Body of an Iranian protester, murdered in the hospital by regime gunmen. Note IV line to hand and bullet wound to forehead. Trump might have prevented this. Courtesy X (Twitter) Those familiar with this blog might recall that I have long considered Donald Trump — Benedict Donald as I now think of him (with Benedict […]
Over the past week or so, Donald Trump and key members of his administration have made clear that the U.S. is abandoning its support of Ukraine and switching sides. President Trump is throwing America’s weight in favor of Russia and its war criminal president, Vladimir Putin, the brutal invader of Ukraine. Here are the key […]
Musk-ox — not sure if this one’s named Elon The whirlwind generated by Donald Trump and Elon Musk threatens not only to tear chunks of the U.S. government to shreds, some of its first gusts — directed at USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) — will almost certainly end the lives of an untold […]
Kamala Harris vs. Donald Trump Since I last shared my views on the upcoming election (https://pen4rent.com/a-plague-on-both-their-houses and https://pen4rent.com/biden-gets-it-half-or-more-wrong-again), there has been a seismic shift in the Democratic Party’s candidate for president (from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris). Moreover, mail-in ballots for the election have already been sent to voters in several states. While my thoughts […]
If you’re deeply woke or MAGA, you won’t like a lot of the thoughts that follow. But if you view what’s been happening in our country with dismay, as I do, you may consider both wokeness and MAGA-itis to be the sort of thing Ben Franklin was wary of when, at the conclusion of the […]
Benjamin Franklin At the conclusion of the final session of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, a woman approached Ben Franklin and asked, “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin’s response: “A republic — if you can keep it.” Prescient words. Arguably more so today than at any time in the […]
Trump’s letter to Erdogan Among the flotsam and jetsam washed up on my computer screen by this week’s deluge1 of Trump-related news was a letter that the U.S. president wrote to his counterpart in Turkey, the bloody-minded, bloody-handed Recep Tayyip Erdogan.2 Much-criticized not only for its threatening content but also for its distinctly unpresidential tone […]
This is what anti-Semitism can lead to The horrific murders last Saturday in Pittsburgh, driven by anti-Semitism, prompt me to share some thoughts and perspectives. This will be a lengthy piece, so let me begin with the three thoughts uppermost in my mind. First, although the murderer appears to fit within the stereotype of classic fringe-right-wing, […]
