Retirement brings a chance

for a second (or third) act

Like many folks in their 60’s, I approached my retirement in

The Raconteur, retired at 67

the summer of 2019 with a mixture of glee and trepidation.
Freed from my classroom obligations, I was anticipating many wonderful days of leisure and relaxation. Simultaneously, I was concerned about how to include productive and fulfilling activities in at least some of those days.
Finding a second – or even third – act is often a challenge for many of us after our work life is over. For me, it was a matter of “graduating” from juniors (teaching students mostly under 25) to seniors (those over 60).
I spotted a teaching opportunity at the Pasadena Senior Center and barely a month after my last class at Pasadena City College, began my first semester as an instructor at the PSC.

The Covid-19 virus pandemic – a veritable Black Swan event –poses the greatest threat to the presidency of Donald Trump in his 38 months in office.
No matter how soothing the talk from Trump and his cronies, they cannot tweet away a devastating outbreak of lethal disease nor a rapidly swooning economy.
This is the first crisis of the Trump presidency not caused entirely by the president own calamitous misbehavior. With a bit of luck, it will be the last.

One need not look far for evidence that honesty is a fundamental value essential for the survival of modern societies.
Yet leaders around the globe – and especially in the US – have drowned their followers in an avalanche of falsehoods without paying any discernible price, monetary or political.
In doing so, they are posing an existential threat to the continued survival of our societies. For without truth, modern, interdependent countries surely will vanish much like the Roman Empire did some 1,600 years ago.
A society devoid of all trust in vital institutions is one on the road to oblivion. Let us hope it is not too late to right the ship of state.

TORRENT OF LIES SPEWING FROM PUBLIC OFFICIALS CARRIES NO CONSEQUENCES
Truth is so far the most serious casualty of the Trump era.
The torrent of lies coming from the White House and Congress seems to have no consequences for the liars.
If we, the voters, don’t know or care about the truth, what hope is there that we can make intelligent choices at the ballot box?
Alas, there is little, and what remains of hope is diminishing every day.

EXODUS BUILDS TO A STAMPEDE FROM TRUMP BRAND
Few global businesses would dare lose over a billion potential customers in a week.
The Trump family empire just did.
The list of famous firms distancing themselves from the Trump brand is growing daily, and could soon become a stampede.
Upending the lives of thousands of aspiring immigrants may not move the US president.
But the budding economic backlash is bound to get the attention of this egomaniac, who plastered his name on everything from steaks, to wine, buildings and even a fake “university.”
Perhaps the only good outcome for the US from its 45th president will be when the Trump brand disappears into oblivion.

DYSTOPIAN VIEWS OF NEW PRESIDENT REJECTED AROUND THE WORLD

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump was exposed as a blatant liar as millions of people around the world rejected his dystopian view of “carnage” in America.
It’s a truly encouraging sign that millions of women (and men) braved frigid winter weather to reject to the false world view of the most powerful man in thee world.
And it is equally portentous that the blatant lies he told on his first official day in office were so prominently labeled as such by the most respected news media we have.
Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope after all that we “the people” have finally found our voice.

UNVERIFIED RUSSIAN SEX TAPE, BLACKMAIL CLAIMS UNHINGE PRESIDENT-ELECT
The stunning publication of an almost amateurish “dossier” on Donald Trump’s Russian connections unhinged the president-elect at his first news conference.
Even if only a small portion of the dossier is true, the implications are enormous. The feds are investigating.
The charges have just enough “truthiness,” so that those who want to believe them will be able to. To Trump supporters, it’s the essence of “fake” news.
If the president-elect had dismissed them with a one-sentence brush-off, they might have been relegated to the dustbin of history. His howls of protest, however, have ensured it will get legs and be pursued for every once of its news value.

COULD TRUMP’S EMBRACE OF WIKILEAKS’ FOUNDER PRESAGE A PARDON?
The sudden bromance between Donald Trump and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has heads spinning across the political spectrum.
Assange has become the darling of the right since Wikileaks published emails and documents purloined from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Will he be forgiven all his previous sins now that many believe he played at least a minor role in swinging the election to Donald Trump?
Could a pardon be in the cards?

TRUMP WIN PORTENDS DAWN OF A NEW DARK AGE
A pall of darkness has settled over America as the reality of the recent election result sinks in.
From this vantage point it’s like a giant orange storm cloud has blotted out the sky from one horizon to the other, and no, President Obama, the sun will not rise as usual tomorrow.
More than 30 years ago, another Republican, Saint Ronald Reagan, rode to power on the promise that it was “morning in America.” Today, it is mourning in America as we grieve for the loss of hope in a better tomorrow.
Going forward we have much to fear and little to celebrate. This is why it is mourning in America.

SILENCE IN CONGRESS AFTER ORLANDO MASSACRE IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE
There is no reason whatsoever that the deranged misfit in Orlando or anyone like him could have legally purchased the killing machine he used so ruthlessly.
With its stranglehold on the majority in Congress, the National Rifle Association is the most dangerous organization in the country today. It doesn’t have to be this way.
There has been ample opportunity to make it more difficult for anyone who would slaughter innocent victims with weapons of mass carnage like the one used in Orlando.
Congress has been paralyzed by its fear of the gun lobby.
Silent.
It is a national disgrace.