The Gangster Who Couldn’t Flip Straight

I know a lot of people prefer stuff like Venmo and such, but personally, I like cash, and I usually keep a couple of thousand in my wallet to spend at businesses and establishments where I’d rather not let them have my credit card numbers. It’s great for tipping, too – if you’re a good… Continue reading The Gangster Who Couldn’t Flip Straight

Paris Bugged by Latest Expatriate Community

Well, as discussed in my previous post, Kevin McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the US House of Representatives. As I told him: you stop being the MAGA doormat, and that’s the fastest way to do yourself out of the gig. As regular readers will recall, the other way was to continue being the MAGA… Continue reading Paris Bugged by Latest Expatriate Community

McCarthy Sweats the Parliamentarian’s Dilemma

At the Potomac’s first rapids, that ephemeral border between the tidewater and the piedmont, summer has begun to fade, as do the spots on the fawns in the back yard, while their mothers’ beige fall coats replace the bright red ones they have sported since the spring. Rains drench the Virginia woods in Great Falls,… Continue reading McCarthy Sweats the Parliamentarian’s Dilemma

The Donald Went Down to Georgia

After work last Thursday evening, I arrived at my home in Great Falls, Virginia around eight, poured myself three fingers of Glenmorangie 21 on some Icelandic glacier shards and settled down on the couch to relax listening to a rare direct-to-disk recording of Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony… Continue reading The Donald Went Down to Georgia

Early Republican Primals Begin

As the debt ceiling crisis evolved into a debt ceiling deal, I’ve been busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger. Prior to the deal, my office was packed with clients representing special interests from all over the economic and political spectrums, each wanting advice for strategies on how to gore somebody else’s ox. And, of course,… Continue reading Early Republican Primals Begin