Picking global winners and losers

May 15, 2018

For someone who’s an isolationist and protectionist, President Donald J. Trump sure has an odd way of showing it. He appointed son-in-law Jared Kushner to lead the White House’s Mideast peace team only to sabotage any chance of achieving that goal by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, thereby acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and enraging the Palestinians.

While Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump were celebrating the dedication of the American embassy there yesterday on the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel – along with preacher John Hagee, who once said that all Jews were going to Hell – the Palestinians in turn clashed with Israeli soldiers 40 miles away in Gaza where more than 50 were killed and more than 1,000 injured. …

Trump’s ‘he said, he said’ moment

May 7, 2018

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Trump did not have sex with that women, Miss Lewinsky, er, Daniels.

Until he did.

But he didn’t pay her. No, sirree, his lawyer Michael Cohen did. But Trump reimbursed him.

Then again, maybe not.

Folks, you might as well go to your local ballpark and buy a scorecard, because you’re going to need it to sort out this one. …

Change agents – Trump and Alexander the Great

April 14, 2018

The Fresno Bee columnist Victor Davis Hanson has written a column comparing President Donald J. Trump’s slash-and-burn style with the Greco-Macedonian conqueror of the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great, cutting the Gordion knot impatiently with his sword, thus ensuring the prophecy that whoever did so would become lord of Asia.

Hanson’s gotten some bristling responses from history buffs, and my first thought was to lend my voice to the chorus, being rather protective of Alexander myself. More than anything I wanted to say: “I knew Alexander. Alexander was a friend of mine. Trump, you’re no Alexander.” But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the issue is deeper than Hanson and his critics might’ve realized. ...

He’s Henry VIII, he is

April 12, 2018

Tuesday, Thirteen-WNET, PBS’ New York flagship, offered a fascinating juxtaposition – “Inside the Court of Henry VIII” and, on “Frontline,” “Trump’s Takeover,” – about the president’s takeover of the Republican Party, a documentary that looks chillingly prescient airing as it did a day before House Speaker Paul “Paulie PowerPoint” Ryan announced that he would not seek reelection and instead intended to spend more time with his family. (I love the poster on The New York Times who wrote, “What makes him think his family wants to spend more time with him?” ...

Kudos... to me

April 6, 2018

I’m pleased to announce that I have been selected for a 2018 Folio: Top Women in Media award in the Motivators category. . (Folio is an online magazine about, well, online and print magazines.)

I’ll be at the June 7 awards luncheon at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan, representing WAG magazine as editor in chief, and joining in a toast to 2018 Lifetime Empowerment & Achievement Award recipient Martha Stewart, WAG’s July 2014 cover subject. ...

An inspiring event with Billie Jean King

April 5, 2018

Here I am with (left to right) judge and journalist Lisa Wexler, tennis legend Billie Jean King and WAG society editor Robin Costello at a benefit for Fairfield County’s Community Foundation: The Fund for Women & Girls at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich earlier today. The Foundation, which empowers underserved girls and women to do everything from leaving abusive relationships to starting businesses, raised a projected $110,000 — $10,000 from King herself. She is like that ...

The Passion of The Donald

April 4, 2018

Christianity teaches you that there’s no Resurrection without the Passion – no triumph without the suffering of the cross.

But then, Jesus never met President Donald J. Trumpet.

On Easter Sunday – which celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus, the central feast of Christianity, when God’s love for man conquered the grave – it was all doom and gloom from El Presidente as he once again proclaimed DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that buttresses those who came here illegally through no fault of their own, dead; and blamed two of his favorite whipping boys for it, Mexico and the Democrats. ...