Frederick Douglass said democracy demands “earnest struggle.” He was right then and is there any doubt that his observation is right now?

The latest issue of Foreign Affairs – The Age of Uncertainty – includes a number of interesting articles, including a sympathetic one on W.E.B. Dubois and his global outlook. The writer, Zachariah Mampilly persuasively argues that “the erasure of his views on foreign policy and the international order represents an enormous loss.”

Had leaders in the the U.S. and Western Europe heeded Dubois’ thinking, Mampilly writes, the world would look very different today. The present uncertainty and challenges facing humankind would be of a different order and far more manageable.

If Trump is a fascist, can the same thing be said about Putin?

Drinking very tasty bottle of wine from the Nathaniel Rose winery on Leelenau Peninsula in Michigan. The winery is without pretense to say the least, but the wine is superb. I have to thank Terry Albano who shared the cost of the bottle, but will not enjoy the taste of this Michigan wine. I live in the Bronx; she lives in Chicago.

I saw Hillary on Morning Joe today. I didn’t agree with everything she said, but when she is on point, there are few better at articulating, clearly and logically, a point of view on this or that issue.