Is This Business As Usual? After Donald Trump’s rally in North Carolina last night the obvious and somewhat anticipated conclusion by the press (a body I still trust on such topics) is that the attacks on the Squad (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass)) were tactical and purposeful to give the President a target for his campaign rhetoric and an “enemy” to galvanize his base. Listening to…
Throwing it All Away Bohemian Rhapsody is back in vogue with the release of the movie by the same name. Who doesn’t like Freddie Mercury and Queen with their effusive, enthusiastic and expressive songs? The lyrics are simple, memorable and speak to many of us. There are even certain lyrical phrases that actually invoke the melody of the phrase when they are said. Let’s try it just for fun: Mama, just killed a man…
Reason and Rebirth The Old Country is not so very old any more. I just had occasion to look at Ireland’s level of household income versus that in the United States. The US is at $44k where Ireland is $25k. But when you look at it based on purchasing power parity (PPP dollars) the numbers skew considerably to $60k versus $76k. So in absolute terms the income level in Ireland is only 57% of the…
System Overload As I was growing up, the ages of 65, 75 and 85 (just to pick three random points) were thought to be oldish, old and very old. We all know about increasing longevity statistics and sixty being the new forty, or whatever. We also all probably know people in their late sixties that are showing signs of age as much as we know people that are vibrant and fresh at the age…
The Tea Party When I watch John Meacham on MSNBC at any time of day (he is a popular and regular guest on all their shows ranging from Morning Joe to The 11th Hour), he always strikes me as very calm and poised despite the serious and concerning issues he is addressing about the deficiencies of our current President and the state of political affairs in this country. I just assumed it was because…
Victimized Resentment Why does a person choose a path in life that places themselves as a pitiful victim? We humans are always prone to a bit of self-pity. We never completely feel we get our due and the strange thing is that when we do get good things, we ignore the balancing aspect of all that and reinforce our view that we deserve to get more than we do, when, in fact, we may…
Standing Strong in China We are all familiar with the iconic picture of the unknown “Tank Man” standing in Tiananmen Square, blocking a column of tanks in a student-led protest for more civil liberties in China. The result was thousands of deaths and arrests of Chinese citizens in the ensuing days of protests. It was a threshold for the world, but less so for China, itself. I saw a BBC piece where a reporter…
Getting Out of Voting The biggest problem faced by liberal democracy is disaffection. It is a pernicious problem because the vicious cycle it breeds is obvious. If you feel your vote doesn’t count or that it won’t change anything, then perhaps you get apathetic and choose not to bother voting. The forces of darkness prevail, and they not only push policies that further disadvantage those disaffected non-voters, but they put in place voting restriction…
The World Can Use a Guy Like You Yesterday, I was getting my hair cut at my favorite $17 Albanian/Uzbeki barbershop on Broadway. I was in a spaced-out frame-of-mind, given my long day of transatlantic travel, followed immediately by a movie birthday party for my granddaughter and her dad. They were showing that 1985 classic, Back to the Future. I got to see the flux capacitor go from needing plutonium to generate 1.21 Gigawatts of…
Alone in New York I just watched an obscure independent film called Alone in Berlin. It starred Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson, so maybe it shouldn’t be so obscure. It’s message was somber and serious, but it rings loudly in my ears. It is the story of Otto and Elise Hampel, who in 1940, during the invasion of France, lost their only son in battle for the Third Reich. His death, in a lonely forrest…