It may be the hottest trend today – the so-called strongman as leader. The United States, Russia, Turkey, Syria, the Philippines and North Korea are all led by men who achieved power by being tough on terrorists and other criminals; by vowing to take back or keep their countries for their countrymen, particularly when it comes to jobs; and, most important, by playing on the fear, ignorance and selfishness of their constituents. ...
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Three years ago, I took my novel “Water Music” – the first in my series “The Games Men Play” – to the New York Rainbow Book Fair and had a blast.
The ninth annual Fair – held on Saturday at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice – proved no less exhilarating. (Pic at right, by Gina Gouveia.) ...
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With so many accomplishments in the first 100 days of Donald J. Trump’s presidency – the immigration ban, the defunding of sanctuary cities, repeal and replace, infrastructure improvement, education reform, jobs for miners and other disaffected workers and the building of the Mexican wall, oh, wait, that stuff didn’t happen – it’s no wonder that Russkiegate was put on the back burner. When you’re sending Syria a calling card in the form of 59 Tomahawk missiles and aircraft carriers in the direction of South Korea – eventually – it’s easy to see how the Russian hacking scandal and possible ties to the Trump administration might seem like ancient history. ...
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Stock markets are up as the world breathes a sigh of relief at the thought that Emmanuel Macron may be the next president of France.
On May 7, he and his En Marche! Party face off against Marine Le Pen and her National Front Party, having been the two top vote-getters in the first round. Basically, he’s the President Barack Obama of this story ...
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Easter eggs are not all that have been breaking lately. Hearts have been broken, too, as the bromance of the century ends.
Donald J. Trumpet and Vladdie “Rootin’ Tootin’” Putin called it quits after a relationship that lasted less time than that of Aaron Rodgers and Olivia Munn but certainly longer than Britney Spears’ first marriage.
“There is a low level of trust between our countries,” Secretary of State “Sexy Rexy” Tillerson, the John Forsythe of our 1980s nighttime soap opera, noted somberly after meeting with the Russians. ...
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Often in life you do something without realizing until later what it meant. When I wrote “The Penalty for Holding” (May 10, Less Than Three Press) – the second novel in my series “The Games Men Play” – I had several goals in mind. Sexy male-male romance? Check. A story that continued the series’ themes of power, dominance and rivalry? Check. A novel about leadership, the workplace and how violence in the workplace spills into everyday life? Check, check and check.
What I hadn’t counted on – what I hadn’t foreseen – was the return of isolationism that ushered in Brexit and Trump and that provides the context for the novel’s theme of belonging. And belonging is one of the great themes of our time. Who are we and where do we belong? For the answer to the first will determine the second. Or at least it should. ...
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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has apologized for saying that Adolf Hitler didn’t gas his own people and, presumably, for adding that Hitler did bring them into the “Holocaust centers” – you know, the death camps with those nifty gift shops.
Spicer, of course, was awkwardly trying to set up one of the standard ploys of his boss, President Donald J. Trump, which is to throw someone under the bus by comparing that person to someone else who represents abject evil. Apparently, Trumpet has decided that Vladdie Rootin’ Tootin’ Putin’s sell-by date has arrived and thus needs to blame Russia for backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been roundly condemned for using chemical weapons on his people. ...
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