Donald Trump will stand for re-election as the nation’s forty-fifth president in November.  At this point, some five months before votes are cast, he appears to be behind in most polls.  But his defeat is far from certain.  In fact, viewed objectively, a good case can be made for his re-election.  Why will he win?  […]

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to control our thoughts and our reactions. Over the last three months, we have moved from relative ignorance and unconcern, to initial curiosity and mild anxiety, to recognition and agitation, to acknowledgement and fear, to understanding and restlessness, to acceptance and impatience. Where are we now on that spectrum of collective […]

“There’s something happening here. And what it is ain’t exactly clear.” -Stephen Stills (with Buffalo Springfield) Just what is this thing we’re living with – living through? And where will we be when it’s over? I’ve gone around and around with those questions as the days and weeks, and now months, pass. I watch the […]

In “Max,” the controversial 2002 film by the Dutch filmmaker Menno Meyjes, a young Adolf Hitler makes a life-changing discovery. “Art plus politics equals power,” he writes. Whether this fictional scene bears any resemblance to the real Hitler’s genesis as the most evil figure of the twentieth century (indeed, many would say of all time) […]