Author: Ronald Weihs
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Kicking it over
The Berlin Wall was torn down in December, 1989. The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26, 1991. The USA, apparently, had won the Cold War. Here’s the crowd on top of the Berlin Wall in 1989: Many people were quite optimistic. One such was the political philosopher Francis Fukuyama, who declared “the end of…
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Trump tariffs
“Trump doesn’t know a tariff from a hole in the ground. Everybody knows that.” “Trump thinks that a tariff against Chinese imports means that China will have to pay more to send goods to the US. Trump thinks that a 25% tariff will teach Canada and Mexico a lesson, and force them to stop immigrants…
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Tents in the Park
There is a sculpture in the vestibule of the Church of the Badia Fiorentina in Florence. It isn’t in the sanctuary where the masterpieces of Renaissance art are hanging. It’s out there by itself, up against the wall. A human figure huddled in a blanket. It’s only when you notice the stigmata in the bare…
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Elon
To understand himyou have to go back to those cheap paperbacks with lurid coverswe devouredso many years agoin the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Not SciFi,(cowboys in spacesuitsriding the cosmic range) but SF. AzimovClarkeKornbluthSpeculative FictionWhat if…And so oftenbehind the lurid coverand on those pulpy pagesthere would bea young guysmarter than anyonedreaming of stars and machinesand…
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Why it happened
Explanations for the Trump catastrophe are sprouting like weeds, all over the internet, in the newspapers I read (Guardian, Times, Washington Post, Hamilton Spectator), on MsNBC, CNN, and random posts on YouTube. I haven’t seen anything convincing. And I think I know why. The real reasons are not speakable among decent liberal people. Here’s what…
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Getting away with it
In theatre there is a concept called scene obligatoire. That’s when finally, just towards the climax of the play, the key characters finally meet and have it out. Yesterday and today, in Justice Merchan’s courtroom in New York, was the scene obligatoire we’ve been waiting for: Donald J. Trump and Stormy Daniels in the same…