Trump the billionaire   I have been observing Trump since 2016. He is a despot in a business suit. He is undermining the government and the health of Americans and the natural world. He says he’s a billionaire and proud of it. And to prove how far he stands from the wishes and aspiration of Americans, he filled his cabinet mostly with billionaires.    It’s as if, with Trump competing for the presidency, the country went into a frenzy: turning down Hillary Clinton, the first woman seeking the country’s highest office, and electing Trump the billionaire.    Naturally, Trump lived up to his money reputation and opened the national treasury to fellow oligarchs. Americans naively thought nothing of it. Economists rushed to excuse tax cuts and subsidies to the super rich and polluting petroleum and chemical corporations. Their gospel says that is necessary for a more “efficient” economy and government.    Trump’s government, however, has nothing to do with e...

Why European leaders are afraid of Turkey   NATO officials  hesitate to criticize Turkey, much less contemplate policies teaching this Moslem country it cannot threatened the security of Europe and the Middle East. They like to believe, and keep saying to each other, that Turkey is “too big, powerful and strategically important — it is the crossroads of Europe and Asia.”   This may be true, but it is meaningless. Turkey is a large country. But strong? No one knows. But even if it’s strong, Turkey is not stronger than Britain or France or Italy, much less Russia. Turkey has this reputation only because European states worry more about each other than Turkey.    The NATO bureaucratic view of Turkey mirrors the distorted and tortured logic that has guided Europeans for centuries. Rather than healing their religious and political differences and face the Islamic and political threat of Turkey, Europeans have always taken the easy way out and allied themselves with t...

Temple of Athena Aphaia, Aigina. Drawing by E. Dodwell in Classical and Topographical Tour Through Greece, 1819. The second-century historian Pausanias says that Aiakos, son of Zeus, founded this temple in Aigina. It is one of the oldest temples built in ancient Hellas.  The Greek Revolution   In a few months, Greeks will celebrate the 200-year anniversary of their 1821 Revolution against the Turks. The decision to revolt and win their independence drew inspiration from the classical Greek past. Greece was full of ancient ruins: marble columns, wrecked temples, theaters, and athletic stadia. These stones and marble never ceased to speak, telling their stories.    In addition, there were Greek scholars like Adamantios Koraes, 1748-1833, who spent his life publishing the classics of Greek civilization and urging the enlightened Europeans to help the Greeks liberate themselves from the abominable Turkish tyranny.    What assured the success of the Greek Revolu...

The School of Athens by Raphael, 1510. At the center of the painting, Plato and Aristotle are talking to each other while walking. They are surrounded by other Greek thinkers. Public Domain. Black Death   Giovanni Boccaccio was thirty-five when he wrote  The Decameron  (Ten Days), a masterpiece of stories about the 1347-1348 plague of Black Death. He spoke with passion about Florence that suffered so much from the tsunami-like force of the pestilence.   Boccaccio was well aware of the ills of his time, the obsolete religious dogmas, sterility in thought, gross inequality among the owners of land and wealth and the have-nots, misogyny, and intolerance of reason by the clerical culture dominating Italy and Europe. He was unhappy with that narrow and oppressive vision of life. He wanted to revive ancient Greek and Roman culture with its many gods and freedom of thought and speech. In other words, Boccaccio was a scholar who dreamed of the Renaissance.    He wa...