Thoughts on Trump Reneging on the Iran Deal

• Once again the Repubs are allowing Netanyahu to dictate to the US what our foreign policy is (in this case also Saudi Arabia and the UAE). That is a sign of weakness, not strength.
• Saudi Arabia and the UAE don't really care about Iran's nuclear program. the just want to be the dominant authoritarian players in the Mideast, rather than Iran.
• The neocons got there way here as in Iraq. We know how that turned out.
• The US is no longer the leader of the free world.
• Iran has abided by its part of the agreement; the US has just violated its part.
• Trump owns it now.

Some Things I Believe

Here are a few things I believe to be true. I present them without proof or justification.  I can do that because it's my blog.

• Political Correctness is not a thing. It doesn't exist.
• White Privilege, on the other hand, is a real thing.
• Donald Trumpp isn't our problem. The Republican Party is our problem.
• Everyone should introduce themselves to Modern Monetary Theory. The basics of the theory aren't that wonkish. You will discover how much you've been misled about economics--specifically about deficits and the national debt--your whole life.
• My kids' generation is a lot smarter than my generation. And their kids' generation will be smarter than them.
• My first reaction to the DNC suing Russia et al is that it's a dumb idea.

Sunday Morning

Random and unrelated thoughts/opinions on a Sunday morning:

• I love podcasts but almost all of them are way too long. I am getting old and I just don’t have that many spare 60-90 minutes laying around anymore. They need senior citizen versions that I can listen to while drinking my McDonald's senior coffee.
• The New York Times was a much better newspaper when it had a daily bridge column.
• It was also a much better newspaper when it covered the substance of domestic politics instead of the tactics. It has become a Trump enabler.
• One could make the argument that the biggest problem with Trump is that he's a fool. Having a fool as President of the United States is bad for America and for the world. Having a racist fool as president makes it dangerous.
• NFL games are getting more boring all the time.
• Franklin Graham is pond scum. I didn't agree with Billy Graham's theology, but he always strove to be a man of integrity and decency. His son has neither integrity nor decency.

 

Can Anything Good Come out of Nazareth?

For my conservative Christian Trump-supporting friends and miscellaneous Trump apologists. Today's (2nd Sunday after Epiphany) gospel reading from John. I have added a couple words for additional interpretation. It seemed apropos.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of [that shithole] Nazareth?

Quote of the Day

"Barack Obama's foreign policy was characterized as leading from behind. Trump's doctrine may come to be understood as retreating from the front."

Evan Osnos, "Making China Great Again", The New Yorker, January 8, 2018 issue

Who's Surprised?

Trump's shithole comments were awful, but what else is new? No surprises here. New lows are met almost daily by this guy. But if this follows the normal pattern of things, the really disturbing part is that a sizable number of people--and probably a majority of whites--will have found his statements okay, and some even enthusiastically so.

And the sadder part of this for me is that this group of Trump enthusiasts likely includes a significant number of my family and friends.

Last Year's Reading List

Books I read in 2017:

M.O. Walsh, My Sunshine Away
Scott O'Connor, Half World
Orhan Pamulk, A Strangeness in My Mind
Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things
George Eliot, Daniel Deronda
Matt Taibbi, The Divide
Ahdef Soueif, The Map of Love
J.K. Rowlings, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (thanks to my granddaughter for lending it to me)
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Gerard Reve, The Evenings
Catherine Lacy, Nobody Is Ever Missing
Rachel Cusk, Transit
Nathan Hill, The Nix
Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent
Lorrie Moore, Bark
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, The Nest
Christine Schutt, Florida
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
Stephen Budiansky, The Bloody Shirt
Sarah Healy, The Sisters Chase
Jim Grimsley, Winter Birds
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Philip Caputo, Acts of Faith
Eleanor Brown, The Light of Paris
Nell Zink, Nicotine
 
Interesting note: roughly two-thirds female, one-third male authors.