Banana Republicans

One of the signs that even the most superficial trappings of democracy are being undermined is when the rules of operation are changed willy-nilly to suit the interests of the ruling party. I have seen this play out in Sri Lanka that when one party gains overwhelming control, they do not use it to just push for the policies they favor (which is what elections are about) but use it to rig the system in their favor to prevent any reversal of power.
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Ignore the squirrels released by Donald Trump

I remarked during the debates about how easy it was for Hillary Clinton to have Donald Trump chase after the squirrels she released to deflect from her own problems. But it seems like Trump has learned the value of squirrels and is now using them whenever he needs to distract the media from focusing on anything embarrassing. And now it is the media that is chasing after the squirrels released by Trump, usually in the form of absurd tweets.
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‘Manuel’ of Fawlty Towers has died

The actor Andrew Sachs who played such a memorable role as the long-suffering Spanish waiter Manuel at the hands of the irascible Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese) has died at the age of 86 after suffering from dementia for the last four years. As the foil for the more famous Cleese, he was a major factor in providing the humor in that series. He was by all accounts an extremely nice person who had a knack for farcical comedy.
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