work-around: a plan or method to circumvent a problem. After watching Senator Al Franken’s resignation speech yesterday, my cynical self reminded me that too many men in powerful positions appear genetically incapable of taking full, unconditional responsibility for their actions. As this is likely the last speech he’ll make on the Senate floor, Franken sounds both serious and deliberate. He...

It takes a lot to get Nuclear Peace Activist David Krieger worked up. That’s why I was surprised by his recent essay, Decoding Donald, where Krieger – founder and president of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – writes forcefully about the unequivocal threat posed by Donald Trump. “You really pulled no punches in your critique and ultimate solution for dealing...

One week from tomorrow, December 12, Alabama voters go to the polls to vote for a replacement for Senator Jeff Sessions who was appointed U.S. attorney general. According to a CBS News poll, Republican Roy Moore is leading Democrat Doug Jones by 6 percentage points — 49 percent to Jones’s 43 among likely voters.  In the same poll, 71 percent...

“If Jesus Christ [got] down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him,  ‘Hold on a second. I need to check with the President if it’s true.’ ” – Trump voter, CNN New Day, November 20 This is how low truth and trust have plummeted in the eyes of some voters. Writing about the...

In an age of gilded toilets and mink-covered walls, even I was surprised by this story. On the front page of the Business section of The New York Times (Nov. 4), journalist James B. Stewart writes about a story originally reported by The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 18), about how former G.E. CEO Jeff Immelt traveled around the world in...

The E.T. is looking at the few, the ignorant, and the humbly-challenged of Trump’s “best people” from his administration. Mick Mulvaney – currently head of the Office of Management and Budget, will temporarily do double-duty as interim director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the departure of Richard Cordray who served as the bureau’s first director. Remember the banking excesses...

That’s how CBS This Morning host Gayle King described her reaction to the news that co-host, and PBS correspondent Charlie Rose is the latest to be called out and admit to sexual misconduct charges leveled at him. Sitting alone at their morning table, and looking into the camera with sober faces, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King discussed their reactions to...

What should be done about men who do not directly and blatantly sell the favors of their offices for money and so place themselves within the penalties of the law? How do we deal with those who, under the guise of friendship, accept favors which offend the spirit of the law but do not violate its letter? – Senator J....

Each year I attend the Annual Evening for Peace sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. This year’s recipient, Dr. Ira Helfand and the International Physicians for The Prevention of Nuclear War was unfamiliar to me. Dr. Helfand is co-president of IPPNW and past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. IPPNW was founded in 1980 by U.S. and Soviet physicians...

On November 10, His Holiness Pope Francis addressed a Vatican symposium on nuclear disarmament. Francis told his audience that nuclear weapons exist “in the service of a mentality of fear that affects not only the parties in conflict but the entire human race.” Speaking to representatives from Russia, the United States and other countries, Francis made clear that “international relations...