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World Collides

As Papa Francisco touches down on U.S. soil for the first time, he’ll almost cross paths with China’s Xi Jinping at the White House and on the Upper East Side. Pope Francis via Cuba. Chairman Xi flying in from Seattle. Old cultures colliding with high tech century. Russia helping us fight ISIS with Syria’s Assad and Iran. Strange alliances. Maybe for the better. New World Order.

Meanwhile, is El Trumpo tapping General Petraeus for his foreign policy team? And as Joe Nocera concludes in today’s New York Times, don’t we all wish Mike Bloomberg had run? I still do. June 4 SideTrek.

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Seasonal Slant

As someone who thinks they watch too much TV. Can’t believe how few shows I’ve seen from Emmy nominees. House of Cards. MadMen. Homeland. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. That’s pretty much it. Hope Jon Hamm’s year. Ray Donovan best of the bunch.

Hillary does well when she conversationally talks issues. Not when she laughs. Ben Carson is fine with a Christian theocracy.

Forty Niners’ new thug uniforms. Look more like Raiders. Sun low as a cool wind blows right on cue. Autumn rolls in. Can it be true?

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Trump-a-Thon

CNN Repub. Debate. Okay. Nobody took my advice to steal the discussion. Boring. Long. 3 hours of Trumping around. Jeb! woke up a little, but his RBF is a mirror of his mother’s. Yes. Carly has neutralized H-Rod’s woman factor. She is smart and good. But, again. The RBF needs work. A little too sour. Pataki in the first debate was strong in his defense of the rule of law v. theocratic leaning arguments for the marriage license lady. Rubio a sweaty nervous mess. Ben Carson sleeps while he speaks. And. Trump. All screen. All the time. In the end. Kasich-Fiorina a great ticket.

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New American Divide

Peggy Noonan‘s piece in the Wall Street Journal analyzes the new voting “base”. From her New York neighborhood to the Trump-nomenon. Elites vs. non-elites with no particular party loyalty. Confounding pundits and reporters alike.

And then there’s the arcane paradigm pitting men against women. It’s beyond insulting to think that women vote in a mindless monolithic block. Hillary’s history-making inevitability. Really? Wondering why H-Rod and bff aide Huma Abedin stayed married to bimbo-eruptor Bill and sleaze dog Weiner. How does that recommend them to repudiate acts against. Wait for it. Women. Or girls.

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Game Changers

Are the tables turning? Defining moment. Apolitical sibling yearned to see Trumpo at New Hampshire town hall. Ready to make the trek. Wow. The Donald expects to fill a stadium in Alabama tonight. What will he say about North Korea’s war taunt? Kim Jong. Bing. Bing. Bong. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. Probably. While everyone else scowls and gripes. H-Rod to go toe to toe with Joe?

Tiger shot a 64. Could there be more? Caitlyn Jenner changed so she could go to a women’s prison for manslaughter? Just asking. Bon weekend.

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Desperately Seeking Somebody

Democrats are scrambling to find somebody to rise from the bench if/when Hillary implodes. Bernie energizes the moonbat far left base. Biden never stimulates votes. God love him. Gore rumor quashed before it became one. Kerry lame afterthought. Warren done. Anemic choices.

Repubs not so great, either. Jeb’s foreign policy speech at Reagan Library written by Dick Cheney, Kristol, Wolfowitz. NeoCons Term3. Trump, Carson, Fiorina anti-magnetic forces with short shelf life. Kasich not igniting sparks.

Tiger out. Spieth and McIlroy even. PGA a bust of late. Somebody. Fire us up!

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Gear Switches

DSC_0034_2Steampunk is a subgenre of fiction, in a Victorian setting, using components of steam powered machinery to bend time and place. Until I read the reviews of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, I’d never heard of it. Despite a lack of context of the literary genre, I loved this novel. Clockworks attract my fascination. Mori, a former Japanese Samurai turned watchmaker in Knightsbridge, London came to life. His relationship with Thaniel, a boring clerk, was real and endearing. His world of future telling and incendiary events captivates. An Oxford physicist shakes the fantastical octopus. Well done debut by Natasha Pulley. Great read.

Teflon Don. Wrong again. Can we really have a petulant adolescent as President? Entertain on.

Photo by G. Levine: RiverCulture Sculpture. Turners Falls, Massachusetts.

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Bye Felicia!

Oh Donald. What have you done? What are we to do now? Listen to the rest of the boring pack for another year. You gave us so much entertainment. And now it is done. Yes, you don’t reserve your boorish comments for just women. You are an equal opportunity insult machine. Prisoners of war as cowards and such. But, there are some places you cannot go. And you went there. Megyn got to you.

At least H-Rod is immune from that particular attack. Shark. Jumped.

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All About DeBates

Not the treble. Undercard fight. Hardly a debate. Empty Q&A. I’d have been drunk after two minutes of just Bobby Jindal. Good thing I ate dinner instead. Fiorina was the only standout. Precise punches. Articulate policy ideas. Great job. As one who knows the rigors of climbing the corporate ladder as a woman in those days first hand, I admire her. Rising from secretary to the corner office, I get it. But, Carly comes off as a little sour if you ask me. Too bad. VP?

On to the main event. Again, not a debate. But, it did have its brawl moments. Scott Walker and Rand Paul have the icky factor. Bad hair. See. I’m not sexist. Trump stumbled. Kasich solid. Rubio better than usual. Jeb meh. Christie nah.

Provocative questions. No one won. Trump falling. Okay. I’m done.

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Epistolary Epoch

Let’s face it. Modern communication replaces relationships with remote if well chosen words. Texting. E-Mailing. Most of us now live an epistolary life. Rarely face-to-face encounters. Letters of the days of old. But quicker. Frequency. Check. Intimacy. Blank. That said. Written immediacy of connection counter balances distance. Most of the time. Better than Emoticons and Instagram. Words still matter.

Jonathan Galassi’s Muse. Ludic novel in the spirit of St. Aubyn’s Lost for Words. Satire. Pastiche. Love for words. Great read.