[NOTE: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and “what goes around . . . .” Who in the U.S. remembers the ten years of bitter jungle and urban warfare (and the dozen years of “secret” fighting before that), besides a rapidly disappearing remnant of veterans, a cadre of geezer peaceniks, a scattering of … Continue reading U. S. -Vietnam: Yesterday, Enemies: Today, Allies Against China??
Jamelle Bouie, New York Times: Excerpt: On Clarence Thomas & the Supreme Court’s Corrupt Impunity ”With his close ties to a powerful, property-owning billionaire, Thomas embodies the historic role of the Supreme Court in American politics, not as a liberator or defender of the rights of political and social minorities, but as a partner to … Continue reading Jamelle Bouie on Supreme Court Impunity & Corruption
[NOTE: I once seriously considered retiring in Ireland. It was 2010 and, closing in on 70, I wondered if there were any peaceable options to the ongoing mess and mass shootings in the USA. Initially, Ireland seemed to be several positives: ancestral ties (O’Brien was my mother’s maiden name); a similar language; a reported friendliness … Continue reading Gwynne Dyer: The Northern Irish “Troubles” Are Over. Will they Stay Over?
[Sectarian NOTE: The author here does not mention (and why should she?) that the South, especially North Carolina, has been very important in the history of my own small tribe, the Quakers. I didn’t know or expect this when I came here 21 years ago, so far from the self-identified and self-important “centers” of the … Continue reading Powerful Quote of The Week: the American Future Is In the South
Endless turmoil plagues Pakistanis The country has spent half its history under military rule, and it was no more and no less dysfunctional in those periods than it has been the rest of the time, Gwynne Dyer writes. By Gwynne Dyer—Contributing Columnist — April 4, 2023