As I’ve written before, gatekeepers, those whose reputations outweigh other standards of measurement, are the people who decide what is great art and what isn’t. Of course, those experts change with each succeeding generation and so, the value of art is ephemeral, something th

Daily, Donald Trump, the Tweeterer- in-chief exposes himself as a twit and commentators are loving it.  I can’t keep up with the jokes memorializing this humorless man.  Here’s a sample from the October issue of Vanity Fair.  “Trump has made Russia Great again; Trump is a che

Donald Trump has probably done more to recruit converts to the political process than any politician in a long time. While his support base remains fixed, those in opposition to his policies are a rising tide. Many of them, as writer E. J. Graff points out, are new to citizen activism

As the saying goes, “It’s an ill wind that blows no good.”  Despite the war of nerves Donald Trump is playing with  North Korea’s leader, Kim Jung-un, bad political news means good business for some.  Since North Korea launched a missile that could reach the United States,

 If writers have one reason to rejoice in Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US Presidential election, it’s that he’s revived the book publishing business.  That’s Alex Sheppard’s opinion. (“It Takes a Pillage,” by Alex Sheppard, New Republic, Aug/

Because artists pursue their passions whether or not anyone pays them, art thrives in the best and the worst of times.  And, as Charles Underwood reminds us, like a weed, it gains strength during periods of adversity.  (“Art in the Age of Trump,” by Charles Underwood, Town&C

I have held two publicly elected offices in my life.  I served as  a counselor with a regional government known as Metro.  Later, I won a seat on the Multnomah Board of County Commissioners.  Both times, the governments I served defended me against lawsuits while I performed my pu

To survive the Trump presidency, a person must either develop a sense of humor or go mad.  I’ll say this for atheists, they have a sense of humor.  Since Trump’s inauguration, members of Freedom From Religion, (FFR) have contributed $100,000 on behalf of Mike Pence to their orga

No one could accuse me of being a Donald Trump fan.  Nonetheless, I do feel sympathy for him as he attempts to change the rules of political gamesmanship in Washington D. C.  Already he is paying a heavy price for attempting to “clean up the swamp.” Never mind that his n

One of the difficulties for Constitutional literalists, those who seek to interpret our laws according to the intentions of our founding fathers, is that the country these men created no long exists.  As Gareth Sitaraman writes in “Divided We Fall,” those leaders lived in