On Oct. 30, 2001 — six weeks after 9/11 — President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch of Game Three of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Yankee Stadium. Somehow we can’t imagine President Donald J. … — On Oct. 30, 2001 — six weeks after 9/11 — President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch of Game Three of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Yankee Stadium. Somehow we can’t imagine President Donald J. Trump doing this. Photograph by Eric Draper/White House.

Don't take him out to the ballgame -- Trump and criticism

October 30, 2019

When I was a child, I would avoid watching or hearing and reading about my beloved New York Yankees. Part of it was superstition. If I ignored them, they would win. But mostly this was about my avoiding the pain of their losing. If I didn’t know it happened, it was as if it didn’t happen and they would remain perfect in my mind.

The 18th hole of the “Blue Monster” course at the Trump National Doral Miami plays into the lifestyle that Trump have nots would like to attain and the Trump haves .and have mores seek to retain.

Trump's Heartbreak Hotel and the new 'N' word

October 20, 2019

As you no doubt have heard by now, next year’s G -7 summit will not be held at the Trump National Doral Miami.

In a disastrous press conference, Mick Mulvaney, acting chief of staff — emphasis on acting — defiantly made the announcement that the project had been put out to bid and, surprise, surprise, the Trump Doral, late of a bedbugs loss suit, was deemed the best choice. Oh, and there was a quid pro quo on Ukraine support and investigating the Bidens, but it wasn’t wrong because elections have consequences and, anyway, “deal with it.”

PYD militiaman manning a checkpoint in Afrin, Syria, during the 2012 Syrian Kurdistan rebellion. Photograph by Scott Bobb/Voice of America — PYD militiaman manning a checkpoint in **Afrin,** Syria, during the 2012 Syrian Kurdistan rebellion. Photograph by Scott Bobb/Voice of America

Trump and our road to Damascus

October 10, 2019

when you think you’re free to blog about something fun like the new tennis pavilion Melania Trump is building at the White House for her, Novak Djokovic-like husband — not— or the new movie “The King,” starring Timothée Chalumet as a real leader, Henry V , President Donald J. Trump does something else stupid on the road to IM, impeachment meltdown. If it’s not Rick Perry being thrown under the bus one day, it’s the Syrian Kurds watching the bus filled with American soldiers pulling out the next, leaving these staunch American allies in the fight against ISIS to fend for themselves against their longtime enemies, the Turks, in what has already become a humanitarian crisis.

Stuck in the middle with you: President Donald J. Trump greets Finnish President Sauli Nanistö in happier times, Aug. 28, 2017. Photograph by Natig Sharifov.

'Coup'ed up with Trump

October 3, 2019

Well, that went well. We’re talking about President Donald J. Trump’s press conference with the latest hapless foreign leader caught in the crosshairs of his love-hate relationship with the press. Really, it almost doesn’t matter who it is. That it happened to be the president of Finland — land of the properly raked forests — held a certain irony, particularly after Sauli Ninistö turned out to be the sly one, telling Trump to keep America’s “great democracy” going.

‘The things we did last summer’: President Donald J. Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the G7 in Biarritz, France Aug. 25.. Official White House photograph by Shealah Craighead.

Push comes to shove for politics' Bobbsey Twins

September 26, 2019

Well, it’s been a bad time for blonds — LOL, as people say (whoever those people are).

Not to gloat but those of us who are sick onto death of the baloney-swilling strongmen have gotten a bit of our own back this week. And what is particularly sweet is their enemies delivered the coup de grace mob-style: They blindsided them.

Ah, the good old days, when there was at least bipartisan cooperation in investigating intrigue:: President Ronald Reagan receives the Tower Commission Report on his administration’s Iran-Contra scandal from two of the commission’s members — Republi… — Ah, the good old days, when there was at least bipartisan cooperation in investigating intrigue:: President Ronald Reagan receives the Tower Commission Report on his administration’s Iran-Contra scandal from two of the commission’s members — Republican Sen. John Tower (left) and Democratic Sen. Edmund Muskie (far right). Courtesy the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.

Impermanent interests: Trump's own Iran contra scandal

September 21, 2019

What did Iran have to do with Nicaragua? Nothing except that the Reagan Administration used the sale of embargoed arms to Iran — yes the very Iran that we now hate — to fund the Contras in their opposition to the communist Nicaraguan government, all behind Congress’ back.

What does Saudi Arabia have to do with Ukraine? Nothing except that the Trump Administration is apparently sending troops to Saudi Arabia to distract from a whistleblower complaint that President Donald J. Trump allegedly withheld aid to Ukraine as he pressured the struggling democracy to investigate rival Joe Biden’s efforts to help son Hunter’s business dealings there. Needless to say, any administration efforts to cooperate with the inevitable congressional hearings won’t be happening.

A New York Air National Guard major poses with Rudolph and Judith Giuliani at Yankee Stadium in April 2009. Photograph by Tech Sgt. Jeremy M. Call.

Rudolph Giuliani and the power of context

September 19, 2019

The Giulianis are getting a divorce and it’s starting to get ugly. For those who hated Rudolph Giuliani’s heavy-handed, albeit successful, management of New York City or can’t understand how “America’s mayor” — the man who guided the city during its worst day, 9/11 — wound up as President Donald J. Trump’s lawyer, the divorce news comes with a high degree of schadenfreude.