Talking iPINIONS

Episode 83: Biden Must Wag the Dog to Save Ukraine and His Presidency

President Biden may not know it. But everyone in Washington thinks he’s a lame duck. So it behooves him to do something dramatic to disabuse them of that thought. As any crisis often does, the war in Ukraine offers him an opportunity to do so in historic fashion.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   13 min 20 sec

Episode 82: The Supreme Court … and Clarence Thomas

Much is being made about how the Republican Party has become little more than a political cult dedicated to Donald J. Trump. But the Supreme Court is rivaling that party in this respect.  And fears abound that it will take another civil war to save America from their dystopian devices.
 
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   22 min 19 sec

Episode 81: Happy Independence Day, My Bahamaland

We are independent. But it seems we just don’t know how to quit the British. And I find that very vexing … indeed.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   8 min 22 sec

Episode 80: Putin’s Genocide Against Ukraine Causing Famine in Africa

The European decolonization of Africa ended over 50 years ago. Yet nothing betrays Africa as still the white man’s burden quite like African leaders bemoaning about a war now raging in Europe preventing them from feeding their people in Africa.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   17 min 50 sec

Episode 79: Commemorating Juneteenth…

We appreciate the apology and the holiday. But what about those reparations…?
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   17 min 30 sec

Episode 78: Hearing Shows Jan. 6 Committee Is Targeting Donald Trump

Trump gave me cause to make this pithy observation in a blog post on December 22, 2020:
"None of Trump’s children (think Ivanka) or children-in-law (think Jared) can have any real love or respect for him.'
Ivanka vindicated my observation with her testimony this week before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. And Trump vindicated it when he reacted to her testimony by throwing her under the bus, which really should have surprised nobody, least of all Ivanka.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   19 min 46 sec

Episode 77: Buffalo Mass Shooting Shows a Nation Divided Against Itself

We always express thoughts and prayers for those affected by these shootings. And some of us really mean it. But, mass shootings in America have become so commonplace, the most noteworthy thing about this one might be that it interrupted the media's saturation coverage of the war in Ukraine.
And yes,  I am cynical enough to think that treasonous Republicans already have another shooter lying in wait. This, to go on a rampage to detract media coverage from hearings on their Jan. 6 insurrection, which the congressional committee plans to hold during prime-time sessions beginning on June 9.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   32 min 26 sec

Episode 76: Former Trump Staffers Peddling Tell-Alls

The remarkable thing is that, even though they keep telling what has been plain for all to see, their books always become bestsellers. This episode explains that phenomenon and what it portends.
Contact:ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   14 min 24 sec

Episode 75: Irony of Germany Enabling Russia’s Genocidal War in Ukraine

Germany professes a “special duty” to prevent genocides, and we all understand why. But Germany remained conspicuously AWOL as genocides raged across Asia and Africa, and we all understand why.
 
Except that Germany is still remaining effectively so even as genocide is raging in its own backyard in Ukraine. History will record that it placed greater value on receiving Russian oil and gas than on saving Ukrainian homes and lives.
 
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   25 min 16 sec

Episode 74: Reunion Tribute to My Parents

Contact:ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   12 min 20 sec

Episode 73: My Good Friday Sermon

If Easter rituals bore you to distraction, you’re not alone. Pope Francis is holding ceremonies to mark Holy Week in a practically empty St. Peter’s Square for the second consecutive year. You might think this merely reflects travel and other Covid-19 restrictions. But it’s also a metaphor for growing disillusionment with organized religion worldwide.
Contact:ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length:   9 min 49 sec

Episode 72: PSA: Help Ukraine, Call Russia

Remarkably, some Western leaders think asking their citizens to pay more for gas is too great a sacrifice to support Ukrainians who are dying to protect the democratic freedoms we all cherish. All I’m asking you to do is to make a call… 
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 20 min 57 sec 

Episode 71: Observing Ramadan by Reciting Kazim Ali

Far from being religious, I am an avowed apostate. So listener beware...
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 9 min 44 sec 

Episode 70: Putin, Xi, the Patriarch and Gay Hoops Star re: Ukraine

Forgive me if this title seems like the opening of a bad joke. Of course, if you’ve listened to episodes 67 and 68 - both on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine - you know how seriously I take this topic. If you haven’t, well, I highly recommend them. But this episode too will make that crystal clear. 
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 19 min 03 sec 

Episode 69: Tearing Down Monuments to Build a More Perfect Union

In last week’s episode, I bemoaned the fratricidal wars still raging between Russians and Ukrainians in Europe and Ethiopians and Tigrayans in Africa, respectively.
But the latest battle in America’s culture war, which erupted this week between woke academics and museum curators in New York over the fate of a statue of former president Theodore Roosevelt, is a worthy diversion.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 16 min 10 sec