Political Amusements, or Not!
Originally we wrote that these irregular musings aren’t easily described, then realized the high risk of inviting easy descriptions. Let us just note that so far, this grab bag has been totally inept at recruiting the influence of cascading conglomerates, whether owners or advertisers, and does not enjoy largess from being in the pocket of a political party’s well-heeled leadership. Corruption, influence peddling by the big money and engineered dysfunction are often unavoidable tangents. Such a broken system, who would bother, but for occasional glimmers of hope? A Hobson’s Choice now and then, perhaps a snipe hunt for Washington DC’s moral high ground.
This is not an open invite for PR companies pushing their clients’ brilliance, but for T-Boy readers and contributors who’d like to express a well-thought-out viewpoint on our interesting times. If you’d like to throw us a pontification for consideration, send it to Skip Kaltenheuser. Political topics relevant to travel are welcome, but as you can see from the past menu we’re very free-ranging…
These money-back guarantee scribbles comprise a kitchen sink that keeps getting thrown about. Perhaps a topic or two might be of interest. Given the tangents, most include themes with an ever-green shelf-life. If nothing else, you might enjoy frequent appearances of dagger-sharp political art, courtesy of the kindness of Nancy Ohanian, who’s just published one of the most mischievous coffee table books that will cross your path: Between The Tweets, Editorial Cartoons by Nancy Ohanian.
Read ‘em and weep.
For more on politics, see below:
A friend posed a question-why so much focus on Israel when there are so many pressing crises around the world, like the Sudan, largely forgotten? A worthy question, as dire straits expand from deadly political conflicts and authoritarian, corrupt governments to include climate impacts and crop failures.
Although our first President, George Washington, never lived in the White House - it was not completed until the administration of our second president, John Adams. President John Adams is credited with owning the first Presidential Pets: two mixed breed dogs, named Juno and Satan. John Adams' tenure in the White House was short-lived (he lost reelection later that year), but many dogs and cats have served as First Pets ever since. John Adams' son, President John Quincy Adams, received an alligator as a gift from France's Marquis de Lafayette.
The country holding captive the birthplace of the religion I grew up with, Christianity, of the ethics that shaped me, has withered beyond redemption. It seems hell-bent on withering spirituality throughout the world.
I always loathed him. I had a lady pal whose good friend was the widow of a Chilean minister under Allende. The former minister, a foe of Pinochet and an opponent of foreign investment in Chile, was blown up while driving along Washington’s Embassy Row. My friend despises all things Kissinger, who helped usher in Pinochet’s dictatorship.
One reason I joined the National Press Club in 1995 was that on various occasions before Hong Kong’s handover I’d darkened the door of the FCC. I hoped that the NPC’s substantial oblong bar might be cousin to the FCC’s main bar with diverse central casting characters including criminal barristers of the Rumpole flavour, cargo shippers, pilots, politicians and others seeking what was in the wind as journalists’ tongues loosened, and vice versa.
There’s been much media commentary related to the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, widely regarded as one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in history. g to go into the wayback machine for my take on it, below, a piece written in 2007 for the late Gatsby Magazine, one of the international magazines I wrote Letters from Washington columns for. It’s a stab at divining the self-righteous mentality that popped open Pandora’s Box with the March 20th, 2003 invasion of Iraq under the false pretenses of Saddam Hussein harboring weapons of mass destruction and being in league with Al-Qaeda. This was amplified by journalists and politicians who should have known better, some of whom likely did.
As June ran out I received this brief text, bolded below, from a politically conservative friend of mine: Best Pride Month Ever, Prayer protected, Filibuster protected, Gun rights protected, Federalism protected, Unborn lives protected --- These are familiar conservative talking points, not that there's anything wrong with that. I thought I'd calmly reflect on these issues, point by point. On the other hand, maybe I'll start a fire. We'll see.
After a sick and sordid 50 year career of cheating, stealing and lying, corruptly conning banks, employees, associates, vendors, and ordinary people out of their money, ruining thousands of lives, running multiple businesses into bankruptcy, and so much more (sexual predation, incitements to mob violence, etc), mob boss wannabe Donald Trump, now buried under a mountain of lawsuits and pending criminal indictments, I believe, is certain to face trial and likely be convicted of serious crimes. Viewer discretion advised.
President Biden can shore up the journalism on which democracy depends. He can cease government threats to journalists and prove he values government transparency. Stopping the prosecution – persecution – of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange accomplishes this. Assange remains imprisoned in London as the US seeks his extradition on specious charges, including actions journalists routinely engage in.The morning of April …
Are you mourning this year’s lack of Carnival’s spiritual cleanse, its satirical sorting of society’s woes to give us perspective? I am. And so I retreat now to past frolics. It’s hard to overstate how rotten the past year has been, in so many ways, or the dim prospects it left us, as we await whatever next escapes Pandora’s Box.
