If Nathaniel Lewis is not careful, he’s going to get Donald Trump elected. Lewis was one of the organizers of the demonstration in Chicago that closed down a Trump campaign event. He is a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an African-American, like many of the protesters. The idea was […]

Among some people, the new parlor game is choosing who would make the worst president: Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. This is not a lady-or-the-tiger dilemma, but a tiger-or-tiger one. The choice is between a fiercely friendless reactionary and a bombastic, thoroughly dishonest egomaniac. You pick. My choice is Trump. He wins in this close […]

Let me tell you about my boat. It has a single mast and a cabin at the stern. It is painted white with a red stripe at the water line. I bought it in Denmark, at the port from where in 1943 Danish fishermen and others transported most of the country’s Jews to safety in […]

Monday was Parson Weems Day. This is my designation to mark the voting in Iowa as the end of the first lying season. The Rev. Mason Locke Weems (1759-1825) is the source of the story about George Washington and the cherry tree. When asked by his father if he had cut down the tree, the […]

NEW YORK — Has anyone noticed? If the presidential race were baseball, then what’s shaping up would be called a Subway Series. But instead of the Mets and the Yankees, we’re getting Trump and (maybe) Bloomberg of Manhattan, Sanders of Brooklyn and Clinton who is headquartered in the same borough. New York is back — […]

In 1949, Sen. Joseph McCarthy arrived in Columbus, Ohio, to make a speech but within an hour allegedly was shooting craps. “It was a disgusting sight,” according to a source, “to see this great public servant down on his hands and knees, reeking of whiskey and shouting, ‘Come on babies, Papa needs a new pair […]