b. traven Donald Trump will soon leave the White House, either on his own, or escorted by authorities. As the song says, he’ll “go where the goblins go, below, below, below.” It’s time for the Republicans to quit fiddling while America burns from the last four years of Trumpism. 10,000+ daily new virus infections, an…
Stuart Lyle You have heard of the “October Surprise,” that unexpected turn of events, sometimes manufactured or timed, sometimes just random, that has out-sized influence on the results in November due to its close proximity to the election. Think Comey’s 2016 announcement of reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, or Kissinger’s announcement that…
Alex Dunn I have a long-standing fascination with the extreme political polarisation that I perceive exists in the USA. As an Englishman, I am no stranger to the tribalism that pits Tory and Labour supporters against on another (let’s set aside for now the spent force that is the Liberal Democrats). These are two sides…
Stuart Lyle How many fingers am I holding up, Winston? If that quote sends shivers through you, then you know it’s provenance, George Orwell’s 1984. “How many fingers am I holding up, Winston,” says the interrogator, while ostentatiously holding up 4 fingers, “if the party says that it is not four but five…?” Those in…
The author of this comment on the massacre of 11 very old Jewish citizens in their Pittsburgh synagogue is a 73 year old Pennsylvanian who lives close by Pittsburgh. I have known Bill for many years and although we disagree on some major issues like “guns,” I found his very thoughtful comments on this horrific…
Gregory Laxer In school, we were told that we lived in a great nation, a democracy. We were taught about the sacrifices made to wrest control of this land from the British Crown, and of the brilliant minds assembled in Philadelphia to hammer out the details of how we were to govern ourselves. I can’t…
With a President who vociferously defends his use of Twitter to circumvent political norms, evade his ostensible “handlers,” and to stoke racial and xenophobic tensions, Twitter has become an important free-speach frontier. But Twitter is a private company and has chosen to silence accounts it deems abusive or dangerous. Not Donald Trump’s support for armed…
Donald Trump, in an interview yesterday with a reporter, referred to we, American citizens, as “.. I would like my people” “to stand up” when he wanted them to show obedience just like the North Korean people do for Kim. That is a dictator talking about his role after he has taken power in a…
b. traven The well-planned. “hail Mary” rescue of Michael Cohen crafted by former federal prosecutor Giuliani for Donald Trump is now being played out on live TV while the pundits are still calling it a mistake by big mouthed Giuliani. No this is not a mistake. It is a well planned and clever ruse to…
Over 80 years ago Sinclar Lewis wrote a book, It Can’t Happen Here. Doremus Jessup, the protagonist of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here,” sees something dark and terrible brewing in American politics — the potential for “a real fascist dictatorship” led by the up-and-coming populist candidate Berzelius Windrip. – Beverly Gage, New…
The Contrary Perspective 