John R. Bolton (fourth from right) joins Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (second from right) in negotiating with the Russians, Nov. 3, 2001. Photograph by R.D. Ward/Department of Defense

The impeachment plot thickens

January 26, 2020

Why impeach President Donald J. Trump only to have the Senate acquit him? What’s the point?

You can’t help but be nagged by this question as the trial churns on, despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s politically savvy and Representative Adam Schiff’s sharp prosecutorial skills. But just when you’re about to despair, a light or two. There are the tapes by Lev Parnas, the Rudolph Giuliani goon who was in on muscling Ukraine for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian energy company while his father was in office.

And now there is the leaked unpublished manuscript of former National Security Adviser and perpetual loose canon John R. Bolton, which establishes a link, once again, between the withholding of $391 million in American aid to Ukraine and the quest for damning information on the Bidens, thus undercutting Trump’s argument that there was no quid pro quo….

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes’ “Alexander at the Tomb of Cyrus the Great” (1796).

Afghanistan and the failure of leadership

December 16, 2019

President Donald J. Trump has announced the withdrawal of 4,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan, with the intention of withdrawing all troops by the November election, thus bringing to a close America’s longest war, after 18 years. Or will it?.

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.”

A United States Naval Research Laboratory photograph of Hurricane Dorian taken Sept. 2.

The 'D' list -- Hurricane Dorian and the Donald

September 4, 2019

Some leaders rise to the occasion of a crisis. Others sink. And then others add a whole new category of chaos.

For the last two weeks, much of the nation — make that much of the media — has been gripped by a Category 5 hurricane that leveled parts of the Bahamas before churning toward the East Coast of the United States. Hurricane season has not been President Donald J. Trump’s forte, as the Hurricane Maria-Puerto Rico debacle two years ago can attest. That salient point has been underscored in recent days by Dorian, the latest in a series of Cat. 5 storms that are becoming a yearly event.

Irina Belotelkin’s oil portrait of Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of the greatest male dancers of the last half a century.

Faux pas de deux -- Lara Spencer's cultural ignorance

August 28, 2019

The contretemps over “Good Morning America” co-anchor Lara Spencer mocking Prince George for taking ballet lessons is both a tempest in a teapot and the latest salvo in the culture wars that began with the demonization of Western civilization in the 1960s by liberals who could not separate it from its imperialistic, colonial roots and continued with the demonization of the arts in the 1970s and ’80s by conservatives who decried the arts falsely as a louche tax drain.

“We’ll see how long that lasts,” Spencer retorted to the news that the young prince is taking ballet lessons, with his father Prince William’s enthusiastic approval. It was the flippant, stupid remark of someone with no cultural background (remember her short-lived stint on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow”?) trying to be witty or at least cool, and it was met with swift condemnation, a swift apology and a redemptive moment played out against the backdrop of 300 male dancers in Manhattan’s Times Square.

And that would be the end of it, except that, as one person put it, you can’t unring a bell, particularly in a divisive time in which every statement seems to be a clarion call to partisanship. Perhaps that’s unfair. We all make mistakes. We’re all more than our worst days. Yet Spencer’s ridicule cannot be undone, particularly for those who have been mercilessly bullied or marginalized for their love of the arts.

The Kentucky Derby, the Run for the Roses, still features Stephen Foster’s poignant “My Old Kentucky Home” albeit with some changes to the lyrics. Courtesy kentuckytourism.com.

Against political correctness (with a caveat)

April 27, 2019

My cousin-hosts served up an intense political discussion along with delicious herb-crusted lamb chops for Easter dinner. As with most American families, mine is made up of Democrats and Republicans, Trumpettes and never-Trumpers. Me, I’m a moderate-independent, although I caucus with the Dems, so to speak.

About the only thing we all agree on is that we’re lifelong Yankee fans. So what did I, they wondered, think of the New York Yankees banning Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” because she sang a song about “darkies” that Paul Robeson, the great African-American actor-singer, also sang?