In March 2015 The Metropole Hotel in Hanoi was reopened after renovations. Media reported Vietnamese dignitaries arrive in Bentleys, Benzes, and other cars that one reasonably may describe as “luxury” cars. Vietnam is a country with which the U.S. trades.

Today is Veterans Day. On November 11, 1918, the Treaty of Versailles took effect at 11 a.m. and brought an end to World War I. The carnage was so horrific that some called it the “war to end all wars.” Of course, there was a bigger…

Like it or not, the political structure of this country is predisposed to a two-party system. With force and counter-force, and checks and balances, since 1789 our government has been dominated by two political parties. Even as they decried “factions” (what we call political parties), Madison (Republican later to be called Democratic) and Hamilton (Federalist) took helped form the first two parties.

By the mid-1800s the institution of chattel slavery had so devastated this country that…

In 1854 the Republican Party was founded, its principal policy position being opposition to expansion of slavery through the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Cavendish, History Today, Vol. 54, #7, July 2004. After the Civil War, Republican members of Congress pushed reconstruction of the South and sought to protect the rights of people recently freed from slavery (while at the same time seeking to enrich themselves). When Theodore Roosevelt assumed the office of President after the death of William…

“Republicans resigned to Trump losing 2020 popular vote but confident about Electoral College” - David M. Drucker, Washington Examiner, 3/22/19.

  This headline grabbed my attention. The “Electoral College” never was meant to be “how our system works,” contrary to the opinion of an Arizona Republican donor who supports the current occupant of the Oval Office. The occupant himself is quoted: “I used to like the idea of the Popular Vote, but now realize the Electoral College is far better…