Wearing a bowler hat and a trench coat, the Windsor’s Prince Philip walked off into the sunset recently. You would suppose that scene should be followed by the words “Cut” and “Print” but is that how it happens? He might be 96 and well past his prime but is that
Continue readingTag: World Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: The Trump Technique.
The media were all atwitter the other day when they got some leaked transcripts from the White House of conversations President Trump had with other countries’ leaders. They got them and did not understand them. They did not seem to understand the technical term for the technique he was using;
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harry says nobody wants the crown!
That was the good news the other day. In an interview with American Newsweek Magazine, Prince Harry of the House of Windsor said that nobody in the royal family really aspires to being King or Queen. What Harry probably meant was that it would be unseemly for any royal to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Exorcising the errata of ego.
There can be no excuse for slovenly writing. There is that rude awakening when your e-mails include comments on your careless errors. Some days you get more than others. One reader was particularly incensed the other day over my rude and inaccurate remarks in discussing the United Kingdom and Brexit.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: En Marche Macron!
Did you know that French President Emmanuel Macron’s political party has only existed for a little more than a year? More than 66 per cent of French voters gave 39-year old Macron their support in the run-off election against right-wing candidate Marine La Pen. The party is reported to be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Concern for the United(?) Kingdom.
The mood in the United Kingdom today is concerning. It is the sort of sad mood caused by a relative that might need mental health assistance. You are despairing of just how you can help. We can hardly lay blame. Is it Prime Minister Elizabeth May’s fault? We knew she
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump’s travels as ‘The Ugly American.’
U.S. President Donald Trump has been out of the country this week. Life in Washington has been more peaceful. While Congress is despairing, trying to make sense of his budget, they have sent Trump to the Middle East and Europe on a pilgrimage to find his true religion and meaning.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why progressive elites are losing.
The disappointment progressives have felt with the New Democratic Party over the last couple decades has been something we have argued about but maybe not understood as well as we should. Maybe Robin V. Sears of the NDP put his finger on it the other day when complaining in print
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When the Pope meets the Antichrist.
The arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump in Rome needs a Cecil B. DeMille style Hollywood epic production. It would have trumpets and bass drums, rolling black clouds in the sky, flashes of lightening. We would see a Donald Trump dressed in black, towering over the gargoyles of Hell in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the politics of vitriol.
The emerging right-wing politics of Europe is spreading like a disease. First we had the self destructive BREXIT from the United Kingdom and now the threatening right in key countries such as France and Germany and even a smaller and usually cooperative Netherlands. Europe still has a way to go
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mother of all Bombs: No oversight required?
During his presidential campaign, President Trump promised to bomb the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL) brigands in the Middle East back to the Middle Ages. He now seems to have given America’s generals carte blanche to do that. The only problem is that the ISIL fanatics involved
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: You think Trump got it right in Syria?
There were pictures in North American papers the other day of Trump and his key advisers in a small room at his Florida resort. The captions explained that they were being briefed on options in Syria. The question that has to be asked: Is a strike against one airfield any
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Airing the rants of the Right.
Canadians are too politically correct to accept a politician such as right-wing Geert Wilders who has been running in the Netherlands for that country’s parliamentary elections yesterday. At one point the pollsters were suggesting that the right-wing anti-Islam, anti-EU politician’s Freedom Party could get as much as 20 per cent
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Does President Trump have an agenda?
It is hard to get your mind around this one. There was an opinion piece in a major Canadian newspaper by a political science professor who posited that President Donald Trump and his henchman Steve Bannon have a plan to split the world with Vladimir Putin. You would have a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: One man’s tweak.
Maybe we can just tweak this situation while discussing the twits who Twitter. And why does Donald Trump’s White House menagerie remind us of that awful daytime TV serial, The Young and the Restless? Quickly though, before the next episode in this ongoing saga, did you cotton on to Donald
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: May comes; May goes.
Did you see that lovely picture of British Prime Minister Theresa May and President Donald Trump holding hands outside the West Wing? It was all the lady came to Washington to get. And it was all she wanted. You really do not think anything substantive was agreed to, did you?
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Butt out Ms. Fonda.
While it is so very nice of actor Jane Fonda to lend her celebrity concern to the rape of the environment for tar sands in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canadians should certainly say ‘Thank you.’ It all helps, but celebrity endorsements and support can come across as self-serving and really do
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Roman God Janus is smiling.
Looking both back and forward is a trick of a God such as Janus. Humans find it easiest to look ahead as we enter a new year. We have already written off the year behind us as a bad dream. And we have much excitement to look forward to in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Sending cannon fodder to Latvia.
In 1941 Canada came to the aid of the British Empire and sent troops to Hong Kong. The Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were supposed to be a deterrent to war. Of the 1975 Canadians who tried to help defend Hong Kong, quite a few less came home after War II from […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Trump – Thatcher triangle.
Trump finally did it. He lost it all over a mosquito. It was enough to make you wonder if the mosquito was real or imagined. And it was an example of the root cause of our society’s problems. Out of a 70-minute speech, social media lit up with 15-seconds of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump […]
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