Category: Uncategorized
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Time for the President to go? We Might Just About Getting There
As I hope you know if you’ve read my previous thoughts on political matters I am no radical. I want things done according to Hoyle, as close to the rules as possible. I do not like political histrionics, exaggerations, or one sided obvious distortions. So I rarely take up anything approaching an extreme decision without(I…
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The Ghosts of Movies Past–Two Classics from a Classy Guy
“Brief Encounter,” and “The Passionate Friends”–director of both was David Lean TCM showed “The Passionate Friends” the other day and my son, my wife and I watched it. He insists and my wife agrees that we saw it a year or two ago and I believe them, though I have no idea how I forgot…
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Uncertain Dissenters and Iranian Options
For a columnist or blogger who writes about politics and international affairs, Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. He does/says something almost daily that irritates someone and that outrages many with its lack of wisdom, its lack of understanding or, sometimes, its lack of humanity. He makes one statement after another that…
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Enough Silence
I mean myself here. I have said little–not nothing, but not very much–about Trump’s war against Iran. I realize it is a complex issue and that if it comes to simply two sides(“we should have” and “we shouldn’t have”)a reasonable person might find some arguments to agree with on each side. But it is NOT…
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Trump and the Separation of Powers, Part II–The Military Power
I was planning to do a blog like this even before the US and Israel struck Iran about week and a half ago. Now it is imperative to me that I must do it and do it as soon as possible. First, some basics–1) The power to declare war belongs to Congress–this is not an…
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Trump and Separation of Powers
The President’s recent actions in two main areas have started him(or advanced him)on a road toward conflict with the US Congress. They have also brought to national attention questions concerning what our constitution says and what it means, what assumptions have been made about it, and what our leaders should do about those assumptions, about…
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Some Noir in the North
There was once an American suspense writer named James Thompson who attracted some attention back around mid-20th century times. At least one of his books was made into a film by that master of what Pauline Kael once described as “A Fascist Work of Art,” Sam Pekinpaw. When I ran across a book in the…
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Confronting Trump–Greenland and Minnesota
I have often spoken about how much I admire the British weekly publication, “The Economist.” Well, I’m going to do it again. The current one arrived in Monday’s mail and it has on the cover a picture of a shirtless Donald Trump riding a polar bear. In its top-of-the-page list of this issue’s features, the…
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Two different movies, similar reaction
Well, I hope my title isn’t too misleading–it is the truth but as is usually the case with titles, not the whole truth. I’ll not be able to tell you the whole truth, of course, but I’ll take a swing at getting close to it. About a week or so ago TCM had one of…
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LBJ, DT, Vietnam and some history
Don’t worry, this won’t be real long. I’m too hyped on everything that’s going on now to stay patiently at the computer for too long. But I have to get some of these opinions down in print and out there to be read. The situation seems to change almost hourly, but as nearly I I’m…
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