Tag Archives: Russia investigation

Mueller Demythologized

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2019

Thursday I’ve written a lot about people’s hopes in Robert Mueller, which helps explain the palpable disappointment in his performance yesterday before two Congressional committees. From one perspective, there’s no reason to feel let down. After all, his report exposed one of the great scandals in American history: our president welcomed and encouraged Russian election […]

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Henry Fielding Explains Witness Flipping

By Robin Bates | Published: September 21, 2018

Fielding shows a classic case of a witness flipping on his boss in “Tom Jones.” As a magistrate, he knows what he’s talking about.

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Trump Drama as Sherlock Mystery

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2018

Trump and the Russian investigation resemble the Sherlock Holmes story “The Five Pips.” But is Trump the secret society doing the killing or the panicked uncle marked out for slaughter?

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Ferreting Out Trump’s Purloined Letter

By Robin Bates | Published: July 20, 2017

Why does Trump seem to get away with his brazen flirtation with Vladimir Putin. Maybe he’s like the nefarious D– in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.”

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Sly Marc Antony Resembles McConnell

By Robin Bates | Published: June 14, 2017

The Shakespeare-in-the-Park production of “Julius Caesar” has the Right up in arms about the image of Donald Trump being assassinated. The timeliest lesson of the play, however, is the way that Marc Antony slyly slides in to take power. Think of him as Mitch McConnell quietly preparing to repeal Obamacare and deprive millions of healthcare while the nation focuses on Senate hearings.

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Will No One Rid Me of This Russia Probe?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 9, 2017

When former FBI Director James Comey, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, quoted Henry II–“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest”–he brought to mind both T.S. Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral” and Shakespeare’s “Richard II.” He took the right lessons from history by not murdering the Russia investigation.

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GOP Plays the Sap for Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: May 15, 2017

The ties to Russia involving Donald Trump and his associates are like the many reasons that Sam Spade has for finding Brigid O’Shaughnessy guilty in “The Maltese Falcon”: “Maybe some of them are unimportant. I won’t argue about that. But look at the number of them.”

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Trump’s Latest Queen of Hearts Beheading

By Robin Bates | Published: May 11, 2017

Donald Trump is starting to resemble the Queen of Hearts with all the figures that he has fired, most recently FBI director James Comey. We must stand up to the Queen as Alice does.

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