Literature+Opera+LeftPolitics+GoodFood+Travel 🏳️‍🌈

Chicago
Joined September 2008
Despite all, I am thankful to be a citizen of the United States of America 🇺🇸 And I am now thankful also to be certified as a citizen of Canada 🇨🇦
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1/ Last month I told a room of Baltic intelligence officers and diplomats that Donald Trump is an asset of Russian intelligence. Not one of them blinked. "Of course," they said. Ho hum. But in America, saying it out loud is still taboo. Why? 🧵
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On #worldoperaday2026 give yourself a treat and succumb to Handel’s astonishingly tender and impassioned mother-and-son duet from Giulio Cesare sung with quite extraordinary dramatic intent by @bethtaylormezzo & @SvetlinaSt. Live from @glyndebourne. youtu.be/yIC3iuSUYd4?is=Yeqi…
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Moon over Guam
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Fort Santiago in Manila - and historic photo of a US tank driving into it in WWII
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This new album from @CamilleThomasOF playing Philip Glass is beautiful and mesmerizing. music.apple.com/us/album/phi…
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San Agustin Church in Manila - practically the only building left standing in the destruction of Manila in WWII.
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Manila American Cemetery and Memorial - 17,000 graves and memorial to thousands more Americans and Filipinos who died in WWII. Designed by San Francisco Architect Gardner A. Dailey
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At the @united gate in Manila, there was a second security. They weren’t TSA, and they weren’t Philippine officials. No idea who they were. But they were obnoxious and submitted us to a level of security not required by TSA or the Philippines. 😖
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This is like the epigraph for the entire Trump 2.0 presidency: ‘’I don’t give a damn. We’re making a fortune’
TRUMP on HIGH GAS PRICES: We’re making money like we’ve never made before. They’ll say: President Trump is bragging about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. I don’t give a damn. We’re making a freaking fortune.
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Wexford Festival’s 75th anniversary sounds like a resounding artistic success. Mascagni’s Iris; Rossini’s L’equivoco stravagante; and Prokofiev’s The Gambler reviewed thoughtfully by @hugh_canning operalogue.substack.com/p/cu…
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I can’t imagine how you’d look at what Mamdani has accomplished in a short time and have this take.
Fran Lebowitz: “For me, Mamdani is a left-wing Trump. He’s in my face all the time, he’s incredibly arrogant. He doesn’t know what the job is. I don’t think he cares about antisemitism.”
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It’s really peak @VivekGRamaswamy. Not only does he become a cheerleader for child rape to save his dying campaign. He tracked down an 82 yr old homeless woman living in a car in a church parking lot with a bunch of cats to star in his child rape ad.
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View from the room, Peninsula Manila.
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“the student has no family and lives in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. After the agents released him, the student walked to school, crying and in pain. His teacher saw him and dialed 911” latimes.com/politics/story/2…
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The Peninsula Manila is decked out for Christmas 🙃
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I remember when media did a whole bunch of stories about Joe Biden’s shoes to emphasize that he was old. But Trump can randomly blurt out random noises, fall asleep constantly in meetings, and walk like a drunk failing a sobriety test, and we get almost nothing.
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Putin's diesel arrives in New York Nov 7 aboard the Agioi Fanendes: 40,000 tons, the first Russian fuel cargo since 2022. It's coming in on a Treasury license that sidesteps federal law. New York should refuse to be the loading dock for Putin's war chest. 🧵 1/5
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The whole 180°
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Ned Rorem est né un 23 octobre (je ne sais pas pourquoi sa date de naissance m'est restée en mémoire). Pensées. J'ai eu la tâche difficile de traduire son Journal parisien et de le connaître bien. Personnage irritant et attachant. Musique inégale mais avec des pépites.
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Another sunset
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