Irish Dominican haute couture 2020

Irish Dominicans 2020.

If this event were photographed in the time of Covid-19, why not social distancing?

One way or another the picture was taken in the 21st century.

From Psalm 118 in today's Morning Prayer:
It is better to take refuge in the Lord 
than to trust in men

On this day, May 17, Irish Dominicans Norbert Murray died in Sligo in 1975, Cornelius Williams in Fribourg in 1993 and Columba Leahy in Cork in 2002.

Trump, Azar and McEnany make a show of themselves

US President Donald Trump, stood on the White House lawn yesterday flanked by his Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar and his new press officer, Kayleigh McEnany.

All three spent the time engaging with the press by criticising their opponents, including former President Barack Obama.

All three were nasty, rude and mean, with Trump leading with the insults.

Both Azar and McEnany are talented, accomplished people. Mc Enany, is without doubt, a suave operator and the best press secretary Trump has had. But why does she have to insult people in the Trump mode? Yesterday she hurled insults at former president, Obama.

Alex Azar viciously attacked the latest Trump whistleblower Dr Dr Rick Bright.

Trump and his team are sounding more and more absurd. Unfortunately they are creating a 'new normal'.

All three, on the manicured lawn of the White House, with a presidential chopper nearby, behaved like street fighters.

What other world leader spends so much energy and time insulting people?

The piece below is from yesterday's Guardian and a great read. Irish journalist, Fintan O'Toole gets a mention.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/15/donald-trump-coronavirus-response-world-leaders?CMP=share_btn_link

The first McDonald's and the last Soviet troops

Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernadino, California on May 15, 1940

The brothers were born into poverty in Manchester New Hampshire. Their parents were of Irish immigrants, most likely Ulster-Scots.
               ___________________

On this day, May 15, 1988 the Soviet Union began to withdraw its 115,000-strong army from Afghanistan. They had been eight years in Afghanistan. 14,453 Soviet troops were killed in action in the country.

Afghanistan is the United States longest war. It began on October 7, 2001 and was codenamed Operation Enduring Freedom.

US combat operations officially ended in December 2013 but approximately 14,000 US troops remain in the country.

Pope Francis invites all believers to implore God's help

Pope Francis has called on all believers across the world to unite spiritually today, May 14, for a day of prayer and fasting and works of charity to implore God to help humanity overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

"Remember, on May 14, all believers together, believers of different traditions, to pray, fast and perform works of charity," he said.

Has there been a word from Irish bishops, Irish provincials about Pope Francis' request? Has any media outlet covered it?

The dangerous power of poverty

Hunger does not have reason and does not obey rules ... it turns into a fuel more dangerous than gasoline.

Archbishop of Ciudad Bolívar, Venezezula, Ulises Gutiérrez

CEO of Health and Safety Authority on Morning Ireland

The CEO of the Health and Safety Authority, Dr Sharon McGuinness was interviewed of RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland yesterday. The interview aired some time after 08.15.

Was it a moment in radio? Dr McGuinness spoke for some time but it all sounded like a long stream of jargon.

At the end of her interview did anyone know exactly what she said? And it seemed the interviewer just let Dr McGuinness talk on and on.

It must have been a classic example of how not to appear on radio.

‘Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater'

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

People say I have a short fuse. I don’t like to hear that. But obviously there must be some truth in it. I’m not impressed when people try to patronise me. There have been times when I know I have been sharp.

When people tell me that something or other can’t be done, I’m inclined to baulk and argue my case in strong terms. The day the Berlin Wall came down I clearly learned, that outside the laws of nature, anything is possible. So when someone tells me something is not possible I react.

Having said that, it is inspiring and heart-warming to observe people behaving in a gentle and cooperative manner.

Last week I was in a bank. Indeed, on one or two occasions in the past I have had ‘words’ with staff in that bank.

But on this visit everything was different. Being advised by staff to comply with social distancing I approached the counter and did my business. 

It had been my first time out in many weeks so I think I may have been a little nervous. Completing one form I initially wrote down the wrong numbers. The teller spotted it and kindly brought it to my attention. She was wearing a mask, which had a design on it and was fashionable. I commented to her about it, she smiled and we both had a laugh.

Finished my business, I thank her and she reciprocated. And then on leaving the bank I again thanked the person at the information desk, who gave me a great smile. While unlocking my bicycle I began to think about how friendly the entire experience was. I have thought about it many times over the last few days.

Why has it taken a worldwide pandemic for me, for many of us to realise how we all depend on one another? Only in the last few days a cousin pointed out to me how we all benefit from the talents, skills and goodness of other people.

Recently Pope Francis tweeted:  ‘During the current crisis, we need good, free journalism that serves all people, especially those who do not have a voice: journalism that is dedicated to the search for truth and which opens paths toward communion and peace.’ They are uplifting, positive words. 

And yet subsequently many people tweeted the nastiest of comments about it. What is it about people? We have the ability to reach to the heavens but we also have the wherewithal to descend to deepest pits of hell.

The thoughtfulness and kindness that I have experienced over the last number of weeks has been life-enhancing. My groceries are delivered on a weekly basis and all done with a smile. Every day we hear of heart-warming stories.  Last week I heard former RTE journalist Charlie Bird talking on radio about the camaraderie that has developed in his neighbourhood.

We have no idea what lies ahead of us. I’m nervous that this could lead to civil unrest and maybe war.

On the other hand maybe it will make us take stock, stand back a little and examine the way of the world pre-Covid-19.

Columnist Timothy Garton Ash argued in the English newspaper the ‘Guardian’ last week that a better world can emerge after Covid-19 or a much worse one.

Have we forgotten how fragile we are?

Wise words from 18/19th centre English writer and philosopher William Hazlitt: ‘Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.’

The Holy Spirit never leaves us alone

Pope Franics in his sermon at Mass this morning in Casa Santa Marta said that the Holy Spirit never leaves us alone.

Breda O'Brien's yes for O'Rourke, no for journalists

Breda O'Brien in her column in The Irish Times on Saturday writes in praise of Sean O'Rourke who retired from his programme and RTE on Friday.

O'Brien is high in her praise for O'Rourke.

She writes: "A lot of journalists have internalised the narrative that the church is either the enemy of all progress or a remnant of the past. Those who have not rarely out themselves."

Is that fair or true?

Elsewhere she writes about an interview O'Rourke did with Archbishop Eamon Martin: "Archbishop Martin, who is a serene and competent communicator, made his case well."

Is that accurate and true?

It would be interesting to get an insight into Breda O'Brien's understanding or definition of church?

And are journalists such a homogenous group as Breda O'Brien paints them out to be?

Garda Mounted Unit in Dartry Park

Gardaí pose for a picture with
children  in Dartry Park yesterday.

The Garda Mounted Unit was on duty yesterday in Dartry and Orwell Parks and along the river Dodder.

 They were ensuring that people were keeping social distancing. A discipline not observed by a number of Irish priests on Friday.

The Garda Mounted Unit was established in 1998. The Dublin Horse Police, which was part of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, was disbanded in 1913 due to a lack of suitable horses for the British military.

The Garda unit acquired its first horses from the North Yorkshire Police when its horse unit was disbanded in 1998.

The Garda Mounted Unit is made up or 15 horses and the Irish Draught Horse is the preferred breed.

Fiachra is the name of the horse on the right of the picture.

Priests putting the lives of many people at risk

From time to time we get glimpses into the mindset of individuals and organisations.

It's always interesting to see how people give themselves away, especially the arrogant and self-righteous and the self-appointed too.

In recent days a number of priests have been observed breaking the travel regulations during the Covid-19 restrictions.

Men full of their own importance. Men accustomed to flouting the law. Men who try to kill the spirit under the pretence of Canon Law.

Is it not one's civil duty to report these priests to the Garda? These priests are putting the lives of so many people at risk?

"Everything they do is is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels." (St Matthew 23:5)

The behaviour of these priests is shameful and they should be reported to the Garda.

That's not going to happen. It never has.

And it's the arrogance that is the common thread.

Sex has as much meaning as words

This is an interesting read on 'Normal People', which is currently running on RTE and BBC.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/06/politics-of-sex-in-normal-people-bbc-sally-rooney?CMP=share_btn_link

Fr Dick Lyng in praise of Brian Reynolds

This was posted as a comment on the blog. Some readers may not read the comments, or might miss them, so here it is again.

Isn't it perfect, reverent, funny and says so much. A lovely honesty and openness about it. Real too.

It's posted by Augustinian priest Dick Lyng.

                            _________

I knew Brian well from our shared time in Galway. He was PP in the Claddagh when I occupied that role in St Augustine’s. 

All you have written about him is true. He was the ‘people-person’ par excellence. He had great powers of recall and he matched names to faces with great ease. I guess he visited every house in the Claddagh parish while stationed there. And he could be found at the funeral of any person even remotely connected with the Claddagh. 

His powerful memory always amazed me. But he could make the odd ‘slip of the mind’ or tongue. I vividly recall one such slip. 

I was concelebrating at a funeral Mass Brian was celebrating for a parishioner of the Claddagh. When it came to the Memorial part of Eucharistic Prayer III, I was somewhat taken aback by the subject of Brian’s prayer: “Remember Dick Lyng; in baptism he died with Christ; may he also share his resurrection when Christ will raise our mortal bodies and make them like his own in glory.” 

Then, pointing to the missal, he invited me to complete the prayer. I was glad to be in a position to do so!

By the time we returned to the sacristy, someone had obviously pointed out his error to him. He apologised profusely to me. We often laughed about it late and, I suspect, we both dine out on it a few times. (At least I did). 

You are right. Brian was a lovely man with a passionate interest in people. 

I am so sorry to hear he has died. May he rest in peace.

Dick Lyng, OSA

The signing at Karlshorst seventy-five years ago today

Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov
Born 1896 in Strelkova, died 1974 in Moscow.

Seventy-five years ago today in Berlin-Karlshorst Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the German Instrument of Surrender. It was countersigned by Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov on behalf of the Soviet Union.

The previous day in Reims in France, General Alfred Jodl signed the surrender document.

Work War II was over. Approximately 80 million lives were lost.

The anniversary is celebrated annually in The Russian Federation on May 9. The Soviet Union considered the Karlshorst signing the definitive  one. While it was signed in Germany on May 8, it was the next day in Moscow.

Karlshorst is worth a visit. It is on the train line between Schönefled Airport and Berlin City Centre. Though Schönefeld is shortly to be replaced by the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, it is close to Schönefeld.

Before the Wall came down the Soviets maintained the museum at Karlshorst and there were always soldiers of the Red Army on ceremonial duty at the entrance.

The room in which the signing took place has been preserved, down to the last detail. The seats at the table are in the exact position they were in at 21.20 on April 8, 1945. 

Zhukov became the first commander of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany.

On June 10, 1945, Zhukov returned to Moscow to prepare for the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945. 

On June 24, 1945, Stalin appointed him commander-in-chief of the victory parade. After the ceremony, on the night of 24 June, Zhukov went to Berlin to resume his command.

Zhukov requested the Soviet government to transport urgently to Berlin 96,000 tons of grain, 60,000 tons of potatoes, 50,000 cattle, and thousands of tons of other foodstuffs, such as sugar and animal fat. 

He issued strict orders that the Red Army was to "hate Nazism but respect the German people," and to make all possible efforts to restore and maintain a stable living-standard for the German population.

Brian Reynolds OP - an obituary (1938 - 2020)

Fr Brian Reynolds OP

Dominican priest Brian Reynolds died in Suncroft Lodge, The Curragh, Co. Kildare yesterday, May 6.

Brian was born in Salthill, Co. Galway on December 5, 1938. He joined the Irish Dominicans in September 1960 and was ordained a priest in 1966. Before joining the Dominicans Brian was studying accountancy.

Though born in Co. Galway, he spent his early years living in other parts of the country, due to his father's work as a Civil Servant in the Pensions' Office.  

Brian's mother was a teacher. She returned to teaching on the death of her husband, who died while Brian was in Australia. 

Brian always considered Galway his home. He attended St Mary's School in Galway before moving to Dublin, where he was a student at St Vincent's CBS on the north side of the city.

He was a great lover of books. On one occasion on a day visit to the Dominican Priory in Limerick he spent the entire day visiting bookshops in the city.

Visiting the famous Charlie Byrne's bookshop in Galway on one occasion he spotted Jacques Paul Migne's collection of the Church Fathers. He bought the entire set, made up of 30 volumes, for the princely sum of £1 per volume.

Brian was  related to the owners of the publishing company Clonmore and Reynolds.

Above all else, Brian was a pastor. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of those in the parishes where he worked. He also went out of his way to get to know those who attended Dominican churches. 

One of his Dominican confreres commented how Brian made contact with relatives of his fellow Dominicans.

"My own mother appreciated visits from Brian when he was pp in St Saviour's in Dublin. He also visited my sister and her husband when he was in Galway and through his visits they became close friends," he said.

He took great interest in people and their families. 

Brian had an uncanny ability of tracing people's genealogy. If he knew a married couple, then he was sure to know their parents, their cousins, their children and their children too. He was networking long before the word was common parlance.

He made it his business to visit all the homes in the parishes where he worked. It was his key pastoral strategy.

At a superficial glance one might describe Brian as an old-style Irish priest.

He went that proverbial extra mile to visit the sick and those in hospital.

When his fellow community member, Ross McCauley was seriously ill some years ago, Brian was most attentive to him. He visited him most days in the nearby nursing home, where he was a resident. And I know that first hand from my own visiting Ross. 

After priestly ordination Brian did post graduate studies in the University of St Thomas in Rome before moving to Australia where he taught theology to the Dominican students in Canberra.  He was later engaged in pastoral work in Melbourne.

Brian took great delight in talking about the 12 years he spent in Australia. Whatever was the conversation, Brian always managed to direct the subject to matters about Australia.

A fellow Dominican on hearing of his death commented: "Brian drank in the culture of Melbourne. He knew every house and every person in the parish."

He was prior and parish priest at the Dominican Priory in The Claddagh, Galway. He held both those positions in Limerick and was also parish priest at St Saviour's Dublin.

At the time of his death he was assigned to the Dominican Priory in Newbridge, where he had been a curate for a number of years in the parish.

He was also a member of the board of governors of the school and served as a member  of the board of the Galway Marriage Tribunal. While in Galway he was appointed to the diocesan marriage tribunal.

For many years he suffered a hearing impediment and because of that there were occasions when he gave the impression he was not interested in the conversation at hand. It often led to embarrassing moments. He made up for his deafness by talking, it was his way to coverup his hearing difficulty.

Brian closely adhered to theological orthodoxy but  he came to cherish the importance of the virtue of prudence. And this led him to have a great empathy for people, especially the weak, the fragile and those laid low with illness.

Brian Reynolds was a kind and gentle person, who gave his all to other people.

May he rest in peace.

His funeral Mass is on Friday, May 8 at 11.00 in the Dominican Priory church in Newbridge, Co Kildare.  It will be live streamed. Web address is,
http://dominicansnewbridge.ie/live-streaming/

[If there is any information in this obituary that is inaccurate, please contact the blog. Thank you.]

Brian Reynolds OP, RIP

Dominican priest, Brian Reynolds died this morning.

May he rest in peace.

Obituary to follow.

Aerial view of German rubble in 1945

Last evening Germany's ZDF TV station showed a harrowing film of what Germany looked like from the skies in the days immediately after German capitulation on May 7/8, 1945.

The programme relied heavily on film which was taken by the US Air Force in May and April 1945. 

The American project was called 'The Trolley Mission'.

Düren in North Rhine Westfalia was the worst bombed city in Germany. It was so badly destroyed that some believed that a new city should be built some kilometres distant from the ruins.

The programme showed aerial views of Berlin, Frankfurt-am-Main, Cologne. 

In Cologne all that was left standing and with little or no damage to it was the cathedral. The nearby railway station and marshalling yards were obliterated.

Approximately 600,000 civilians, including 76,000 children, lost their lives as a result of allied bombing over Germany in World War II.

The film showed lines of women with buckets removing rubble from the destroyed buildings.

Food and water was at a premium. And the Germans survived and rebuilt.

The film is among a number of programmes being shown in these days to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of Word War II.

Interesting watching the aftermath of such horror and destruction in the world of Covid-19.

How at all do we come to making decisions?

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

For many years I taught German, English and Religious Knowledge at secondary school. 

Sometimes I envied my fellow teachers who taught maths, insofar as their subject was clearly defined and not a matter of opinion.

More or less the same holds for teaching German grammar. I’d explain a point of grammar in class.

It  was not an opinion but a fact. While it might be difficult to explain, it made no sense for a student to say they had a different opinion. 

But when it comes to English there could well be discussion over issues in literature. What does T S Eliot mean when he writes in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: ‘I grow old…. I grow old/ I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled./Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?’

I remember a student in Sixth Year saying to me that his mother completely disagreed with my take on Eliot’s poem. It turned into a good discussion and it was an enjoyable class. 

Literature involves discussion, as does religion and trying to talk about God. But what does the teacher in the Religious Education class say to the student who says: ‘I don’t believe in any of that’. 

Why do people vote for a political party? Of course policy and ideas play a role but it’s never the full story. My views on political parties have changed as a result of people I have got to know who are members of various parties.

Two weeks ago I wrote a piece in a daily newspaper about the Eucharist. I was trying to make the point that the Eucharist is about communion and solidarity. I questioned the value of webcam Masses. In the following days people expressed their views on the piece. Some disagreed, others agreed.

There has been a furore over Donald Trump and his White House ramblings that disinfectant might be the answer to Covid-19. Some days later the Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan in an interview on Fox&Friends praised President Trump. He went on to say: ‘I really salute his leadership.’ 

He also said he admired the leadership of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. ‘Everybody has really come through, but the president has seemed particularly sensitive to the, what shall I say, to the feelings of the religious community.’

It could be a hunch on my part, it might have something to do with their policies but I’m no fan of either Dolan or Trump. 

So when I see the archbishop praising a president, who says and behaves in a demeaning way, all it does is strengthen my dislike for the cardinal archbishop.

Is it that both Trump and Dolan are savvy politicians, who know the way the wind is blowing?

On April 25 on a conference call on Catholic education, which included Cardinal Dolan and two other US cardinals, Trump said: ‘I am the best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church.’

I’m wondering did any of the three cardinals respond to such a statement and if not why not?

Supporters of Trump and Dolan will naturally be delighted with the exchange between the two men and indeed, use it to strengthen their support for Trump and Dolan.

I’m back thinking of Eliot’s poem: ‘Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?/In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.’

There are no simple answers.

Strange world indeed.

A newness in the familiar and stale

Yesterday was a blue-sky day across Ireland. It's difficult to dampen down beauty, no matter what the circumstances

The butterfly enjoying the sun and obviously delighted about no longer cocooning.

And that tiny patch of blue sky spotted through a ceiling window.

Those lines from Kavanagh's Advent:

"And the newness that was in every stale thing

When we looked at it as children...."

Award winning poet and academic Evan Boland dies

Evan Boland, poet and academic, died on April 27.

Mary Robinson quoted from Evan Boland's poem The Singers in her inaugural presidential address in December 1990.

Evan Boland made women's experiences central to her poems

The Singers

The women who were singers in the West

lived on an unforgiving coast.

I want to ask was there ever one

moment when all of it relented--

when rain and ocean and their own

sense of home were revealed to them

as one and the same?

                                    After which

every day was still shaped by weather,

but every night their mouths filled with

Atlantic storms and clouded-over stars

and exhausted birds?

                                    And only when the danger

was plain in the music could you know

their true measure of rejoicing in

finding a voice where they found a vision.

The difference between the mafia and postmodernists

What's the difference between the mafia and a postmodernist?

The mafia makes you and offer you can't refuse; a postmodernist make you an offer you can't understand.

Twenty-two years ago, May 2, 1998 The European Central Bank was established in Brussels.

Seventy-five years ago, May 2, 1945 the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin.

Bishop of Portsmouth Philip Egan in the news

It is reported in The Tablet of April 25 that the Bishop of  Portsmouth Philip Egan asked: "Are we reversing the hierarchy of values, putting physical health above spiritual."

He was referring to the closure of churches because of Covid-19.

Is that not a strange question?

The man seems to have an unhealthy understanding of what spiritual means.

What happens so many priests? Why do so many priests speak the strangest of words?

Gemma O’Doherty’s road manners

If this is genuine or authentic it certainly throws some light on Ms Gemma O’Doherty and her behaviour.

Her arrogance and incivility are mind-blowing.

Both gardaí behaved in a commendable manner.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=919884291769414&id=518620081515968?sfnsn=wa&d=w&vh=e

The day the Red Flag flies atop the Reichstag

On this day, April 30, 1945 soldiers of the Red Army climbed the Reichstag and raised the Soviet flag atop the building.

From that famous day, February 2, 1943, the day the German Army had surrendered at Stalingrad, the Red Army marched relentlessly towards Berlin.

They met up with the US Army at Torgau, an agreement was made that it would be the Soviet Army that would would take Berlin.

The German invasion of Russia and the Soviet counter-offensive resulted in over 23 million Soviet military and civilian deaths. Berlin was theirs by right of suffering and not just conquest.

On the day the Soviet flag flew in Berlin, some short distance away, Hitler with his wife Eva Braun took their lives by suicide.

The following day Josef Goebbels with his wife took their lives before Magda killed all their six children. She could not imagine life under any system other than National Socialism.

Goebbels was born near Düsseldorf, educated at a Gymnasium and sat his Abitur in 1917.

He was the top student of his class and was given the traditional honour to speak at the awards ceremony.

His parents initially hoped that he would become a Catholic priest, and Goebbels seriously considered it.

Goebbels studied literature and history at the universities of Bonn, Würzburg, Freiburg and Munich. He was financially supported by a scholarship he was awarded by the Albertus Magnus Society. That's a Dominican link between Hitler's propaganda minister and the Dominican Order.

Feast of Dominican Saint Catherine of Siena

Today is the feast of St Catherine of Siena. Catherine was born  in the Italian town on March 25, 1347 and died on April 29, 1380.

Catherine was a Dominican and one of four women to be a Doctor of the Church.

Pope Pius II canonised her on June 29, 1461. He too was from Siena.

Pope Paul VI named Catherine a Doctor of the Church in 1970.

Wise words from St Catherine: “Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.” 

The other women Doctors of the Church are Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux and Hildegard of Bingen

Trump's charisma is powerful and scary

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

When I heard of a cocooner who stays up until 3am and rises at midday, I quipped, maybe they are his regular hours.

For most of us, our daily routine has dramatically changed. In the time of Covid-19 I’m going to bed sometime after midnight and rising after 9am. Pre-Covid-19 I rose at 6.15am and was in bed for 10.15pm.

I find myself watching the White House press briefing, which is usually aired after 11pm Irish time.

I’m familiar with the main players, Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, then there are Jerome Adams, Robert Redfield, Alex Azar and Steven Mnuchin.

The central figure is the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump.

My adventure has moved from entertainment to horror. I have heard Donald Trump say extraordinary things. I’ve heard him behave in the sleaziest of fashions. I’ve heard him being rude. 

Experts have been talking about flattening the curve. They have been using mathematical modelling. On one evening when either Dr Fauci or Dr Birx was talking about mathematically modelling, some moments later Donald Trump said he knew nothing about those sort of models but he did know other models. Imagine the crassness, the sleaze of that, as he was speaking to a nation that had been laid low by this deadly virus. 

Remember, this is the President of the United States of America.

He has some refrains or responses that he seems to use most evenings.

One of his favourite ones is to tell the assembled journalists that when he became president the shelves were empty and that they had no ammunition. On one occasion he said that they now had so much ammunition ‘they did not know what to do with it’.

If a journalist asks the president a question he does not like, he will turn on the journalist, and jeeringly ask him, who his employer is.

He will then launch into a frenzy about fake news and that journalists are ‘a disgrace’. I have heard him tell a journalist that he did not have the sense to know what was going on. He told a CNN journalist that his network was fake news and that, he the journalist, did not have the brains he was born with.

He is particularly nasty and rude to women journalists. He patronisingly told a CBS journalist ‘to relax and keep your voice down’. When her colleague, Paula Reid asked him what he had done during February to stem the pandemic, he shouted back, that he had done loads and then resorted to insulting her and calling her fake.

He becomes energised when he is insulting people and calling them derogatory names. At one briefing he said: ‘If Sleepy Joe becomes president you would no longer own the country.’ He then went on to list off the countries, including Japan, Iran, North Korea, who would be in charge in Washington.

It’s likely he will be reelected in November. Last week, on a far-right radio station, a caller was unbelievably comparing Trump to Churchill.

However outlandish he is, he has an extraordinary ability to give credence to the daftest of ideas. He can tempt you to think that there might be something in what he is saying. He is able to sow questioning seeds inside one’s head.

Remember, he was the author of the birther movement that questioned the citizenship of President Obama.

A friend colleague of mine, who met him, assures me that he has something charismatic about him.

Obviously the man has something.