A Promised Land

America as a Developing Country

Trial and Error

A Brief Democratic Kerfuffle. A Possible Republican Debacle.

A Jury of Our Peers

A Kerfuffle

That was fast. Five days after Donald Trump’s impeachment trial started, it ended on Saturday, as planned.

On Friday night, however, evidence from Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler and other sources kicked off a last-minute kerfuffle over extending the trial. In the wake of Beutler’s earlier statements at a town hall, they confirmed to news outlets that, amidst the Capitol riot, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had an expletive-laced shouting match over the phone with Trump. McCarthy urged presidential action to stop the attack; the president dismissively focused only on his political fortunes.

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From Russia, With Love

Lessons for the Republicans’ leadership, starting with 1917.

Adopting a policy of “no enemies to the left,” Russian prime minister Alexander Kerensky freed Vladimir Lenin from jail shortly after he tried but failed to overthrow Kerensky’s government in July of 1917.

In November, Lenin succeeded.

An excellent essay by Slate’s Fred Kaplan draws parallels between Kerensky and most of today’s Republican leaders. Kerensky thought that his greatest threat was forces seeking to return czarist rule to his country. He accordingly sought to align with the very Marxists who soon toppled him.

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Free at Last

Scattered thoughts, hopes and dreams, on a most memorable and emotional day.

Shared Sentiments

Lots of folks are sharing similar sentiments about inauguration day. A college friend emailed: “I can’t tell you how many people said to me today that it felt like the tension level just went down everywhere around them. I think we’ve all been living with the nerve endings on the outside of our bodies for four years  I look forward to better, healthier, more generous times.” Amen.

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An Indian TV (and Benicia, CA) View of the Insurrection

The video is from January 6. How the world has changed, even since then.

As part of my occasional commentary on U.S. and international affairs for a major Indian broadcaster, WION (World is One News), the channel interviewed me on January 6 as part of its report on that day’s D.C. insurrection. To my mind, it did a fine job (linked below) in its coverage of the exploding events.

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Kristallnacht, Trump and the Termi­nator

The anti-Trump movie star and former governor is a pretty good history teacher.

He’s back

A Turning Point

Arnold Schwarzenegger released a powerful anti-Trump, pro-democracy video yesterday. He starts by likening Wednesday’s mob attack on the Capitol to the November 9-10, 1938  Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). That widespread, state-sponsored riot saw Nazi gangs across Germany and his native Austria destroy thousands of synagogues and other Jewish-owned buildings, kill at least 91 Jews and round up 30,000 more for concentration camps.

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