BLOG Post #289: United We Fail 4 Feb 2021 Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the…
APB APB: Our National Embarrassment 15 Jan 2021 It is not enough that under Donald Trump the United States has withdrawn from major international organizations at a time of global need; that its president has humiliated and withdrawn…
BLOG Post #287: The End of American Exceptionalism 9 Jan 20218 Jan 2021 Sedition Whatever you want to call the violent assault in Washington on January 6, 2021—a mob action, a siege, a coup attempt, a riot, domestic terrorism, an insurrection—the fault clearly…
APB APB: The Gang Leader Speaks 4 Jan 20214 Jan 2021 Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with Georgia’s secretary of state will go down in history as a classic case of election interference, totally in keeping with Trump’s disdain for democratic processes…
BLOG Post #286: Biden and the World: A First Look at His Foreign Affairs Team (Part 2) 31 Dec 20202 Jan 2021 In the previous post, I introduced the president-elect’s team: a group of serious professionals dedicated to halting and reversing America’s retreat from the world. But, I asked, will they…
BLOG Post #284: Biden . . . Won (Maybe) 16 Dec 202017 Dec 2020 Following is an excerpt from the diary of outgoing President Donald Trump, apparently written in early December 2020. The excerpt has been edited for clarity, spelling, grammar, and context. Some…
BLOG Post #283: Mike Pompeo’s Crusade against the red menace 13 Dec 202012 Dec 2020 Thanks in good part to the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, McCarthyism is alive and well in the US. Pompeo has become one of America’s leading dogmatist, ranting and railing…
BLOG Post #282: Restoring Democracy, Strengthening the Right to Vote 27 Nov 202027 Nov 2020 As Americans look forward to a new era without Donald Trump, one thing stands out: the gap between the real and the ideal in American-style democracy is far larger…
BLOG Post #281: Trump’s Game 13 Nov 202012 Nov 2020 What is Trump’s game? In defying the vote numbers and urging rejection of a Biden victory, does he seriously believe his own narrative about voter fraud? I doubt it;…
BLOG Post #280: Biden’s Jobs 1-10 8 Nov 2020 In the next several weeks, President-elect Joe Biden will be preoccupied with creating a 100-day action agenda. It might be called "Operation Renewal." Here are my top-10 choices, in no…
BLOG Post #278: Trumpism Has Brought Democracy to Its Knees 19 Oct 202020 Dec 2020 In what we can only hope is its terminal phase, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to make a mockery of American democracy. Friendly foreign observers bemoan the…
BLOG Post #277: Our Deranged President 11 Oct 2020 In 2016 America’s electoral college gave Donald Trump the presidency. Within a few months we came to realize that this man has serious mental problems. Within a year, some psychologists…
BLOG Post #276: Trump Unmasked 3 Oct 20203 Oct 2020 "I just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight,” Donald Trump said Thursday night. A day later he was airlifted to Walter Reed Hospital, down…
BLOG Post #275: Saving Democracy 24 Sep 2020 Friends call it “impotent rage.” I share it. How is it possible that the president of a democratic country can get away with announcing, well in advance of an election,…
BLOG Post #274: Defeating a Demagogue: A Reminder from History 22 Sep 202021 Sep 2020 It may be small comfort as we watch Donald Trump try to cheat and bully his way to a second term, but a recent study of his demagogic predecessor, Senator…