Way back in 2016, those of us who did not vote for Trump did so because we believed he was not only unqualified but also that he was emotionally and mentally unfit for leadership. Above all, we suspected that he might do something crazy like start a nuclear war or perpetrate chaos in this country….

The first time I went to Venezuela, I had to pay a bribe to get back. It was December 1978 just before Christmas and the airlines were swamped with passengers coming and going. As I checked in at the VIASA counter, I was told I had no reservation though there I was holding a ticket…

Hang in there and RESIST!

This year I decided to forego my own New Year’s Resolutions and instead suggest some that others might make for the new year. The idea is that the possibility of many making promises – rather than my often failed attempts – just might bring about some good for more of us. Americans might want to…

This holiday I came down with a rather bad case of the flu. After a visit to the ERgent Care and a follow-up with my doctor, I seem to be getting better. During this time I took leave from television, newspapers or even thinking about the state of our union. Upon my return to reality,…

The recently released National Security Strategy of the Trump administration to the uninformed or casual reader might sound plausible and positive, but it is nothing, if not disingenuous and shallow. It is a “slight of hand”attempt to deceive the American people, what one of my professors would have called “a smoke enema.” What the Document…

Somehow it feels like one of those times during a football game when you can sense the momentum changing inexorably in favor of the underdog. Slowly the dominance of the favorite team bleeds away and inevitably the challenger wins. I sense, I feel, and I see this happening to the United States. In football, mistakes…

I continue to struggle to understand the popularity of Trump and his policies. This especially disturbs me as I think of friends who continue to support this president in face of his amoral behavior and unprecedented policies. Increasingly, I’ve come to believe that lots of people really don’t follow the news, tune out information they…

Andrew Sullivan recently published comments on The Weekly Dish, his Substack newsletter, entitled “The Question of Decency” that caught my attention.* For those of you who might not be familiar with Sullivan, he is a British-American conservative political commentator and the former editor of the New Republic. I have been drawn to him because I…

I have always set the bar high for religion, insisting at least that pastors and priests among Christian faiths have the courage to take their vows seriously and serve as critics of secular society when needed. Too often churches, to a fault, reflect the social and political mores of their communities instead of standing up…