Tag Archives: Trump Ukraine Scandal

Eyes Wide Shut to the Obvious

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2020

A Stanley Elkin short story describes what we are seeing in Trump’s Senate trial: Republicans refusing to acknowledge what they know actually happened.

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In the Face of Trump, Be Aeneas Strong

By Robin Bates | Published: December 17, 2019

Virgil’s “Aeneid” gives us images of a strong man standing up to enflamed passions. We need people to step up in the current impeachment debates.

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Godfather Trump: “Talk with Rudy”

By Robin Bates | Published: November 20, 2019

Trump didn’t have to explicitly use the word “bribe.” Others understood what he wanted and carried out his will. Puzo in “The Godfather” describes how this works.

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Think of Trump Enablers as Wormtongue

By Robin Bates | Published: November 19, 2019

GOP legislators slavishly parroting Trump (and Putin) talking points in the impeachment inquiry reminds me of Wormtongue and Saruman.

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Giuliani, a Kiplingesque Fortune Hunter

By Robin Bates | Published: November 7, 2019

Rudy Giuliani resembles the fortune hunters in Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King.”

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Trump’s Transcript & the Ministry of Truth

By Robin Bates | Published: November 5, 2019

Trump tells us to “read the transcript,” as if it exonerates him rather than condemns him. It’s a Big Brother move.

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And Thick and Fast, They Came at Last

By Robin Bates | Published: October 21, 2019

People are now rushing forth to reveal Trump secrets–like the oysters in “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”

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Why Trump Is Not a Tragic Hero

By Robin Bates | Published: October 1, 2019

Wednesday The strangest development in the Trump Ukraine scandal may be the way that Trump himself has given us the smoking gun—which is to say, the rough transcript of a phone call where he tries to shake down the Ukrainian president for dirt on the 2020 political opponent he most fears. Jon Meacham attributes Trump’s […]

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T. S. Eliot on Resisting Tyrants

By Robin Bates | Published: September 26, 2019

Columnist Gerson invokes “Murder in the Cathedral” to predict the impeachment of Donald Trump.

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