Senior White House aide tried Wednesday to separate the Statue of Liberty from Emma Lazarus’s poem. He wasn’t entirely wrong but he was more wrong than right.
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Tag Archives: Donald Trump
The Synergy between Statue and Poem
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "New Colossus", alt-right, anti-immigration policy, Emma Lazarus, immigration policy, Statue of Liberty, Stephen Miller Comments closed
Trump as Miss Havisham
Frank Bruni compares Donald Trump to Miss Havisham, forever fixated on November 8 before the rose lost its bloom. The GOP would do well to break free as Pip does.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, GOP, Great Expectations, Hillary Clinton, politics Comments closed
Trump as Alpha Dog Wannabe
A recent “National Review” article says that Donald Trump is like those young men who watch “Glengarry Glen Ross” and fantasize about being the alpha dogs portrayed there.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged alpha dogs, David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross, machismo Comments closed
Flattering Trump Is Like Wallowing in S***
Donald Trump is surrounding himself with flatterers. Dante has a graphic account of where such people end up in Inferno.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anthony Scaramucci, Dante, Divine Comedy, flattery, Inferno Comments closed
Ferreting Out Trump’s Purloined Letter
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.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Mueller, Russia investigation Comments closed
Trump’s Unseen Playmate Jim
Trump apparently has an imaginary friend Jim who no longer likes Paris. Robert Louis Stevenson has a great poem about an imaginary friend.
Dear Trump: America Contains Multitudes
To celebrate July 4, do not listen to Donald Trump, who preaches paranoia and exclusion. Read Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” His America contains multitudes.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Song of Myself", Diversity, Immigration, July 4, Walt Whitman Comments closed
Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist
In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred Lord Tennyson, anti-war literature, Catch 22, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homer, Iliad, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace Comments closed
Only Wimps Complain about Shakespeare
Preeminent Shakespearean Stephen Greenblatt calls out people for whining about the Shakespeare-in-the-Park production of “Julius Caesar.” After all, Queen Elizabeth I once had a Shakespeare play used against her in an attempted overthrow and just shrugged it off.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Julius Caesar, Richard II, Shakespeare in the Park, William Shakespeare Comments closed