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America gets grifted by swamp king

Addressing Congress in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt warned Americans about being lulled into unconsciousness by those who pooh-poohed the dark clouds over Europe created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. “I hope that we shall have fewer American ostriches in our midst,” said FDR. “It is not good for the ultimate health of ostriches to bury their heads in the sand.” There’s no gainsaying that when it comes to capitalizing on many Americans’ willingness to be bamboozled by hucksters, Donald Trump is pure gold. The slogan “Make America Great Again” isn’t ...

Around Trump world in 100 days

I’m not Catholic, but the pope’s death hit hard, compared to a living president. Pope Francis, a champion for peace and the poor who crossed borders in his inclusion, showed how it’s done, winning hearts all over the world. Donald Trump showed up at the Vatican funeral wearing a bright blue suit amid a sea of black. The least of his sins. As the world wept, hopes that the president would learn a lesson in kind leadership — for his 100-day mark — faded fast. Trump is remarkably unchanged, all his days. He believed in tariffs 50 years ago and now. Greed, power and a mouth ...

Deportations without due process

If Joe Biden effectuated his immigration policy without due process, why can’t Donald Trump do the same with his? That’s the question raised by Joe Biden’s effortlessly permitting millions of people to enter the country illegally and Donald Trump’s having to go through extensive exertions to remove (or keep removed) one illegal immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia shouldn’t have been deported to El Salvador, but the point still stands — illegal immigrants can be imported by the millions, with nothing more than a notice to appear and a bus ticket to their ...

Trump derangement syndrome hijacks an election

Just hours before Canada’s federal election, a man treated a street festival here in Vancouver like it was a bowling lane and his vehicle was the ball. Eleven people have died as a result, with several others injured. But sure, let’s make the federal election all about U.S. President Donald Trump. Local police quickly ruled out terrorism. How could they possibly know so fast? Well, because they were apparently like, “Oh, it was just THAT guy.” And not because he hangs out at the doughnut shop with them and shoots the breeze, but because he’s out there doing enough criming ...

Can’t make government efficient

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple when he was 21 years old. Nine years later, at age 30, he was purged and fired from the company he founded and built by the professional management he helped recruit. Eleven years later, after that management brought the firm to the edge of bankruptcy, Jobs returned to the helm and saved the company. In 1997, when Jobs returned as interim CEO, Apple lost $1.04 billion and estimates were that it was 90 days from insolvency. Jobs restored discipline and focus. He slashed the product line from 15 to four products and fired 3,000 employees. By the ...

Reality has a vote, in politics as in entertainment

Reality has a vote. That is one lesson administered to the body of politics in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second administration. After the president gleefully announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, stock market prices fell sharply, and the bond market became, as Trump put it, “yippy.” So after just one week, on April 9, he put the Liberation Day tariffs on a 90-day pause. Perhaps contributing to this choice was automaker Stellantis’ April 3 decision to lay off workers in five U.S. factories. Reality and widespread reactions to a policy I ...