When Donnie met Kimmie, or good son/bad son

June 14, 2018

I won’t pretend to know what will come of President Donald J. Trumpet’s meeting with “L’il Kim” Jong-un. Even the Repubsare in “we’ll see” mode.On the one hand, this is an extraordinary moment, and you can’t help but root for it. But can we “sleep tonight,” as Donnie Two Scoops tweeted? This is not the first time that we’ve been to the North Korea-turns-over-a-new-leaf rodeo. North Korea still has nukes capable of reaching the United States. Nothing has changed, yet. “We’ll see,” the Donald likes to say famously. We certainly will, won’t we?

The psychological dynamics remain the most fascinating aspect of recent diplomatic exchanges. ...

Why are women so hard on one another?

June 2, 2018

In my guise as editor in chief of WAG magazine, I had a pleasure of sharing a moment with Ashley Judd on the red carpet of the Greenwich International Film Festival (GIFF) in Connecticut Friday night. She is an exquisite-looking woman who is, more important, exquisite in her manners and manner. I began by thanking her for her work as one of the leaders of #MeToo and asked her if she thought that this time, the response to the sexual harassment women have suffered would really be different.

It already is, she said, and the result will be an improvement not only in the lives of women but of men as well. …

Taking it on the (double) chin re: North Korea

May 28, 2018

Do you think it was the premature commemorative coin, in which “L’il Kim” Jong-un is portrayed with two chins and President Donald J. Trumpet with only one? (Which is laughable. Melania could do a step workout on her husband’s triple chins.)

The much-“Trump”eted summit between the two narcissists – which Donnie Two Scoops suddenly called off after Kim essentially pulled out – may be on again for June 12 in Singapore. Or not. We don’t know. Because that’s the way Trumpet rolls.

He sent Kim a letter that set new standards for passive aggression in what can only be described as a cross between a threatening lawsuit and an insecure society hostess’ thank you note…

The demander in chief, uh, demands

May 23, 2018

Royal wedding afterglow did not last too long for America. No sooner was the ring on the finger of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, than President Donald J. Trumpet was demanding a special prosecutor investigate alleged FBI spying on his campaign. To which Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein – who often has to play the role of soothing Donnie whisperer – said he would refer the matter to the Inspector General – which is what you do when you want to placate people whom you think have no real ax to grind.

Not that Donnie is going to let go of this one. One of the surest ways to divert attention from an ongoing investigation into alleged wrongdoings on your part is to put up a smokescreen announcing that someone else needs to be investigated. …

Negotiating with the stars

May 16, 2018

One of the more endearing but also infuriating things about Americans is their belief that anyone can do anything if he just works hard enough, fast enough. This is the “Dancing With the Stars” philosophy of life that says you, too, can be a ballroom dancer if you have three weeks of intense training and, possibly, Maksim Chmerkovsky as a partner.

This would be amusing if it weren’t sometimes so deadly. Now we have a president who lacks the talent, temperament, training and technique for the job and it shows in the country pulling unilaterally out of the Iran nuclear deal, moving its embassy to Jerusalem with violent consequences and now facing a North Korean pullout from the planned summit due to American-South Korean military maneuvers. …

Picking global winners and losers

May 15, 2018

For someone who’s an isolationist and protectionist, President Donald J. Trump sure has an odd way of showing it. He appointed son-in-law Jared Kushner to lead the White House’s Mideast peace team only to sabotage any chance of achieving that goal by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, thereby acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and enraging the Palestinians.

While Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump were celebrating the dedication of the American embassy there yesterday on the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel – along with preacher John Hagee, who once said that all Jews were going to Hell – the Palestinians in turn clashed with Israeli soldiers 40 miles away in Gaza where more than 50 were killed and more than 1,000 injured. …

The art of the ‘no deal’

May 10, 2018

So, President Donald J. Trumpet has gone and done what he said he would do, what many feared he would do, and backed out of the Iran nuclear agreement. There were sunset clauses, Iran could still produce ballistic missiles that could reach Israel, blah, blah, blah. Then, too, President Barack Obama was an architect of the deal and we all know of the obsessive psychodrama that is Trumpet’s hatred of Obama. So, the Iran nuclear agreement was nuked the moment The Donald became president.

But if it were so terrible, why not go to our allies – alias Emmanuel Macron, who’s left to pick up the pieces – and work with them to strengthen the deal, revamp it or put a new one in place?…