Giotto’s “Washing of the Feet” (1303, fresco), from his “Cycle of the Life of the Christ.” Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. *Photograph by José Luiz. In the* *public domain in the United States.*

In Holy Week, a day of reckoning for Trump

April 7, 2023

In the end, it was, as one observer said, like Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — only without the talent. On one side of the police barricades in a small Manhattan park were the Trumpers; on the other side, the anti-Trumpers. In the middle was a whole lot of booing, shouting, whispering and whistling, the last courtesy of the Trump whistle guy.

Interlude with the vampire -- the Trump indictment

March 30, 2023

I’ve just returned from one of the worst meals of my life. A bit of background: I meet virtually every week with two couples — one liberal, one conservative, with me as the swing vote — for dinner at a local restaurant. Indeed, we used to all eat at separate tables until a waitress put us together — an arrangement that has proved mostly harmonious. Mostly.

Tonight things got a bit acrimonious as the conversation turned to former President-turned-writer-and-editor Donald J. Trump. I was accused of hitting the subject hard by the conservative bloc. But I think that’s because I insisted on delivering a message that they and other conservatives and Republicans don’t want to hear: You’re screwed.

Bad hombres, tippy-toes edition

March 20, 2023

Well, we’re all walking on eggshells aren’t we, waiting for the Gucci pump to drop. No sooner was Russian President Vladimir Putin indicted as a war criminal in the International Court of Justice for forcibly bringing Ukrainian children to Russia — an utter disgrace — than new BFF, Chinese President Xi Jinping, showed up in Moscow offering his support and a joke of a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine that would keep Russian troops in place.

Meanwhile, erstwhile Putin BFF, former American President Donald J. Trump, is facing an indictment of his own in New York over his alleged coverup of hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, a misdemeanor that could be bumped up to a felony if it is tied to campaign finance. For Trump — a man for whom there is no such thing as bad publicity — this plays into the martyr aspect of a paradoxical personality in which everything he is and has is the best but yet, poor, poor, poor, poor him.