Archive for February 2017
Walking Into Traps
In chambers filled with polished wood and men in robes speaking in measured cadences, leaning over thick briefs, laboring in pursuit of not perfect justice but, at least, to see enough truth to reach a verdict, three judges stopped pursuing thieves and rapists and swindlers to hold a hearing to decide the Democratic Governor’s lawsuit…
Read MoreUp in Smoke
The phones began ringing and kept on ringing and each caller said the same thing: ‘I want you to hold more ‘Town Hall’ meetings.’ Sensing a groundswell of support for Town Hall Meetings, rolling across their districts, Republican Congressmen accommodated and walked straight into a trap. A few days later, stories began to appear in…
Read MoreThe Ascent
Last night, I finished reading Hitler: The Ascent. While working in a shop in Obersalzberg in 1926 Maria Reiter met Hitler. She was 16. And he was 37. Hitler’s next ‘love’ (which isn’t exactly the right word) Geli Raubal was 19 years younger than he was. Unity Mitford – who he met at a Nirenberg…
Read MoreReading Tea Leaves
He could have been bluffing – like a poker player. Or he could have been maneuvering to gain the upper hand – when he told the Mexican President: Either you agree to pay for the Wall or you cancel our meeting. After the Mexican President said, Meeting cancelled, Trump threatened him saying he’d put a…
Read MoreI Hit a Home Run
“The thing I do best” – Donald Trump was talking about his infrastructure plan – “in life is build.” “That speech was a homerun. They loved it… people loved it” – Trump was describing his speech at the CIA. He’d make “millions of people” happy, Trump said, with his plan to replace Obamacare. And…
Read MoreChoosing Allies
Sitting in front of a green marble fireplace, interviewing Trump, Bill O’Reilly asked about Putin and Trump said, “It’s better to get along with Russia than not,” and O’Reilly said, “But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.” Trump paused. Pursed his lips, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers.…
Read MoreOperating on Obamacare
Donald Trump and congressional Republicans made a big promise in 2016. They would repeal Obamacare. Immediately. Totally. End of discussion. Now, maybe not so much. Republicans on Capitol Hill say the operative word is no longer “repeal.” It’s “repair.” Still, they say, they’ll do it right away. But then Trump says, maybe not so fast.…
Read MoreSame Old, Same Old
Sunday morning Nancy Pelosi sat down across from Chuck Todd and, wanly going through the motions on the Meet the Press, criticized Trump’s “Unconstitutional, immoral ban on Muslims” and said “I want to know what the Russians have on Trump.” It was the same-old same-old. Todd then played Pelosi a video of Elizabeth Warren talking…
Read MoreWalking with dogs
We all get tired of talking about politics. So let’s talk about dogs. Specifically, walking with dogs. Thanks to the mysterious workings of Facebook, something written 18 months ago popped up on my feed. And touched a chord. It was an August 2015 column by the N&O’s John Drescher, “Walking in all seasons with the…
Read MoreAn Irish Column
Last week a friend sent the column (below) from the Irish Independent in Dublin by Ian O’Doherty. The Best of the Best–by a Poetic Irishman Tuesday November 8, 2016 – a day that will live in infamy, or the moment when America was made great again? The truth, as ever, will lie somewhere in…
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