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Author: By Paul Woodward

A rubber-stamp president?

A rubber-stamp president?

If Donald Trump won’t be able to trumpet that the largest crowd in human history assembled to celebrate his resurrection, perhaps today’s Capitol Rotunda gathering marks the greatest assembly of billionaires Washington has ever seen. On Friday, January 20, 2017, Trump signed his first executive orders in the Oval Office shortly after his inaugural parade ended. Note that he needed his chief of staff to point out where on the order his signature was required:   Trump loves spectacles. But…

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Joe Biden starts reading Rashid Khalidi ‘four years too late’

Joe Biden starts reading Rashid Khalidi ‘four years too late’

After Joe Biden stepped out of Nantucket Bookworks on Friday, he and his son Hunter looked like they’d just been caught shoplifting: Maybe it was because Biden was clutching a copy of Rashid Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years War on Palestine. During his Thanksgiving visit to Nantucket, Biden said: I’m thankful for a peaceful transition of the presidency. And I’m thankful for the fact that, I think, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors and a…

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Hurricane Helene aftermath: Untold stories from the mountains

Hurricane Helene aftermath: Untold stories from the mountains

Since Hurricane Helene hammered Western North Carolina, media coverage of the aftermath has focused on the impact felt in Asheville. Having lived there from 2002 until 2020, I know the area very well. The stories from Asheville, Swannanoa, Black Mountain, and all the small towns dotted around Buncombe and the surrounding counties are heartbreaking. But beyond the towns, there are so many communities that are even smaller — places that might catch some momentary media attention because of an heroic…

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Don’t be fooled by Biden’s latest humanitarian initiative for Gaza

Don’t be fooled by Biden’s latest humanitarian initiative for Gaza

In his State of the Union speech, President Biden presented a plan to deliver aid by sea to the starving population in Gaza as a demonstration of American leadership: Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. No U.S. boots will be on the ground. This temporary pier would enable a massive increase…

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Email subscriptions

Email subscriptions

The first email subscription service I used for this site was through Feedburner. They was acquired and then abandoned by Google, so I switched to Mailchimp. Before long, they changed their terms of service and so I switched to MailerLite. Same thing. It’s taken me a while to sign up with yet another service, but now it’s up and running — this time I’m using follow.it Over the next few days I may need to make adjustments to the configuration…

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For the silent majority, it’s time to come out of hiding

For the silent majority, it’s time to come out of hiding

How can the silent majority find its voice? The phrase, silent majority, often conjures up an image of moderation and sanity — a population hemmed in from either side by the strident voices of extremists. The problem with this characterization is that it reinforces the self-imposed impotence of those who survey the political landscape while believing that as individuals, they have no capacity to be instruments of change. But the silent majority hasn’t been silenced. It is silent by choice….

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Photographing the unseen

Photographing the unseen

Some time ago, I added an Instagram widget to the sidebar here, adding some visual content to the minimalist design of this site. Anyone who’s interested to learn more about my photography and why I include it here, can do so by reading this.

Message to email subscribers – updated – again

Message to email subscribers – updated – again

July 4: Sorry for the recent interruption in email updates. They will resume on July 12. Meanwhile, I’m still updating the site as usual. June 10: Since starting War in Context and then Attention to the Unseen, everyone who signed up to receive email updates has received these via Feedburner (which was acquired by Google in 2007). Since its acquisition, Feedburner has suffered death by a thousand cuts — the latest of which is that they are about to end…

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On coups and cowards

On coups and cowards

By Paul Woodward, June 1, 2021 As often as Trump and his QAnon acolytes might bleat about “cancel culture,” they must also delight in the fact that even after getting kicked off the leading social media platforms, the mainstream media still provides them with a megaphone. It makes little difference how many times the words “lies” and “false” get inserted into the reporting, the message still gets telegraphed both in terms of its seditious content and just as importantly as…

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Updates while relocating

Updates while relocating

We just sold our house and now I’m about to hit the road in my 22-year-old truck, as I head hundreds of miles west with two cats and a dog to join my wife in our new location — new house yet to be found. During this period of instability, I can’t predict if or how often I’ll be updating this site, but once we get situated, it will back to normal (whatever that means).

Even if Biden wins, he will govern in Trump’s America

Even if Biden wins, he will govern in Trump’s America

Time reports: The car horns blared as Joe Biden took the stage just before 1 a.m.—not to proclaim victory, but to urge his supporters not to lose hope, no matter what President Donald Trump might say. “We believe we are on track to win this election,” the former Vice President told the crowd in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 4. “It ain’t over until every vote is counted. Keep the faith, guys.” As the new day dawned and dragged on, it…

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As humanity isolates, wild animals start coming out of exile

As humanity isolates, wild animals start coming out of exile

  The coronavirus pandemic has rightly been compared to wartime. At the same time, it is reminiscent of the First World War armistice as gunfire gave way to birdsong, and offers glimpses of what might happen if we were to end our war against this planet and impose our presence here less harshly, by allowing wild habitats to grow, by reducing how much we foul up the air, land, water, and oceans, and by simply learning how to become a…

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Bernie Sanders outranks other Democrats – and Trump – on values and empathy

Bernie Sanders outranks other Democrats – and Trump – on values and empathy

USA Today reports: Is Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders likable enough to win the White House? A new USA TODAY/Ipsos poll released Friday suggests a lot of voters think so. Asked for their views on the personal characteristics of several Democratic presidential contenders and of President Donald Trump, voters consistently gave Sanders the highest marks for his values and empathy. Trump and his allies have long said they believe the president could easily defeat Sanders if he faces off against…

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How Bernie Sanders can become the next president

How Bernie Sanders can become the next president

Michael Warren writes: It might sound strange, but Bernie Sanders right now has a lot in common with Donald Trump from 2016. Like Trump, after coming in a close second in Iowa and winning New Hampshire, Sanders is now his party’s front-runner for the presidential nomination. Like Trump, Sanders carries big momentum into a third contest in Nevada that already sets up well for him. His rallies are packed. His coffers are stuffed with cash. And yet, like Trump, there…

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