…
DetailsThat rascal Vladimir Putin. To bolster the rape of Ukraine, he has emptied and armed whole prison blocks. Reportedly, these cons have menaced more than their enemy. They prey on frantic Russians, too. Horrible, you’d agree. Now consider Matthew Beddingfield. The North Carolina man was out awaiting trial for shooting a teen in the head…
Details“We’re American, OK?” “OK. What kind of American are you?” This exchange between a frightened news photographer and an AK-clenching militia man at a rebel checkpoint encapsulates the angst and confusion of the new movie “Civil War.” Diabolically framed so audiences don’t know the cause, the film depicts a nation split in regional factions. The…
DetailsDonald Trump could have blamed the Stay Puft marshmallow man. It would have been as plausible. Instead, he chose a 400-pound couch potato. One obese hacker. In his first debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump shrugged off evidence of Russian cyber-sabotage of our elections, saying it could be “somebody sitting on their bed that…
Details“Fake news.” How many times? How often has Donald Trump used that throw-away slur to deflect news coverage he doesn’t like? Hundreds? Thousands? It’s an effective dodge for questions from actual reporters for actual newsrooms for whom credibility and accuracy are their coin of existence. “Fake news.” For the right audience, it has a “Seig,…
DetailsFor Martin Baron, April 5, 2018, is the day the euphemisms died. No more “untruths.” No more “misstatements of fact.” No more “bending the truth.” The Washington Post, of which Baron was editor, would now call Donald Trump’s lies what they were. Lies. In his book “Collision of Power,” Baron writes that the paper’s prior…
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