Recent Commentaries

Featured image for “Trump Pardons Frankenstein, Wolf Man”
Trump Pardons Frankenstein, Wolf Man
In honor of President Trump’s pardons of celebrity convicted felons, I thought this updated commentary from 2018, particularly relevant. WASHINGTON — With Vice-President Mike Pence looking on, President Donald Trump signed two full pardons “for all Crimes and Misdemeanors” for Frankenstein and the Wolf Man. Both had previously pleaded guilty to murder. White House officials were scrambling Tuesday morning after...
Read More
February 18, 2020
Featured image for “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch”
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
“I am an innocent man. Oh, yes I am, an innocent man.”  – Billy Joel Fresh from his Vindication Tour, Trump quickly pivoted to his Vindictive Tour. Those he deemed disloyal for testifying about the truth of Trump’s “deal” with Ukraine’s Zelensky have, not surprisingly, moved to the top of the president’s enemies litst: * Lt. Col. Vindman, the National...
Read More
February 17, 2020
Featured image for “Don’t Read This!”
Don’t Read This!
It’s boring. It’s just another vanity website, only this one’s about “ethics.” Come on! I already know the difference between right and wrong. This guy is just another pseudo-intellectual, California liberal telling us how to live our lives. What a gasbag. He just uses it as an excuse for writing another negative riff on the president. (Okay, I don’t like...
Read More
February 14, 2020
Featured image for “Special Report from Concord”
Special Report from Concord
Note: apologies to readers who were expecting a different commentary. I’m tabling it to Friday. Yesterday, I received a rundown from our citizen reporter, Stephen Ambra, on the ground in Concord, New Hampshire. In past elections, Ambra has described “the gauntlet” that he and other voters face in front of the polling station, where acolytes for candidates holding signs politely...
Read More
February 12, 2020
Featured image for “Only Massachusetts and New Hampshire”
Only Massachusetts and New Hampshire
Due to declining  student populations in public colleges and universities around the country, budget cutbacks have had a serious impact on education. Libraries and staff are particularly vulnerable, affecting the vital help students need from the valuable services libraries provide. How important? The nation’s second president, John Adams, believed education was so important that he included a clause in the...
Read More
February 10, 2020
Featured image for “He wants me to call him Kirk?!”
He wants me to call him Kirk?!
When I learned of the death of Kirk Douglas, I remembered the time I spent with him in his Beverly Hills home. I was in the sixth grade when I was first introduced to art appreciation, (in a public school, no less). After presenting an overview of impressionist artists, the entire class went on a field trip to the Museum...
Read More
February 7, 2020
Featured image for “Epilogue”
Epilogue
As the Senate trial of President Trump comes to its predicable conclusion, Senators are taking time to address their colleagues (really constituents) on the Senate floor to explain their reasoning behind their upcoming vote on Wednesday. Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, one of three Republicans who were considering a call for both witnesses and White House documents (both were refused by...
Read More
February 4, 2020
Featured image for “Matter of Principle; Cost of Loyalty”
Matter of Principle; Cost of Loyalty
“Common sense is not so common.” – Voltaire “I think we’ve made our case,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone said. “All you need in this case is the Constitution and your common sense.” The case before the Senate is about Principle vs. Loyalty; the principles of honesty and responsibility, and the necessary moral courage to stand up for those principles...
Read More
January 30, 2020
Featured image for “Who Will Stand Up for Truth?”
Who Will Stand Up for Truth?
“As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.” – Clarence Darrow This is a case about truth and lies; right and wrong. At the conclusion of the White House defense team’s arguments on behalf of President Trump, the revelations by former National Security...
Read More
January 29, 2020
Featured image for “Now We Know”
Now We Know
After all the denials and a White House dream team of TV star lawyers who have stated in their opening arguments on Saturday that President Trump’s purpose in withholding aid to Ukraine had not been conditioned on an investigation into former Vice-President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and other Democrats, The New York Times reports (Jan. 26) that the president...
Read More
January 27, 2020

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
When Democracy Comes Dressed as Patriotism
The current American political order is starting to feel like a collision between the films Seven Days in May and All the King’s Men. One...
Who Watches the Algorithm?
We are building machines that may soon judge, persuade, police, diagnose, hire, fire, and even help governments decide whom to trust. Yet we still have...
He Just Does His Job
I’ve been listening to and watching Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia for more than a year now: his speeches, his questions in Senate hearings,...
Why Donald Trump Has Pulled Me Back In—Again
Last August, I wrote that I was “stepping back from the chaos” of Donald Trump. I meant to write about his presidency only when his...
Scott Pelley Responds
During a contentious staff meeting at 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley spoke out sharply, criticizing the judgment and decision-making of CBS News editor in chief Bari...
The Clock is Still Ticking. But Now It’s Ticking for CBS
I began watching 60 Minutes when it premiered on September 24, 1968, when Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace introduced a new kind of television journalism:...