Talking iPINIONS

Episode 98: A Nobel Rant … Worthy of a Prize?

I know, you’re never supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth. But some of the most celebrated recipients of the world’s most prestigious award should have done just that. On the other hand, some of the people most deserving of this award never received it.
Note: This episode was originally recorded on November 20, 2021. I plan to republish it annually in homage to Chinua Achebe, one of my favorite novelists. Listen and you’ll understand why.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 25 min 20 sec

Episode 97: Midterm Elections: Republican Red Wave vs Democratic Sea Wall

It turns out reports of the death of American democracy were greatly exaggerated. Because voters not only rejected Republican calls for a Trumpian autocracy, but defied jack-booted MAGA thugs who tried to intimidate them against voting to do so.
Most affirming and reassuring in this respect, of course, was all the threats of election violence and chaos turning out to be much ado about nothing, and Donald Trump himself ending up the biggest loser.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 19 min 27 sec 

Episode 96: Observing Veterans Day

Search Veterans Day and the top results will be all about holiday shopping deals. But Congress intended this day to honor those who served in the Armed Forces, especially the ones who paid the ultimate sacrifice. This episode is a forlorn reminder of that original intent.
NOTE:  This episode was originally published 11/10/2021
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 6 min 36 sec 

Episode 95: Elon Musk on Twitter - From Top Troll to Chief Twit

What could go wrong?
Well, nothing portends Twitter’s fate quite like Elon blaming “activists” for a potentially bankrupting drop in advertising revenue. I mean, how rich is that. Evidently this "free speech absolutist" is just learning the truth and consequences of free speech.
Having others put an albatross around his neck would’ve been challenging enough. But this twit has effectively tied an anvil around his own neck, jumped into the deep end of the social media pool, and is sinking fast…
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   23 min  02 sec

Episode 94: Money-Pit Yankees Still Can’t Buy a World Series

Football replaced baseball as America’s favorite sport long ago. But, try as the Dallas Cowboy have, they have yet to replace the New York Yankees as the team Americans most love to hate. The way their season played out this year explains why.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   10 min  55 sec

Episode 93: Iran’s Hijab Revolution

I’ve been in the vanguard of those hailing the transformative power of women in politics. I refer you in this regard to blog posts like “Women Make Better Politicians Than Men” October 14, 2010, and podcast episodes like “Men Should Be Barred from Politics,” December 27, 2020.
Nothing vindicates this proposition quite like the women leading the protests to overthrow Iran’s repressive regime. But boy, what price transformation?
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   12 min  20 sec

Episode 92: Are Latinos Just as Racist against Blacks as Whites?

Tribalism has Republicans and Democrats turning America into a first-world banana republic. This is why the smartest and fastest way for any minority group to exercise political influence is to ensure that as many of its members as possible vote as one.
Miami Cubans, as a subgroup of the Latino minority, have been doing this to near perfection since the early 1970s – invariably casting their lot with the Republican tribe. So it does not bode well for traditionally Democratic but notoriously apathetic Blacks that Latinos across the country, most notably in California, are beginning to follow suit…
Note: Because a surprising number of you have asked, I always record my episodes on Thursdays to give my production team (aka Katherine) enough time to edit and publish on Saturdays.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   10 min  56 sec

Episode 91: Columbus Day–cum–Indigenous People’s Day…

People around the world have celebrated Christopher Columbus for centuries as the seafaring explorer who discovered America. In doing so, they blithely ignored the Vikings who preceded him, to say nothing of the Native Indians who greeted him.
This episode is my modest contribution to the cognitive dissonance afoot that should correct the historical record … in due course.
Note:  This episode originally aired on October 10, 2021.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   7 min  40 sec

Episode 90: Putin Sends Russians Fleeing. But Snowden Becomes a Citizen?

Remember how the Taliban ran US forces out of their country last year? Well, imagine the ridicule if Biden had held a treaty-signing ceremony at the White House in Washington to annex regions of Afghanistan as the world was watching that humiliation unfold. Because that’s the ridiculous nature of what Putin did in Moscow on Friday with his ceremonial annexation of regions of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, as impossible as it might seem, Putin found a way to turn American fugitive Edward Snowden into an even bigger useful idiot.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   19 min 

Episode 89: Farewell Tribute to the Queen…and the Monarchy

My affection for the queen was always tempered by my contempt for the Monarchy. As the “reprobate” son of a preacher man, however, I am all too mindful that this smacks of the Evangelical canard: hate the sin, not the sinner.
But I think you’ll find the explanation I offer for my inconsistency makes far more sense than the one Christians offer for theirs ever could.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   18 min 20 sec 

Episode 88: Sunak Lost as Much as Truss Won to Become Next British PM

Everyone expected the competition between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to become the next British prime minister to be pioneering. But it turned out to be pioneering in ways no one expected.
Meanwhile, nothing has betrayed the British hallowed sense of tradition quite like the ruling Conservative Party forcing Britons to abide four different prime ministers over the past six years. So perhaps it’s perversely fitting that the latest one began her premiership this week by marking the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who embodied that tradition…
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   16 min 

Episode 87: Prince Albert Recommits to Fairytale Marriage in Fine Print

There seems little doubt that Charlene is proving more than Prince Albert bargained for. The millions she cost him after she became the most famous runaway bride in history was bad enough. But she topped that by forcing him to pay many millions more by becoming his runaway wife.
No doubt Charles thinks Diana was a difficult wife. But Albert would say she was a tamed shrew compared with what Charlene is putting him through…
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   16 min 05 sec

Episode 86: Speaker Pelosi Calls Chinese President Xi’s Bluff on Taiwan

My blog is replete with commentaries attesting to my belief that women make better leaders than men. They range from “Cracking the Political Glass Ceiling: First Woman to Become President in South America,” December 12, 2005, to “International Women’s Day: ‘Men Should Be Barred from Politics’, March 8, 2019.
But nothing vindicates my contention quite like the way America’s most powerful man, President Joe Biden, and woman, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reacted to Chinese President Xi Jinping threatening war if Pelosi visited Taiwan. Because, while Biden cowered, Pelosi showed real profile in courage.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   15 min 03 sec

Episode 85: Biden Kills Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri

No, that's not a typo. Ayman al-Zawahiri was the leader of al-Qaeda, not ISIS But you’d be forgiven for wondering why killing him is even worthy of mention, let alone this episode. After all, every time there's breaking news these days of a terrorist attack anywhere, it’s invariably the terrorizing deed not of al-Qaeda, but of its demon spawn, ISIS.
What’s more, former President Trump effectively declared America’s war on terror over years ago after he killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. I duly rebutted and mocked his boast in “ISIS Caliph al-Baghdadi Is Dead. Beware the Next Matryoshka Terrorist Leader…,” October 27, 2019.
But I hope you’ll forgive this admittedly perverse analogy. Because, just as there’s no denying the indelible impression a first major crush leaves, there’s no denying that which a first major terrorist attack does. Zawahiri figured prominently in the latter on 9/11; and he haunted  America’s consciousness ever since…
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   17 min 03 sec

Episode 84: Pope’s Pilgrimage of Penance Highlights Canada’s Original Sin

It is self-evident that nuns physically abusing school kids the way priests sexually abuse altar boys means none of them can believe God exists. Because they know no God would allow them to abuse innocent children in his name the way it seems they’ve always done.
Even so, I commend Pope Francis for the humility inherent in making pilgrimages of penances to beg forgiveness for the systemic sins Catholics have committed. This, especially wearing the institutional shame of the whole world knowing that something is very rotten in the Catholic Church. And, as the proverbial fisher of men, this pope knows better than anyone that this rot is from the head down
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   15 min 20 sec