ON MATTERS OF DUBIOUS INTEREST
It’s like Trump’s fiasco with the tariffs. And what a sick thrill it must be to dismantle a well-functioning government branch. Now he would abolish the Department of Education—created by an act of Congress so it’s likely that he will not succeed. Trump can’t order the Department out of existence but he can harass it and cut funds and people to destroy its good works and functions.
All good Democrats seem to revere James, the good old boy who has often been smart in his predictions and predilections about how the party should position itself. But he went off the rails this week in basically telling folks to just cool it while the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot. Continue reading “Carville in His Dotage”
Today they put the King on his high chair behind the Resolute Desk. They told him to look resolute and concerned. They also forgot to change his diapers and he smelled awful. This morning they gave him the measles vaccine, and he screamed bloody murder. In his need for constant attention, he has made himself King. Later he said, “We’re taking all the dog and cat turds out of the sandbox. Musk is in charge of that.” Continue reading “The Child King”
President Claudia Sheinbaum says she has a plan to retaliate if our idiot president really goes ahead with his threatened 25% tariffs and won’t negotiate. A few days ago she sent him a “fiery letter” demonstrating that she is not to be trifled with though she can take a light tone. You remember that she countered the “Gulf of America” idea with calling the U.S. “Mexican America.” Yet Google and others immediately changed their maps! Continue reading “Don’t Take No Crap from Him, Claudia”
We were talking here last week about memories. A poignant string of mine pertains to when I was eighteen and just off to college. Basically indecisive, I didn’t have much preference about schools, so my father and I took a brief tour of some of the “better” institutions—Amherst, Yale, one other I can’t remember, and of course Dartmouth, his alma mater. Continue reading “First and Last Days at Dartmouth”
Short-term memory loss can be a horrendous pain in the ass that most of us, young and old, have endured. It gets worse as you age. I’ve written about this before, but it’s usually been in a partial, piecemeal way. I’ll give it another shot, while using some of my more brilliant former insights into how memory works―or breaks down for old people, as it did for Joe Biden. Continue reading “The Trials and Tricks of Memory”
Everyone has had it in for the media for a while now. It’s much worse with the polarization, and many now find the news irrelevant, especially the political news. That’s not true across the board, of course, but even some liberals, including me, have lost faith in the reporting we get. It’s tiresome, repetitive and frequently uninformed. Continue reading “Watching the News. Or Not?”
Well, I passed on Thanksgiving with friends this year because I had just endured a medical test and wasn’t up to an afternoon social affair. As always, there is the grand tradition to celebrate and gather with others, but there are plenty of good reasons―like mine―to stay home. Continue reading “Thanksgiving? Or Not?”
moment of silence for 9/11 victims
Despite the furor about his recent appointments, Trump hasn’t changed all that much. He still executes the same performance at rallies, peddling the same bullshit but more so. He feels invincible, I think, but many of us feel outrage fatigue. We are tired of his unpredictability and bored with his schtick.
It’s going to be neurotic and tense for gringo transplants. We probably have much the same reactions here as our U.S. counterparts, at least so far. The difference is that we have a partial refuge from the madness here. And most of us here are older, which may give us a different perspective. Continue reading “Living in Mexico under Trump”
I didn’t watch the Harris Town Hall on CNN. My friends and I were busy laughing to old George Carlin and Lenny Bruce records that likely proved much more enlightening. We heard George’s monologue about farting in school on Class Clown, which brought to mind Donald Trump’s farting in the courtroom.