While I sat in front of the TV on Wednesday, stunned by images of a Trumpist mob laying siege and storming the U.S. Capitol, I got a call from Olguita, a cousin in Miami who came from Cuba about 20 years ago. She was upset, sounded almost tearful. She couldn't believe that such lawlessness, routine in Venezuela, …
Tag: Trump
Have faith people, 2021 will be much better.
As a roommate I had at Indiana University would say, 2020 has been the kind of year that would piss off the Good Humor Man. Indeed. We've had a pandemic that still rages and whose death toll in the U.S. alone has surpassed 300,000; an economic dislocation that has left millions unemployed and scores of small …
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What America needs is a political siesta
In the warm-up to the upcoming presidential campaign, President Trump has already fired salvos of his trademark insults and nicknames at his likely opponent, including calling Biden "Sleepy Joe."If I were Biden, I would welcome that as a campaign slogan: I, for one, am ready to take a little political siesta, a respite from the …
Trump, you ain't no Churchill
One unexpected, and welcome, outcome of the Covid-19 lockdown, under which we've been living for almost three months, is that it's given me time, and permission, to do some uninterrupted reading, and also let my mind wander, to fantasize even. And so, two weeks ago I finished Erik Larson's "The Splendid and the Vile," a 500-plus-page tome …
Trump jests while Americans die
Several people had asked me when my next blog post would appear, and I wasn't sure. But after Trump's Thursday night press briefing, in which he suggested people could shoot bleach or disinfectants as a cure for the coronavirus, a blog topic fell on my lap: L'affaire Clorox.Torrents of words have been written by newspaper and …
One loud cheer for the 'fake news' New York Times
The New York Times, widely regarded the best paper in the U.S., if not the world, for the breadth and depth of its news coverage, has come under incessant attack by President Trump, and his millions of followers, as a nefarious purveyor of "fake news."We hear that the Times' news coverage is tendentious, if not …
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Life in the age of conspiracies
Over dinner a few nights ago, Stew, two friends and I, talked—actually gossiped—about another couple of guys we all know. This other couple is very politically conservative and believers in conspiracy theories of all sorts, from jet contrails causing cancer to Neil Armstrong not really having landed on the moon, and, I imagine, the entire …
Why do the Brits dislike Trump so?
The following came from a friend in San Miguel who was born in Britain but is now a naturalized Mexican citizen. A Brit's View of Donald TrumpWhy do some British people not like Donald Trump? Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response: A few things spring to mind.Trump lacks certain qualities which …
Where have the Republican free traders gone?
Once upon a time, maybe three years go, in a galaxy called the United States of America, the Republican Party fervently supported open markets and trade like an article of faith. Assuming the partners played cleanly and according to agreed-upon rules—which I recognize is not always the case with customers like China—free trade was considered …
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Are we ready to memorialize Trump's presidency?
With only 18 months left in his first term—though many of his supporters fervently look forward to a second—it's not too early to do some preliminary thinking about how Donald Trump's exciting presidency will be publicly commemorated.The Jockey shorts would be particularly distracting in a presidential portrait. When presidents leave office plans are drawn at least …
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El Rancho Santa Clara 