The view from my condo overlooking the Saigon River includes much of Ho Chi Minh City’s glittery downtown, with its many newly built high rises and the famous Thu Thiem bridge. On a weekday it is crowded with cars and motorcycles. Today, however, that torrent of humanity has, but for a few straggling motorcycles and […]

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It’s too soon to know whether Trump’s slow-motion and deadly response to the coronavirus outbreak will contribute to his political undoing.  But even that enticing prospect offers little consolation, measured against the reality that this rudderless nation has been left flatfooted in the face of an advancing plague. Trump spent months minimizing the known threat. […]

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At a Three Kings Day Festival on January 5, in Kissimmee, Florida, the line for free toys snakes around the edge of a dais, along a pond, and down to the road, as some 100 families in the queue zigzag around mud patches and swampy soil. A local Spanish-language radio host entertains over a microphone, […]

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I want to address this note to Trump supporters and others who may be considering voting for him. You are the ones stereotyped by critics as being all alike in your hatreds, resentments, closed minds, prejudices, and fears. While you may hoot and holler at his mass rallies, people like you defy these stereotypes back […]

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As the presidential race heats up, two contentious and related issues concerning higher education have begun to take center stage—whether to make tuition free and what to do about Americans drowning in college debt. The Democrats running for president have struggled mightily with these issues. Before we get to solutions, let’s review the problems. The […]

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