Trump's Davos speech

I watched a portion of it this morning.  What an embarrassment.  I wish there was some way to apologize to the rest of the world.  He cannot believe the stuff he says.  Can he?  Is he that delusional?  It makes one long for Buchanan.  Or Harding.  Not great presidents, but normal people.  Sane people.  

The damage that man has done to this country and the rest of the world may be patched up a bit, but in many respects it is too late.  Our former allies can never trust us again.  They realize that this guy was elected once, and then a majority of the voters, knowing what he was, elected him again.  

We did this to ourselves, and we will never be great again.  I will not be celebrating our 250th anniversary.  I don’t have anything to celebrate.

Christian nationalist is an oxymoron

As an atheist, I’m always hesitant to criticize Christians.  Who am I to set them straight when they don’t follow the teachings of Jesus?  Nonetheless, I have read the Gospels.  I know about the Sermon on the Mount.  I get that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, he was making fun of the powerful rulers on their powerful steeds.  

And I also know that his skin was brown.  If he were in Minneapolis today, ICE would pick him up in a flash.

Pope Leo, originally from Chicago, has it right when he defends immigrants and Ukraine and foreign aid.  And I respect the three Roman Catholic leaders–Cardinal Tobin of Newark, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, and Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago who noted yesterday that this country’s “moral role in confronting evil around the world” is now slipping away.

I’d probably say that in the past we often gave “moral role” more lip service than having an actual moral policy, but at least we did that.  Now we no longer bother.  We have become the evil we once opposed.

College football

I didn’t watch the so-called college championship game tonight.  Two nights ago I wrote about American universities losing ground to Chinese universities, with only one American university in the top ten for scientific research and scholarly papers.  That one American university was Harvard.  

I wonder where Indiana and Miami are ranked.  

More awards for Trump

I have friends in Santa Cruz who have two adult sons.  They are boxing up all of the athletic trophies their boys received along with any other awards and recognitions and are mailing them to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with a note that says “Thanks, your majesty.”

I think this is a wonderful idea.  Your kids won’t care.  And, as you know, it will make Trump so happy.  

Bad News for U.S. Universities–and the U.S.

According to a ranking by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, Chinese colleges take eight out of the top ten spots in the number of scientific and research papers published.  This is a globally-respected ranking.  

In the decade of the 2000s American universities in the top ten included Harvard, the U. of Michigan, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, the U. of Washington, Penn, and Stanford.  While these universities are churning out more studies than in the past, Chinese universities have surged ahead.

Now the top two are Zhejiang U. and Shanghai Jiao Tong U.  Then comes Harvard.  Then six more Chinese universities, with the University of Toronto coming in at number 10.

What has happened?  One word:  Trump.  Fewer foreign students; fewer distinguished foreign professors, financial cutbacks, grant cutbacks, and constant criticism and  political interference.  MADA.

Some info for this post was taken from Mark Arsenault, “If Harvard Is Slipping, It’s Because China Is Soaring,” New York Times, (Jan. 17, 2026), p. A11.

In reference to the post yesterday: The two movies from 1942 that I showed students in my Political Films class were Casablanca and Sullivan’s Travels.  Everybody knows Casablanca.  In Sullivan’s Travels, the character Sullivan wants the studio to make movies with a social conscience.  He thinks it is what America needs.  He goes out to a hobo camp with no money and no I.D. and, through a series of bad adventures, is arrested for murder.  His claims of being a movie star are laughed at, and he is sentenced to a chain gang.  The prisoners are both black and white, and they aid each other under terrible and brutal conditions.  One night a warden allows them a movie, and it is a Disney cartoon.  The prisoners love it and laugh at it, and Sullivan realizes that Americans go to the movies for a good time, not a lecture.  The irony of the film is that the movie also exposes racial prejudice, the poverty of the hobo village, and the cruelty of the prison system.  What a wonderful movie.  (Spoiler alert:  Sullivan does get back to Hollywood at the end.)

Take a break from all this

Trump is using the authoritarian dictator playbook, going after minorities and using the court system to try and discredit opponents.  Perhaps that’s why he had Maduro brought here from Venezuela–he needed some pointers.

But I thought you and I both needed a break from all this, so I decided to give you the New York Times list of the top ten movies of the year I was born.  Most of them I’ve never seen, but I was born near the end of 1942, so I have an excuse.  Two of them I showed in my political films class.  See if you can guess which two.  Here’s the list:

In Which We Serve

Journey for Margaret

Casablanca

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Wake Island

Mrs. Miniver

Yankee Doodle Dandy

The Gold Rush

Woman of the Year

Sullivan’s Travels

Advice for Secretary Hegseth

Everything I’ve ever read about military strategy concludes that it is best not to fight a two-front war.  You split your forces to your disadvantage.  In World War II the U.S. did fight a two-front war, but we didn’t have much choice, and the decision was made early to concentrate on the European front.  First Germany, than Japan.

Now I worry that the U.S. is about to embark on a two-front war, and it is one which we have not sufficiently thought through.  By dividing our forces between Minneapolis and Greenland, we might easily be headed for a big disaster.  Even worse, there have been rumblings about attacking Iran for shooting demonstrators, although I am not sure who in the current Administration would even think that’s a problem.

Finally there is the issue of Venezuela.  And didn’t we recently bomb Nigeria?  Who is in charge here?  I hope, dear Secretary, that you aren’t drinking again.