When Did We Get So Stupid? Today’s top New York Times story is about China and its efforts to bolster the Trump presidential campaign, joining Russia in its clear preference for the United States to choose the stupider path for the future of a MAGA resurgence. The Times suggests that there are two reasons for China’s support, first that China, like Russia, wants the U.S. to butt-out of global politics. Russia wants to inflict its…
My Politics I don’t make much of a secret about my political leanings. I keep telling myself that I need to tone it down, but everything going on in the political arena makes it increasingly difficult to do so. Last night I was watching a new series Kim and I are following called Loudermilk and the aggressively outspoken protagonist, who is a [published music critic and currently an addicted drug and alcohol counselor, tries to…
Trump & Gaza My morning has started with two pieces of news that may seem disconnected, but which I connect in a very direct sense in my mind. To begin with, the UN Security Council has passed a resolution that calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as well as the unconditional release of all hostages. This may sound like the same resolution put forth by the United States last Friday, but apparently both Russia…
Saving the Planet There are many big issues that can overwhelm us and make us small, insignificant and. Probably first among those issues, alongside world peace and the need for universal fairness and equality, is climate change. What used to be a hotly debated and very politicized issue has, through our day-to-day life experiences, particularly with the changing weather patterns, become more of a foregone conclusion. What we are left with is the big question…
Seeing Further Whenever I finish a blog story, I try to give myself a head start on the next story by creating a template and a title to get myself going. I usually write to suit that title and only occasionally find myself writing something for which a better title is required. Having just finished writing a story this morning and just finished Round 8 with my big life insurance carrier (I sent them a…
Trump and Pump Just this morning I read that the plan to take Truth Social public through the Digital World Acquisitions (DWAC) SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) was getting derailed by one aberrant investor that wanted to get a bigger piece of the pie. There was a certain ironic justice in that potential outcome of derailing Trump’s latest get-rich-quick scheme, but alas, I see that the vote went through anyway, which means that someone prevailed…
The China Syndrome Do you remember the 1979 Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon movie, The China Syndrome? It was about a cover-up at a nuclear power facility that was malfunctioning and creating a nuclear hazard. I’m not sure how much we Americans have thought about either nuclear disaster or even China as a risk to our lifestyle since then, but we are about to be faced with a whole new version of China risk than…
Super Tuesday What’s so special about this Tuesday? I mean that in the most holistic sense, knowing full well that we all recognize that Super Tuesday is the big early primary sweepstakes of the presidential primary season. There are fifteen states in play in both the Republican and Democratic Party races (for the Republicans: AK, AL, AR, CA, CO, MA, ME, MN, NC, OK, TN, TX, UT, VA, and VT, and for the Democrats: AL,…
Paying the Piper WRITTEN BEFORE OUR SE ASIA TRIP Donald Trump is on the campaign trail and is pushing hard to win in South Carolina (Which we now know he did win). On Saturday a week ago, he said he would encourage Russia to attack NATO countries that don’t pay their fair share of the NATO budget. Trump, free-forming his stump speech to the emotions of the crowd (as usual), invoked a scenario in which…
Repricing the Universe FIRST TRIP FILLER STORY IN CASE I DON’T KEEP UP About 20 years ago a guy came on the scene in New York City, and he became a bit of a phenomenon. His name was Jimmy McMillan and he coined the expression the “The Rent is Too Damn High!”. He formed a political party with the same name and ran for the Mayor of New York City in 2005 and 2009 and…