Category World Affairs

Geography Lesson

A certain politician has been musing about place name changes on maps, and perhaps even his country seizing other countries’ territory. And no, I’m not talking about Vladimir Putin, though that is also part of his playbook. Since we are redrawing the map, here’s one I saw online. It has no basis in reality of […]

For My American Friends

I’m sure there are many in the United States who think it makes sense for Canada to join them and become the 51st state. They are looking at our similarities, and, as proud Americans, they don’t understand why we don’t want to be more like them. I could write volumes on the topic, but instead […]

The Trade War

According to the Wall Street Journal, the trade war Donald Trump threatened to start with Canada today is the “dumbest trade war in history.” It isn’t, Trump backed down Monday on his threat to impose across the board tariffs on Mexico and Canada today. Maybe tariffs were never intended as more than a negotiating tactic, […]

The World Remembers

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and also the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where the full extent of the Nazi genocide came to light. Today a post from five years ago about a different concentration camp. The first question I thought when visiting the Dachau concentration camp was: “How could they not […]

The Day After

Donald Trump has been sworn in as president of the USA and the world didn’t end. His first day didn’t feature as much mayhem as he promised, but he does have four years to deliver on his promises. Some his plans just won’t happen. Changing the citizenship rules would require a constitutional amendment. Those are […]

Inauguration Day – Take A Deep Breath

Or maybe buckle your seatbelts. It is going to be a bumpy ride. Donald Trump is being sworn in today as the 47th President of the United States. He has promised to start his term with hundreds of executive orders that will reshape America and its relations with its neighbors. If he keeps his promises […]

Inauguration Day – Looking Back II

Donald Trump is being sworn in today as the 47th President of the United States of America. We’ve been here before. Here’s what I wrote four years ago today, a day when many of us thought we had seen the last of Donald Trump politically. While the post is about Joe Biden, there are some […]

Inauguration Day – Looking Back I

Donald Trump is being sworn in today as the 47th President of the United States of America. We’ve been here before. Here’s what I wrote eight years ago today. I think it still has value, even though we know Trump much better now than we did in 2017. There will be protests today, as Donald […]

Reminder of the Past

The guidebook says there is nothing to see. I guess it is a little outdated. My wife has been visiting Lippstadt, Germany, since her childhood. She knew there had once been a synagogue, but had never visited. This time she walked right by. The guidebook said what was once a synagogue was behind some garage […]

Predicting 2028

When I first saw this on X (as Twitter is now called), my first thought was “I didn’t know there was a way around the 280 character limit.” My second thought was “Why has Elon Musk not ordered this post taken down?” Then I thought about what it says about the nature of political discourse […]