Columnists

Twelve months ago, Donald Trump's presidential approval rating averaged 38 percent. Now, the 538 website suggests that Trump's approval rating has improved to 42 percent. (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/). Thus, after two chaotic years, a significant segment of the electorate continues to approve of Trump's White House performance. What accounts for this? -more-

Most people with severe mental illness can not handle the same levels of responsibility as most non-afflicted people. When expectations are too high, it can bring about various problems. -more-

President Trump recently picked Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokeswoman and former breaking news anchor at Fox & Friends, as the next ambassador to the United Nations. -more-

Xmas in Toyland: Baby Jesus Would Be Terrified

A holiday shopping visit to Games of Berkeley wasn't as jolly as I had anticipated.

On aisle after aisle, row after row, and shelf upon shelf, many of the shopping options had replaced Christmas cheer with tribal jeer. Scores of video- and board-games based on the Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Harry Potter were embellished with the kind of incendiary, war-like imagery that would give the Prince of Peace nightsweats.

Swords, hatchets, axes, knives, spears, flaming wands, clenched fists, demons, skulls, and angry, screaming faces peered from the tops of every box of playthings. This is the "spirit of the season" in today's America? Forget choirs of angels singing Hallelujah. In modern Trumplandia, our holiday entertainment is provided by marauding bands of bearded devils waving wands and weapons.

Among the titles: Zombiecide, Lobotomy, Sommoners Wars, Ashes, 5-Minute Dungeon, Tyrants of the Underdark, Dead of Winter, Eldritch Horror, Rise of Moloch, Imperial Assault, Pandemic Legacy, Mansions of Madness, Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, Scoundrels of Skullport and Lords of Waterdeep. -more-