The famous Guggenheim Museum began as  a private collection. (Blog 2/20/17)  An admirer of the old masters, Solomon R. Guggenheim was weaned away from them by a friend who took him to see the work of Vasily Kandinsky.  That was the beginning of a love affair with modern art and Gug

The Overton Window is the current term for moving the inert political middle to the right or the left.  It refers to “the range of policies on any given issue that are, at the moment, popular enough for a politician to campaign on successfully.” (“A Theory of Everything,” by

J. K. Rowling’s criticism of Donald Trump is raising hackles on the internet. His loyal fans, once her loyal fans, are behaving like jilted lovers and threatening to burn their Harry Potter books in retaliation. Rowling says, “Go ahead. I’ve still got your money.” (Click)  Pr

A reader sent me a thoughtful article about Donald Trump’s strategic plan while in office. (Click)  Bit by bit, the article dismantles the president’s false assumptions and explains why they will fail.  But the assumption that Trump has a plan is, in my opinion, false. I see him

In a blog entitled A Polemic (1/20/17), I wrote about an artist’s duty to comment upon events of the time.  In a similar vein, the editors of Harper’s devoted their February edition to “A Resister’s Guide”: 11 writers stop to consider the impact of Donald Trump’s 2017 pre

I’ve admitted that until the election of George W. Bush, I was a lifelong Republican of a moderate stripe.  I believe in a lean government but also give strong support to social security, national disaster relief, the defense of the country and a free education for all.  I’d lik

Donald Trump’s truth varies minute by minute.  It’s like listening to Variations of a Theme of Paganini but less pleasant. Trump doesn’t seem to worry about these variations, which his critics call lies. Rather, he twists the truth, I suspect, to convince his subjects that one

A good chunk of American voters are standing aghast as Donald Trump engages in a scorched earth presidency. While I live in a state of shock, I am convinced the Republicans are enabling him for two reasons.  First, they want him responsible for the final axing of programs like Obama

Two days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as 45th President of the United State, a woman on Facebook had a freak-out.  Did she blame the Tea Party for his election, the Republicans, the rust belt, the Evangelicals?  No, she blamed Hillary Clinton because she shot down Bernie�

“A Polemic,” may be too grand a title for this blog.  While not intending to be impassioned, I would like to lay out the reason why I labor each day to put a few ideas, most of them not my own, in to print.  I owe that explanation to myself as well as to my readers.  I write my