Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
This weekend, France will mark the official opening of the restored Notre Dame Cathedral. But to represent the United States, France invited Donald Trump, the menacing president-elect, not Joe Biden, the lame-duck president. Alas, after his dithering withdrawal cost Democrats the presidency and his self-righteous pardoning of his son, it seems the tarnishing of Biden’s… Read more.
Messi leads Argentina to World Cup title This World Cup was the best! The guardians of this beautiful game couldn’t have scripted it any better. Proof enough came from fans marveling at the unprecedented hospitality. But its success had everything to do with players’ dazzling feats. Fans experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat several times… Read more.
Episode 42: They Can Blame the Americans and French, But Haitians Are Mostly to Blame… Related commentaries: Haiti… Listen.
In “Trump, May, Macron: Don’t Bomb Syria. Withdraw World Cup from Russia!,” April 11, 2018, I pledged to boycott this World Cup. I honored that pledge. But I cannot resist sharing the following about France’s 4-2 victory over Croatia’s in Sunday’s final match: Immigrants, sons of immigrants and grandsons of immigrants bonded together with scions… Read more.
Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron has decisively won the French presidential election, projected results say. Mr Macron defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen by about 66% to 34% to become, at 39, the country’s youngest president, the results show. … The BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris says this is the most remarkable success story of how… Read more.
Most news organizations cover riots, terrorist attacks, and natural or manmade disasters more as boon for ratings than tragic events. Now they’re covering the presidency of Donald J. Trump … as both. But one can hardly blame them. After all, his Barnum & Bailey-esque antics are such that even his news conferences are like high-wire… Read more.
France’s top administrative court suspended the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet on Friday on civil liberties grounds. However, a number of mayors have said they will continue applying the bathing suit ban… Responding to the ruling, Villeneuve-Loubet’s Mayor, Lionnel Luca, said: ‘We need to decide if we want a smiley, friendly version of sharia law on our… Read more.
The vicious Bastille Day attack in the French city of Nice that killed at least 84 people was an act of terrorism, France’s President Francois Hollande said early Friday. The driver, identified as a 31-year-old French Tunisian, crashed his truck into a crowd of people who were watching fireworks. He plowed the vehicle-turned-weapon forward for… Read more.
I began commenting on the soap opera that is the private life of French President Francois Hollande seven years ago only because of the mockery French media were making of their vaunted reputation for discretion in affairs of the heart. But truth be told, I now see no greater redeeming social value in continuing to… Read more.
Putin clearly has no use for Snowden. But, as a perfectly understandable matter of form, he must avoid any appearance of caving in to American demands to return him immediately… There seems little doubt that Putin will eventually hand Snowden over to his ‘American partner.’ And I assure you, he has every intention of doing so… Read more.
