A Texas woman about to vote in 2008. Photograph by Lars Ploughmann.

American carnage denied

November 1, 2020

Four years ago I pivoted this blog from an exclusive sports/culture focus to a more political one as Donald J. Trump ran for the presidency and, improbably, won it. I hate to give him credit for having that kind of power, but we would be kidding ourselves if we didn’t admit that he has transformed our lives in various ways over the last four years — and not for the better. But such is the nature of some change agents, even if he didn’t know he was one.

Official portrait of VIce President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in his West Wing office at the White House, Jan. 10, 2013. Will tomorrow’s debate be Uncle Joe versus crazy uncle? Photograph by David Lienermann.

Uncle Joe versus 'crazy uncle' -- the Biden-Trump show

October 21, 2020

Is America an abused, abandoned child in search of a kind uncle? Listening to pundits talk about the first presidential debate and dueling town halls, it certainly seems that way. On the one hand, you have the “crazy uncle” as “Today’s” Savannah Guthrie implied when President Donald J. Trump disavowed the reality of Seal Team Six getting Osama bin Laden under Trump archrival former President Barack Obama. (You have to love the waggish posters who call Trump’s armed, overweight white nationalists “Meal Team Six.”) On the other hand, there’s “Uncle Joe” Biden’s avuncular style on display in his town hall with “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos, with the former vice president offering to meet with questioners afterward for further discussion — and then actually doing it.

Eva Perón addresses a group of women. Make way on the balcony, Evita, for Donnie.

Don't cry for him, Argentina

October 14, 2020

He was busy concocting another White House crush on the South Lawn with another bizarre Evita turn on the balcony for Saturday, and on Monday, he’s scheduled to travel to Florida for what he called “a very BIG RALLY!” — Maureen Dowd, Oct. 10, The New York Times

It was the balcony, of course, it had to be the balcony. President Donald J. Trump came back to the White House from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, climbed the steps of the Truman Balcony, unmasked his face and generated a thousand “Evita” memes. Makes perfect sense. He and Eva Peron were both diseased bottle blonds conducting love-hate relationships with the public. And ,as Dowd pointed out in a link in the quote above, “Evita” is his favorite musical. What a surprise.

The politics of religion in the age of Covid

October 12, 2020

A federal judge has struck down an Orthodox Jewish group’s lawsuit against New York’s restrictions on worship in large groups during the pandemic. The number of virus cases is creeping up in the Northeast, the state is cracking down and religious groups, including some Roman Catholics, are upset at what they see as infringements on their religious freedoms, guaranteed under the Constitution.

No one wants to impede the practices of the religious. But we are in a health emergency, the fight of our lives in what one doctor told me is not just the story of the year but will turn out to be the story of this century. So why is it so hard for religious groups — which are, after all, supposed to be on the side of humanity — to comply? A hostess at a popular restaurant I frequent smiled knowingly before answering. “It’s about the money,” she said. And she’s right.

The image of Kate Gosselin, star of the reality TV series “Jon & Kate Plus 8” is often used to crystallize the look of a “Karen,” a privileged, demanding white woman — itself a stereotype.

He, she, they: the politics of gender and a place in the sun

October 11, 2020

Recently, I had an experience that redefined the right and the left for me. I interviewed two individuals who began by presenting me with their pronouns, as if they were ambassadors presenting a head of state with their credentials. One of the inidividuals’ pronouns was “she” and “her.” So if I were quoting her, I might say “she” on second reference. But the other person’s pronouns were “they” and “them.” (For the purpose of this post, I’ll call them S and T.)

When I explained that from a journalistic perspective, I worked for a company that used the Associated Stylebook — which allows for “they” in single usage when clarity is not at stake — and standard English, in which the masculine is still the default singular pronoun, as in the sentence “Everyone deserves his place in the sun,” well, things got a bit tense.

The ultimate mind-over-matter guy — John Milton’s Satan in “Paradise Lost,” seen here in John Martin’s “Satan Presiding Over the Infernal Council” (1824), engraving. Victoria and Albert Museum/The Bridgeman Art Library.

The Devil Wears MAGA: Trump and Covid

October 5, 2020

I started out writing this post about President Donald J. Trump and taxes and then about Trump and the appalling debate and now about Trump having Covid-19. In the Trumpian universe, you really have to be blogging every minute. That’s how fast the news changes.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a 2016 portrait. Courtesy the Supreme Court of the United States. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a 2016 portrait. *Courtesy the Supreme Court of the United States.*

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) -- a cultural appreciation

September 19, 2020

When I was a student at Sarah Lawrence College in the 1970s — during a seminal wave of feminism — I took a course in the Women’s Studies department on gender and the law. Our textbook, “Sex-Based Discrimination,” was filled with absurd, horrifying stories of stewardesses — as they were called in those days — and the like, who were fired for being five pounds overweight, for not being “attractive” enough, for having babies — in other words, for being women. Two decades later as President Bill Clinton announced an appointee to the United States Supreme Court, I recalled the chief editor of that textbook — Ruth Bader Ginsburg.