Monthly Archives: July 2019

He Said, She Said in the Trump Era

By Robin Bates | Published: July 10, 2019

Thursday Today’s poem is a good response to our president’s non-stop lying, gaslighting, and “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” For that matter, it’s a sharp riposte to centuries of mansplaining. Sometimes we need a witty poetic rejoinder like Wendy Cope’s “Differences of Opinion” to retain a hold on reality. […]

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Epstein, Trump and “Lolita”

By Robin Bates | Published: July 9, 2019

Wednesday Jeffrey Epstein, whose money and high connections have up until now kept him out of jail for pedophilia, looks as though he may finally answer for his crimes.  One sordid detail is that the plane used to shuttle underage girls between New York and Palm Beach was nicknamed “the Lolita Express,” so there’s a […]

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The Lily Feels No Thirst, No Dread

By Robin Bates | Published: July 8, 2019

 Tuesday I write today about a personal problem. Our lake has been increasingly invaded by watershield and our neighborhood association isn’t sure what to do about it. It took out our water intake system so that we had to switch over to city water, and it makes swimming and boating difficult. If left to its […]

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Rapinoe Rises to the Occasion

By Robin Bates | Published: July 7, 2019

Monday For many Americans, the women’s World Cup victory was a refreshing break from our Trumpian nightmare. The win itself is wonderful enough, but in the context of our misogynist president it takes on special meaning. For instance, the back-to-back titles can in part be chalked up to Title IX, the anti-gender discrimination law that […]

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The Christian Right’s Faustian Bargain

By Robin Bates | Published: July 6, 2019

Spiritual Sunday Like many liberal Christians, I am baffled by Donald Trump’s popularity amongst rightwing evangelicals. How can anyone square the president’s behavior and his policies with Jesus’s teachings? A recent Atlantic article provides a compelling explanation: feeling embattled, the Christian right has traded core Christian principles for power. In a post written a year […]

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I Will Write Your Name, Liberté

By Robin Bates | Published: July 4, 2019

Friday With July 4th fireworks still ringing in my ears, I share Paul Eluard’s poem “Liberté,” which was written during World War II. Copies were dropped by the British Air Force into parts of Nazi-occupied Europe with the design of rallying the resistance. Early on during his rise to power, Hitler ordered books to be […]

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What Makes a Nation Strong?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2019

Thursday – 4th of July Despite a D.C. celebration featuring tanks and planes, presided over by a preening president with special seats reserved for rich Republican donors, we know in our hearts that none of these define America. For that, I turn to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who understood our country as well as anyone ever […]

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Trump’s Satanic Plans for July 4

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2019

Wednesday As Donald Trump will be doing his best tomorrow to transform our nation’s celebration of its founding ideas into a celebration of himself, I turn to another figure who is just as narcissistic. I’ve written in the past how both Satan and Trump are driven above all by spite. Today I focus on how […]

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