The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes is an amazing and accessible book on the history of Russia, the central theme of which traces Russia’s mythologies as a key to the Russian character, leadership and major events. There are lots of maps (ever-changing due to Russia’s thirst for acquiring lands and people near its always-expanding …
Category: Politics
Trump II: two weeks down; 206 to go
Trump world is giving us the "madman theory of foreign policy" and a reign of terror domestically. Around the world, he is fashioning himself as unpredictable and irrational, which comes naturally to him and doesn't have to be "fashioned." Just ask Greenlanders and Panamanians, fearful that he said he'd use force if necessary to take …
Preparing for the New Dystopian Reality?
January 20, 2025. The sun is shining, but it gives no warmth. The air is frigid, and we’re told that it’s going to be getting much colder. Irrespective of changing seasons, things might be consistently unpleasant for the next 1461 days. Donald Trump today took the oath of office to become the 47th president of …
Jimmy Carter went out as he came in
It was a scorcher of a day in the summer of 1975, more than a year before the presidential election to determine whether Jerry Ford could withstand public contempt for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon and win a four-year term on his own. Foot traffic in Concord, New Hampshire was subdued under the blazing …
Good news is no news at all
Polls show that two thirds of Americans are mentally exhausted and taking a break from a steady diet of news consumption. Count me among them, at least aspirationally. Since the election, mainstream newspapers, cable and network news have bled readers and viewers, most significantly at CNN and MSNBC. I, too, have simply overdosed on national …
Congress averts government shutdown
Congratulations to our do-little 118th Congress, which, after weeks of inactivity and chaos, has finally passed funding to keep the U.S. government open until March. It's no surprise that only 21 percent of the American people approve of its performance. It was 19 percent in September. I'm surprised its favorability rating is that high! The …
Frank Bellotti: a street fighter with a liberal heart
Former Massachusetts Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti is dead at 101. One of my first interviews with him, shown to the left, with my six-year-old son Daniel Arons looking on, was in 1973 at a local political picnic when he was launching a campaign for Attorney General. Between 1958 and 1990, he ran for office …
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16th C. England: leaders worse than ours today
Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the Marriage That Shook Europe by historians John Guy and Julia Fox (husband and wife team)is a deeply researched tome larded with the tumultuous history of the reigns of Henry VIII, Francis I of France, and Charles V Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Hapsburg Empire, …
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Hunter Biden pardon stains President Biden’s legacy
Sorry, folks, but I just don't buy the argument that it was fine for Joe Biden to have pardoned son Hunter not just for the tax evasion and gun charges for which he was convicted but for any other federal crime he may have done between 2014 and 2024. There has not been such a …
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Yes, we can still give thanks!
My stuffing is made. If the weather permits, we'll be together with family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Friends and acquaintances keep reaching out, asking "what are we going to do?" They're not referring to how best to carve the turkey, which football games to watch, or whether to tune in to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 