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American Vice President Joe Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United States Embassy, then in Tel Aviv, in March 2016. In congratulating Biden on being elected president, Netanyahu reminded him of their warm relationship. Ne… — American Vice President Joe Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United States Embassy, then in Tel Aviv, in March 2016. In congratulating Biden on being elected president, Netanyahu reminded him of their warm relationship. Netanyahu had been one of President Donald J. Trump’s biggest boosters, but in the words of French President Emmanuel Macron when he first met Trump: “Nobody is forever.”

Trumpian 'Sunset' as democracy's star rises

November 8, 2020

“This is one of the happiest days of my life,” a business manager told me yesterday. I couldn’t but concur. I , too, was happy, proud and content to be an American — something I haven’t been for four long, dark years.

In their victory speeches, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris struct the right notes about unity and hope. President Donald J. Trump’s “American carnage’ may have been fine for some when they were making oodles of money. But when everyone’s actually in American carnage, as we are with the coronavirus, systemic racism, a crashed economy and climate change denial, people want change. They want a leader who can create a vision for going forward together, communicate that vision and execute it. And that’s what Biden laid out Saturday night, while Harris in suffragist white gave women of color in particular a symbol of belief fulfilled.

Don't cry for him, Argentina

October 14, 2020

He was busy concocting another White House crush on the South Lawn with another bizarre Evita turn on the balcony for Saturday, and on Monday, he’s scheduled to travel to Florida for what he called “a very BIG RALLY!” — Maureen Dowd, Oct. 10, The New York Times

It was the balcony, of course, it had to be the balcony. President Donald J. Trump came back to the White House from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, climbed the steps of the Truman Balcony, unmasked his face and generated a thousand “Evita” memes. Makes perfect sense. He and Eva Peron were both diseased bottle blonds conducting love-hate relationships with the public. And ,as Dowd pointed out in a link in the quote above, “Evita” is his favorite musical. What a surprise.

The Devil Wears MAGA: Trump and Covid

October 5, 2020

I started out writing this post about President Donald J. Trump and taxes and then about Trump and the appalling debate and now about Trump having Covid-19. In the Trumpian universe, you really have to be blogging every minute. That’s how fast the news changes.

Contrary to what the sign says, the lockdown didn’t kill this man’s business. Rather, fear and denial of the virus ravaged the American economy.

Adolescent America and fear itself

August 10, 2020

Given the highly individualistic nature of American society, the coronavirus was always going to be a lethal challenge here. But it didn’t have to be as devastating as it is.

Harvard Yard in 2005: Fewer students will be attending Harvard University in person this fall, because of the coronavirus, leading to a crisis for those who rely on the school for more than just academic learning.

What price school?

July 12, 2020

In Agatha Christie’s much-admired, oft-filmed “Murder on the Orient Express,” her irresistible Belgian detective, the great Hercule Poirot, finds his “little gray cells” stymied by a case in which everyone is a suspect. Everyone has it in for the loathsome victim, a child murderer on the order of the Lindbergh baby kidnapper, the inspiration for Christie’s villain.

I think it fair to say that we have reached the “Murder on the Orient Express” portion of the people versus the Trump Administration, and the denouement is at hand. Each day brings some fresh outrage against a group that won’t be voting for him. (Roger Stone-pardon critics and New Yorkers, anyone?) Recently, the wheel turned to educators and parents whom the president and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, are trying to bully into getting kids back into the classroom this fall as the virus still rages and no clear plan is in sight.

Ellen V. Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History, has asked New York City to remove James Earle Fraser’s 1939 bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt from in front of the museum as it shows an African-American and a Native American i… — Ellen V. Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History, has asked New York City to remove James Earle Fraser’s 1939 bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt from in front of the museum as it shows an African-American and a Native American in an inferior position to the white president.

Black votes matter, too

June 25, 2020

Well, we didn’t have to worry about social distancing at the Trump rally in Tulsa after all. Even Asa Hutchinson, Republican governor of Arkansas, wryly told Judy Woodruff on the “PBS NewsHour” Monday that those Arkansans who crossed the state line to attend the event at the Bank of Oklahoma Center and had seats on the main floor had better get tested on their return. Those, however, who were spread out in the vast blue expanse of the upper tiers? They’re good, Hutchinson said.

Novak Djokovic at the moment he became the No. 1-ranked tennis player in the world, in the 2011 Wimbledon semifinals. Still No. 1, he is under fire for organizing a Balkan tour for select players that ignored the coronavirus restrictions in place el… — Novak Djokovic at the moment he became the No. 1-ranked tennis player in the world, in the 2011 Wimbledon semifinals. Still No. 1, he is under fire for organizing a Balkan tour for select players that ignored the coronavirus restrictions in place elsewhere.

The D list -- disease, denial and Djokovic

June 23, 2020

There are few emotions more confounding, crushing and ultimately useless than the love affair between a fan and an athlete — confounding because, well, it’s one-sided really. I mean, you really don’t know the athlete, only what you project unto him, which is really a dream of yourself. Crushing, because the emotion is real enough. And useless, because, well, see 1. and 2.

So it pains me to write about Novak Djokovic’s thoughtless, coronavirus-infested, aborted Balkan tennis tour.