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Cassidy Hutchinson testifying before the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attacks. *Courtesy the committee.*

Cassidy Hutchinson -- Ms. America

June 29, 2022

I always knew former President Donald J. Trump would be done in by a woman, but I never imagined it would be this woman and in this way.

I always thought the Trumpian comeuppance would come at the skillful hands of the estimable Stormy Daniels or the equally estimable House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, skilled in a different way but with the same results.

But there she is. No, not Miss America but Ms. America, Cassidy Hutchinson — earnest, principled, detail-minded, determined and crisply attired in summer-ready black and white, looking for all the world like something out of a John Grisham movie. (Back in the day, she would’ve been played by Julia Roberts. Today, she’d probably be played by Dakota Johnson.)

Lucas Cranach the Elder’s “Lady Justice” (1537), oil on panel. Collection of Fridart Stichting, a foundation in Amsterdam.

The end of Roe and of an era

June 26, 2022

It’s hard to know where to begin with the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. The repercussions are that great.

For women who seek abortions, the 6-3 decision marks an eventual return to coat-hanger, knitting-needle days. If the pro-life crowd — which is generally pro-guns and pro-death penalty — thinks it has seen death, it’s hasn’t seen anything yet. Women have always sought abortions and will continue to do so, now less safely. But now death will come in other ways, too.

First responders on the scene of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Courtesy Voice of America.

The Uvalde shooter, the literature of rejection and the death of American exceptionalism

May 29, 2022

If you’re a reader of this blog, then you know that I’ve developed a theory I call the “literature of rejection,” in which men both historical (John Wilkes Booth, Adolf Hitler, Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden) and fictional (Achilles, Milton’s Lucifer, Heathcliff) display a disproportionate rage at rejection, an overbearing sense of entitlement and grievance.

To this we can now add — as if we didn’t know this before — the Uvalde shooter, whom I refuse to name, just as I will not name the Buffalo shooter. Part of the M.O. of these malignant, nihilistic narcissists is their “notice me” moments of manifestos and livestreaming. I’m not going to add to their 15 minutes of infamy.

The Tops supermarket in Buffalo, seen here in February. On May 14, a self-described white supremacist gunned down 13 people at Tops, killing 10 of them. Eleven of the victims were Black. Photograph by Andre Carrotflower.

Slouching toward Buffalo -- white fear and the culture of narcissism

May 17, 2022

Perhaps the single most important phenomenon in the United States in this still-young century is that white people are on their way to becoming a majority-minority — less than 50% of the population — by the next decade or so. This is not an opinion. It is a fact. There is nothing white people or anyone else can do to stop it. It will happen, because it is happening.

The United States has always been a country with a violent, racist streak, but this not-so-simple fact of the white majority-minority has taken us to new heights — which is to say new depths….

Pro life and its culture of death

May 7, 2022

Just in time for Mother’s Day, the United States Supreme Court has a gift that is “sure” to warm the hearts of moms and would-be moms everywhere — a leaked draft decision that would appear to repeal Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal in America. Chief Justice John Roberts — whose position as a swing vote on the court appears to have been nullified by the arrival of conservative Amy “the Handmaiden” Coney Barrett and whose legacy is in jeopardy — was shocked, shocked I tell you, that someone leaked the draft and has vowed an investigation. But the leak is hardly the point, which we’ll get to in a minute.

John Collier’s “Lady Godiva” (1898), oil on canvas. Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. Hair has long been a symbol of female sexuality in patriarchal society. So it was shocking but not altogether surprising that a callous joke at the Academy Awards about the loss of it should trigger a violent response.

The Oscars' hair-raising moment

March 29, 2022

The adage about the Academy Awards is that nobody remembers who won last year. Will Smith has ensured, of course, that no one will ever forget that he won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Venus and Serena Williams’ father in “King Richard” — even as his awards-ceremony performance eclipsed it.

As everyone knows by now, Smith got out of his seat, marched up to presenter Chris Rock — who moments earlier had made a snarky joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s shaved head, a response to her autoimmune alopecia — and slapped him. Smith then added insult to injury with an emotional apology/about-face in his acceptance speech a few minutes later. (Smith has since apologized to Rock as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reviews the incident.)

Nothing about Smith’s behavior is in any way excusable. But I also think Rock is equally culpable in a moment that rolled out every cliché pf America — stupid, classless and violent.

Beijing National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, site of the Beijing Winter Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies, Feb. 4 and 20 respectively.. Photograph by Peter23.

To watch or not to watch the Beijing Games

February 2, 2022

The Beijing Winter Games officially launch Friday, Feb. 4, with the opening ceremonies airing on NBC, and for many of us it will be something of a guilty pleasure.

Climate change. Human rights abuses. Restrictions on freedom of expression. Covid outbreaks. Critics charge that the Chinese do not have a great track record here and that a full boycott, such as the one the U.S. instituted in 1980 against the Moscow Summer Games when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, would’ve hit them in their prestige and their wallet.

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