"What Happened?" It's a question many have been asking at least daily for the last ten months. So it's an apt title for Hillary Clinton's new book, a reasonably clear-eyed analysis of the 2016 presidential election debacle. While she glosses over a few issues, she shows a surprising self-awareness and candor. In the end, "What …
Author: aronsbarron
Joe DeNucci, Contender for the People
Joe DeNucci won most of his fights in the ring and in politics. In a long series of majority decisions, he won his fight for the hearts of the people. But on Friday, at the age of 78, the state’s longest-serving auditor and before that five-term State Representative, lost his fight with Alzheimer’s disease. He …
Harry was saved from Harvey, but questions remain
After three harrowing days, our cousins and their dog, Harry (see photo from drier days), were rescued Monday from their home in the Meyerland section of Houston. They live but a stone's throw from a bayou in a gracious neighborhood in which we had taken leisurely walks in April. Folks in the area had just …
Continue reading Harry was saved from Harvey, but questions remain
Sanders supporters’ sour grapes votes did us in
Taegan Goddard, author of Political Wire and one of the best, most even-handed aggregators around, just sent out this disturbing alert: Disappointed voters for Bernie Sanders who refused to hold their noses and vote for Hillary Clinton and voted instead for Donald Trump made the difference in the 2017 election. According to a 2016 Cooperative Congressional …
Continue reading Sanders supporters’ sour grapes votes did us in
John Henry’s call on Yawkey Way is a home run
Fans bustle in anticipation of the opening pitch. Vendors hawk programs and other souvenirs. The mouth-watering smell of grilled sausage fills the air - all on a street named after someone whose racial attitudes should not for one minute be allowed to stand. Three cheers for Red Sox (and Boston Globe) owner John Henry, who …
Continue reading John Henry’s call on Yawkey Way is a home run
Charlottesville: could it happen here?
One blue-eyed, baby-faced demonstrator in Charlottesville, Virginia tells you all you need to know about what drives the alt-right haters, the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan and their ilk. Said Sean Patrick Nielsen, "I'm here because our Republican values are: standing up for our local white identity...which is under threat; the free market; and …
Can bipartisanship keep Trump at bay?
Donald Trump has left the White House. For 17 days. For a vacation in New Jersey. Is it safe to come out? Initially, I thought so. After Senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski stood tall to defeat a miserable "skinny" bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I was encouraged that bipartisan efforts …
Finding America in Freedom
This is Old Home Week in Freedom, New Hampshire, population 1500. The town was incorporated in 1832 after it seceded from next-door Effingham in a dispute over whose taxes would pay for a bridge between the two. Freedom is a place of peacefulness and beauty, a little village of well maintained, white-painted homes, many dating …
Escape from Trump 3.0, pt. 2 – non-fiction
History is often best revealed through the personal stories and relationships of individuals. So it is with these non-fiction books I've read of late. An Invisible Thread is a deeply personal memoir of two lives brought together by one small act. Laura Schroff was a successful ad executive in the go-go 1980's who brushes past …
Escape from Trump 3.0 – real fiction
On a rainy October-like day, there's nothing like settling in with good fiction to escape from the Trumpian travails of our time. Here, in no particular order, are some of the books I've been reading over the past months. The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks is what The New York Times called "thundering, gritty, emotionally devastating." …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 