Trump may seem entertaining, but his madness won't mean anything good for Vietnam. Perhaps the greatest joy of expatriation lies in the luxury of watching the political theater in your home country with all the dispassion of a daytime soap opera. You can simply roll your eyes at the stilted twists or turns, laugh at the bad acting or simply switch off the channel secure in the knowledge that no portion of your labor goes to the producers or their advertisers. It's all just free entertainment. At no point should this have felt more true than during the rise of Donald Trump—a man made by and for television. And yet he has proven as impossible to ignore as a worm hole opening up in your living room and slowly sucking everything you own into a parallel dimension. Growing up in Reagan's America, Donald Trump was a joke and not a very funny one. For a time, he occupied the brain of a cartoon cat during the last days of a popular Sunday comic strip. When I was 12, he made a … [Read more...] about When Trump stops offering free entertainment and starts being a threat to the Vietnamese way of life
Nixon goes to china
With Havana trip, Obama seeks to make history, lock in Cuba opening
People wait in line to enter the U.S. Embassy in Havana, March 9, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini Barack Obama's historic visit to Havana next week may be the closest he comes to a Nixon-goes-to-China moment, but he also has another more practical goal: to make his opening to Cuba irreversible for the next U.S. president. The Obama administration hopes that getting more U.S. companies invested in Cuba and loosening up travel to the island will make it almost impossible for traditionally pro-business Republicans to halt or even roll back the thaw in relations if they win the White House in November. Ahead of his March 20-22 trip to Havana, the stage is set for a further easing of trade restrictions and a string of business announcements from the hotel and telecommunications industries and possibly even Major League Baseball. "The administration wants to do as much as it can unilaterally before the clock runs out," said a person who has been briefed on Obama's … [Read more...] about With Havana trip, Obama seeks to make history, lock in Cuba opening