Columnists

An “autocrat” is someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person.

President Donald Trump is fond of autocrats, including Turkish President Recep Tuyyip Erdagon, Muhammad bin Salman; Hungarian President Viktor Orban; North Korean leader Kim Jong Un; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Egypt’s Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and Brazil’s President Jair Balsonaro. Now Trump is an autocrat himself.

How did this happen? Well he rose to this exalted status mainly by two enablers, Attorney General William Barr and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Also, he made the Republican Party his party and he has a loyal following by validating their prejudices.

Trump recently claimed that he, not Barr, is “the chief law enforcement officer” of America. Barr, of course, is Trump’s kind of Attorney General because he believes that the Executive Branch is first among the three branches of government. With Barr’s acquiescence, Trump has politically weaponized the Justice Department. Now the Justice Department represents Trump’s interests, not the country’s. -more-

b Antipsychotics have a substantial limiting effect on the brain's level of energy. Antipsychotics produce an impairment, introduced to compensate for psychosis, which is worse by far than having a limit on the level of functioning. You can not do very much when you take antipsychotics. They prevent functioning at a competitive level in most employment. They make it difficult to survive in demanding circumstances. Antipsychotics introduce an abnormality, intended to treat a worse abnormality. -more-

From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Burundi?

I recently printed out a map of the planet and set about highlighting all the countries on Earth that are currently "hosting" US forces. The source data includes foreign deployments ranging from less than 20 soldiers to more than 2,000 troops. (There currently are 225,000 US soldiers stationed in other people's countries, with 12,000 of them stuck in Afghanistan.)

But counting the number of "Pentagonized" countries turned out to be too large a chore. Instead, I opted to seek out only those nations that did NOT have US forces embedded on their soil. That job went much faster: It turned out there were only 11.

Here is a list of the less-than-a-dozen nations where no one is saluting a US flag: Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Eritrea, French Guiana, Gambia, Iran, Lesotho, North Korea, South Sudan, and Western Sahara.

This list may soon become even shorter given US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's February 1 visit to Belarus. Pompeo has offered the traditionally Russia-aligned nation a bounty of American-sourced energy—as Pompeo put it: "100% of the oil you need at competitive prices.”

Find the Dinosaur

A juvenile brontosaurus was recently spotted in the bushes near a corner home in West Berkeley. If you'd like to track it down, here are some clues as to its location:

(1) "Yes, ___, There is a Santa Claus."

(2) "Ode to Joy" is found in Beethoven's _____ Symphony.

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