Canadian and American hockey fans booing each other’s national anthems is a clear and uncharacteristic indicator of how low President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has driven America’s image and standing in the arena of world opinion.… Read the rest
Since the beginning of the Cold War, the U.S. president has been self-styled and widely, if at times grudgingly, accepted as “the leader of the free world”. Less than a month into his second term, Donald Trump has superseded “leader” with “lout”.… Read the rest
The outrage over President Donald Trump’s “plan” to ethnically cleanse Gaza in all but name and turn it into a resort strip mall, is almost quaint. Did anyone expect rationality or humanity from someone demonstrably unable to differentiate between price, profit and value, and who surrounds himself with soulless moguls of his ilk?… Read the rest
America’s idea of itself as a great and enviable nation was encapsulated by the now defunct print edition of the Reader’s Digest and its signature feature, “Laughter, the Best Medicine”. For those in trepidation of what MAGA portends, the best antidote is a sense of irony and the absurd.… Read the rest
A few weeks before the Gaza peace deal was agreed, the father of a hostage held by Hamas flew to Qatar to meet the negotiators. It’s stretching a point and then some to infer he nudged the talks over the final line, but what he did is a salient lesson for the next stages of the deal.… Read the rest
It seems to be a given in Donald Trump’s world that no matter how false or farcical his pronouncements, the rest of the world is expected to trepidatiously parse them, but the U.S. doesn’t have to worry about the rest of the world. Sorry, not quite.… Read the rest
New Year’s resolutions being notoriously unkept, 2025 can be better than the unlamented year we just lurched through if the media harkens back to what its job is, or at least ought to be, and peacemakers take on board the lesson of a 13th century papal conclave.… Read the rest
It’s troubling, but not unreasonable to fear that 2025 may turn out to be as vexingly grim as the year we’ve just slogged through. My plan for offsetting the depression that forbodes, is to harken the beauty I saw and photographed in 2024, and find rays of humour in things that normally drive me to outbursts of profane protest.… Read the rest
In the spirit of good neighbourliness, I would like to take this opportunity to caution U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that his “great idea!!!” of making Canada the “51st state” isn’t even a good idea, because, frankly sir, we’d be more trouble than we’re worth.… Read the rest
Western governments, analysts and “experts” hastening for influence and rushing to judgement in the wake of the rebel takeover of Syria would do well to pause, take a good look at recent history, and consider the pigs’ commandment in “Animal Farm”: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”… Read the rest