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Politics

Dark Donald, Bright Diane

: Jamie Stiehm on

A man and woman, each 79, are in the news this week: President Donald Trump and movie star Diane Keaton. Could they be more different?

They are the dark and light sides of the baby boomers, who did so much to shape the contours of our culture and history.

Let's start with Trump. For the first time ever, on Oct. 13, Trump boosted the sum of human happiness -- with a ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza.

But fellow Americans, the president left behind our own government in shambles. The irony of it all.

The contradiction sticks in your craw as the giant wheels of a great nation are shut down. Health care costs are about to spiral, just as Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses lock in. These two things are related.

Now Trump must cease his war at home.

Democratic leaders in Congress are getting the word out in the minority. Good for them, confronting a lawless Trump. He defines his job as doing "whatever I want."

Democrats should have started standing on this ground this summer, telling their states they would resist huge health care premiums, period. Some voters could lose coverage. The Greek chorus finally found its voice.

Dug in, Trump threatens to lay off even more thousands of federal workers, since his first purge of skilled experts on day one.

Farmers, veterans, medical researchers, national parks, weather and emergency services, universities, national museums and libraries suffer at his hands. Foreign aid was crossed off his list first.

To be fair, we have to hand Trump this moment of diplomatic victory, as 28 Israeli hostages finally come home to their families in scenes of joy and tears. The ceasefire deal Trump struck also set free 2,000 Palestinians.

Shalom, Shalom, pray for peace in the Middle East. I've visited Jerusalem and Ramallah, and it's amazing how close they are, moments away.

The utter wreckage of Gaza will one day be cleared (one can hope), while the tragic human cost on both sides will never be fully counted.

Landing on Air Force One, Trump took full advantage of center stage with dozens of world leaders, taking roll one by one.

He also addressed the Israeli Knesset and basked in the glow of bending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his will. Former President Joe Biden never got tough enough with "Bibi," it's true.

The Israeli leader was driven by revenge for the intelligence failure that led to the deadly Hamas attack on an Israeli kibbutz music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

Actress Diane Keaton was so fully alive and sparkling, it's hard to imagine her light gone this October.

 

Trump always has to be the heavy in the room; Keaton seemed to levitate in an enchanting spell -- or dance in her garden.

Onscreen and in life, she showed a free spirit that could never be tamed, from her first Broadway part in "Hair" in the 1968 counterculture.

In the late 1970s, "Annie Hall" gave her a signature role and an Oscar.

Woody Allen's script captured the zeitgeist of the women's movement, which opened up new ways to become one's dreams.

Much has been written about Keaton's "menswear" and bowler hat.

This was more than just style; it was an expression of her original mind's eye. It went back to her girlhood, when she and her mother designed patterns.

Keaton was a sunny California girl who went east to New York to study acting. As another California girl who went east for my education, I see how beautifully she blended those worlds.

Her favorite movie role was as a playwright, opposite sly Jack Nicholson, in "Something's Gotta Give."

Their characters doubted a love affair with someone their own age, nearing 60, but somehow it happened.

In a wry, wise memoir, "Then Again," Keaton reveals a little, but not too much, about her boyfriends.

Al Pacino, her husband on set in "The Godfather," finally said in therapy that he'd never marry her.

Warren Beatty once flew with her, holding her hand, to New York, then returned to Los Angeles.

Keaton writes in touching dialogue with her mother, limited by her times from liberties her daughter (almost) took for granted.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

 

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