Columnists

Life is temporary. A thousand years from now, excavators might dig up our remains, study them, and possibly put them in a museum. Once we are gone, that might be "it"--and our consciousness is gone. Even if you believe in an afterlife or in reincarnation, there must be a life expectancy for the soul. Souls will not last forever either. Someone who studied ghosts estimated their life expectancy to be about 700 years. -more-

The murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, spotlights the moral depravity of Donald Trump. Khashoggi was an outspoken journalist -- an exemplary member of a profession Trump deplores. Khasoggi opposed the Saudi rulers -- friends of Trump. Given this background, it's no surprise that Trump is avoiding meaningful response to Khashoggi's assassination.

In 2017, Jamal Khashoggi, perhaps the most famous journalist in the Arab world, left Saudi Arabia after being banned from publishing or appearing on television because he had criticized the Saudi rulers and Donald Trump. Khashoggi relocated to the United States and began writing for the Washington Post. On October 2nd, Khashoggi entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, and has not been seen since. There are numerous reports that he was killed by a 15-person assassination team dispatched by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

To understand how this killing became a major Trump scandal, we must follow three threads. The first is the relationship between Jamal Khashoggi and his country. In 1958. Khashoggi was born into an affluent Saudi family. He went to Saudi schools and then came to the U.S., receiving his college degree at Indiana State University in 1982. Khashoggi returned to Saudi Arabia and became a journalist; during the next twenty years he traveled extensively, interviewing many Middle East luminaries including Osama bin Laden (https://www.businessinsider.com/missing-saudi-journalist-jamal-khashoggi-ties-to-osama-bin-laden-islamists-2018-10 ). -more-

Are the Democrats too smug about the midterms, relying too much on favorable polls? Some Democrats are acting like they have already won control of the House. Personally, I don’t trust polls so much these days since the 2016 presidential election where too many showed Hillary Clinton winning comfortably. Democrats shouldn’t rely on them either. -more-