Political Discourse

On the Disappearance of Lu Guang

Just some quick commentary regarding some things I’ve read in today’s New York Times. I always say the two biggest problems in the world are (a) man’s inhumanity to man, and (b) man’s desecration of the planet. Two articles appearing in today’s Times obituary section, attest to man’s inhumanity to man. The first describes how…

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Yeah, But Will He Buy Her Book?

Wow, it’s been quite a while since I last posted on this particular blog. But then again, anything I say here about Trump is going to be redundant. He said something stupid, or he did something stupid, or he tweeted something stupid, or he lied again, and again, and again (and so forth). Just more…

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The Story of One Alt-Right Trump Supporter

An article in yesterday’s New York Times  – “In America’s Heartland, the Voice of Hate Next Door / Seeking Acceptance In the Mainstream”, by reporter Richard Fausset — takes an up-close look at one “alt-right” Trump supporter. His name? Tony Hovater. This same article was the subject of The Times’s “Inside the Times” / “The Story…

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Upside Down Thinking

Where do I even begin? Oh, I’ve got it! In the final paragraph of an opinion piece by Linda Greenhouse in today’s New York Times – “The Worrisome Future of Abortion Rights,” in the Sunday Review section, she uses the phrase “a symptom of a world turned upside down.” And yes, it has to do…

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The White House Adult Day Care Center

And the insanity continues. About which, Tennessee’s Republican senator Bob Corker issued a great counter-punch Tweet: “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.” He also stated in a Sunday interview with The New York Times: “I know for a fact that every…

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Fix the Educational System that Got Us into this Mess

Yesterday morning, as I was having breakfast and getting ready for work, I listened to Trump’s speech at the United Nations, over the radio. For me, what was most notable was what was not said. Not a single, solitary word about what we’re doing to the planet. Nothing about a warming planet, or rising sea…

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Maureen Dowd on Trump

It isn’t often that something in the news makes me laugh. Particularly if it relates to Trump. But I tip my hat to Maureen Dowd. She did manage to elicit a chuckle from me as I read her column in today’s Sunday edition of the New York Times – “Game of Trump” is the title.…

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Trump’s Rate of Lies

The entire back page of the Sunday Review section from yesterday’s edition of The New York Times, contains an “op-chart” titled “Trump’s Lies.” The byline credits David Leonhardt and Stuart A. Thompson. Underneath a “Trump Told Public Lies or Falsehoods Every Day for His First 40 Days” subheading, it states: “The quotes surrounding this article…

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Money and Our Skewed Priorities

Back in March, I learned of a Wall St. Journal editorial published online, “A President’s Credibility / Trump’s falsehoods are eroding public trust, at home and abroad.” March 21, 2017 – that I wanted to take a quick look at, but the Journal’s website only shows three sentences, then tells you to either subscribe or sign…

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Imagine If Becoming Exemplary Ancestors Became Our Primary Aim

Attorney General Jeff Sessions — a man who never should have been elevated to that position in the first place — has suggested we designate the violent MS-13 gang a terrorist organization. Fine. But what would you call Trump and his gang of Republicans who have eviscerated the Environmental Protection Agency? Thus diminishing our already…

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Ron Reagan Jr. on Importance of Voicing Dissent

Ron Reagan Jr. on Importance of Voicing Dissent

In a November 6, 2016, Home page blog post, I shared a quotation from a Newsday article in which Ron Reagan, Jr., touched upon some of the differences in opinion that existed between himself and his father, Ronald Reagan. In that same article (Karen Freifeld, “First Family Reunion” Mar. 13, 1989), he also spoke about…

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Trump’s Choice for EPA Leadership

It was in the news several days ago that the new EPA head Scott Pruitt, in an interview, disputed that carbon dioxide was playing a major role in the global warming that we are seeing on this planet. In a sense, this is nothing new. We know how Pruitt and Trump and many of the…

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Trump Targets News Media

This Trump presidency has me feeling like a gerbil on an exercise wheel, running faster and faster and getting nowhere. As soon as I post about something terrible Trump said or did, wham, there’s another terrible thing that’s he or his administration has said or done, and another, and another, and another,  …  And this…

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What Are The Odds?

Last Sunday, after glimpsing over the three op-ed columns appearing on page 11 of The New York Times, including one titled “How Can We Get Rid of Trump” (Nicholas Kristof, Feb. 19, 2017), the thought struck me that our morally bankrupt president might retaliate somehow. In that piece, Kristof points out that the betting service…

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Fine Tuned Machine

At his last press conference, President Trump said his administration is “running like a fine-tuned machine.” But (a) it’s simply not true, and (b) even if it were, the Titanic was a “fine-tuned machine.”

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Bannon & Evola

On February 12, 2017, The New York Times published an article by Jason Horowitz, titled “Fascists Too Lax For a Philosopher Cited by Bannon.” I would like to briefly talk about that article; and this newly-created blog space is now the ideal venue in which to do that. The article begins by providing some evidence…

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NOAA Hotline

The Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists is reportedly creating an anonymous hotline for the some 12,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) employees, so they can report any political meddling by the incoming Trump administration. That’s good news — and I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Even though…

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The Overlooked Questions

This past Sunday, I listened to some of the WCBS broadcast of the interview with president-elect Donald Trump, conducted by Lesley Stahl, of 60 Minutes. According to my fact-checking, Stahl indeed did not ask a single question related to any environmental issue, including the issue many regard as the issue of our time: climate change.…

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The Election of Donald J. Trump

Soon after I awoke, the day after Election Day, I thought of that famous quotation: “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The next four years will be frightful, indeed. Our already bleak prospects for saving the planet, have now shrunk considerably. January 20, 2017, will mark the…

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The Disturbing Thing about Andrew Sabin

I’ll make this short. I love this quotation I read the other day in The New York Times: “To put the fate of our climate on clean coal and so-called next-gen nuclear is about the riskiest proposition in the world. We might as well bet on leprechauns and the Easter bunny.” — Michael Brune, executive…

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Politics of Climate Change

What a strange presidential race we’re witnessing. Though in one sense, I’m kind of loving it. For so many years now, I’ve been chomping at the bit to have my website up, while a presidential race was under way; and now, that day is finally here. This — 2016 — marks the first presidential race where…

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Capitalism versus Climate

In my last posting, I included mention of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Today, in the pages of The New York Times Book Review, Rob Nixon reviews the book (“Force of Nature” / “The status quo is no longer an option, Naomi Klein warns in this analysis of the climate crisis.”).…

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