The ancient practice of genuflecting — seen here in Leonardo’s “The Annunciation” (1472, oil on panel, the Uffizi Gallery), as the archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus — has been brilliantly repurposed… — The ancient practice of genuflecting — seen here in Leonardo’s “The Annunciation” (1472, oil on panel, the Uffizi Gallery), as the archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus — has been brilliantly repurposed by the Black Lives Matter protesters, beginning with Colin Kaepernick.

Taking a knee for social justice

June 9, 2020

The horrific murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police May 25 set off a tidal wave of national and global outrage that has renewed interest in and debate on Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 protests against racial inequality and police brutality.

A world lit by fire, part two

May 31, 2020

The great comedian Red Skelton acidly remarked of the well-attended funeral of tyrannical movie boss Harry Cohn, “Well, it just goes to show you: Give the people what they want and they’ll turn out for it.”

President Donald J. Trump has given the people what they didn’t want — American carnage — and they’ve turned out for it anyway. Boy, have they turned out for it. Protesters from sea to shining sea this weekend have made the tiki torches of the white supremacists .who terrorized Charlottesville in 2017 look like candles in the wind. (I wonder if Trumpet is measuring the size of these crowds.)

Robert F. Kennedy addressing an Indianapolis crowd on the night of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Leadership, race and 'the awful grace of God'

May 29, 2020

Well, so much for those “You Ain’t Black” T-shirts .

President Donald J. Trump and the Republicans — always ready to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as their handling of the pandemic demonstrates — were all set to capitalize on former Vice President Joe Biden’s gaffe that presumed to tell black people they couldn’t really be black if they voted for Trump, as if there aren’t black Republicans and conservatives. But Biden’s remark, however maladroit, contained the kernel of a question: Might a black Trump supporter actually be voting against his own interests?

Brexit Day, Jan. 31, in Kinsbury, England. Photograph by David Howard.

A world lit by fire

February 4, 2020

The wildfires in Australia are a poignant metaphor for our time — a world out of control, untold collateral damage.

The Iowa Caucuses are in meltdown due to “inconsistencies in reporting data,” whatever that means. Results are due later today, Feb. 4. (Gee, they missed Groundhog Day just by two days. It would’ve been so appropriate.) Remember when we had voting machines that worked?

Meanwhile, President Donald J. “Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City (Kansas)” Trump will be acquitted in his witness-less impeachment trial. The Republicans say they voted against witnesses for the good of the country, which would be torn apart if Trump’s presidency were declared illegitimate. There’s nothing that lends an air of ease to a non-choice quite like one whose expediency is couched in faux nobility.

A 17th-century Russian manuscript of “The Alexander Romance,” considered one of the earliest novels. Here Alexander explores the depths of the sea.

Trump and the empathy paradox

November 23, 2019

On Nov. 20 — which, as it turned out, would’ve been the 94th birthday of onetime Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan on June 5, 1968 — PBS’ “Nova” aired a fascinating program, “The Violence Paradox” — one that said a lot about the paradox of empathy in our own time.

Based on the controversial work of psychologist Steven Pinker, the program posited that civilization has become increasingly less violent — yes, despite a world in which every Middle Eastern, African and South American country appears to be protesting its corrupt leadership, Hong Kong students are fighting for democracy against China in a classic David-versus-Goliath battle; and school shootings continue unchecked in the United States.

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.

Mette Frederiksen. The Danish Prime Minister is out of the Trump doghouse — for now. © News Øresund - Johan Wessman.

The universal timeshare on the Trump doghouse

August 24, 2019

Liberal American Jews and Muslims.. Brown border babies. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Oscar-winning actresses and kneeling athletes. And, of course, the old standbys, the Democrats and the media.

Round and round it goes. And where the Catherine wheel of Trump hatred stops, nobody knows. Much has been made — hammered home, really — about President Donald J. Trump’s racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny. But if we fail to consider these under the umbrella of his narcissism, we miss the dangerous point. It’s not so much that he despises people of a certain religion or race, though there are elements of that. It’s that he apparently loves no one really except himself, not even Ivanka. (He’s been undermining her efforts on Capitol Hill to press for further gun control by telling everyone she’s nothing but a liberal Democrat. You know when Ivanka comes in for criticism that we are all in a dark place.)