The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh is a stark reminder of patriarchal power, but also a catalyst of militance and mobilization. Suburban women—the so-called soccer moms—are a major swing vote, and in the midterms their feelings about sexual harassment could be a decisive factor, at least when it comes to the House. But beneath the outrage and determination is a more complicated picture. To ignore it is to suffer the results.
Nation
Judge Kavanaugh and Adventures of the Dialectic
“Oh Fuck!” Senator Coons reportedly said when he learned last Friday morning his friend Jeff Flake would vote to send Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate for a final confirmation vote.
Face Time
For me a big part of rapey culture are those faces, those tight, thin-lipped, angry, grizzled, wrinkled faces that are ugly from self-loathing and alcohol and a sense entitlement that is crumbling, those faces belonging to male humans with the power to govern every part of my life and the lives of other women and men, those faces looking down, the spittle and pointed fingers, the screwed up features or the features flat with inobservance and power fatigue, those faces that are so much stupider than you, have always been more ignorant, cloudy in their thinking, poorly read if read at all, fucking stupid and dumb but with power.
Wilde Week
The Kavanaugh Affair may have a socially chilling effect, leading drunken, sexually abusive Catholic young men to eschew public service and go into the priesthood instead.
Ventilator Blues
From sea to shining sea aging white males gather on playgrounds confused about who they are and certain that someone has it in for them. They may be playing golf or pickle ball rather than putting on the pads for football, but many still worry about how to gain and keep power and how to affirm their sexual identities. For many, women are trophies.
Public Events & Private Truths: Two Poems from “A Dog’s Life”
If we’re lucky, Adam Scheffler’s poetry–lucid, demotic, right-valued–is on the verge of becoming a national resource.
Patriotism and the Christian Spirit
Proust rejected (respectfully) Tolstoi’s polemic against patriotism in the following short review, which was translated by Sylvia Townsend Warner and included in Marcel Proust on Art and Literature (1957).
Isiah Thomas, Smokey Robinson & Jesse Jackson at Aretha Franklin’s Homegoing Service
Sisters who sang at Aretha’s funeral are getting much respect, per the # of YouTube views, but there were men there who were worthy too…
Isiah Thomas’s moving eulogy comprehended Aretha’s messages to the grassroots (and to Detroit, capital of the 20th Century) even as he took in her universality.
Aretha (& “the blacks”)
Aretha’s “Tree of Life” (see below) has a new poignancy since her death. No need for me to break down her funky, Pan-African, pantheist promesse de bonne heure, just press play (please).
No District is “Unwinnable” (Or, Democrats Matter Everywhere!)
Imagine that you are a Democrat or progressive living in a deeply Red district or state.
What Just Happened? (Kiarostami in Tokyo & Obama in Johannesburg)
The late Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Falling in Love (2012) was originally titled “The End,” which would’ve underscored the final scene’s go-to-smash upending of viewers’ presumptions. The film, set in Japan, works like a gently penetrative Ozu-y character study until it’s transformed utterly by a sudden act of violence in the last second(s).
A Response to “When Children Say They’re Trans”
Talk About “Abortion”
It is more crucial than ever to speak about “abortion rights,” not choice. The word “choice” is meaningless and always has been a running-scared retreat from the real matter of bodily sovereignty for females. Biological determinism is a social idea. Just like social Darwinism, capitalism, and religion.
A Fascist Fashion Statement?
Historical analyses of FLOTUS’s fashion statement, such as one below, are being shared on social media…
This sort of analysis prompted Ty Geltmaker–a student (and ex-Professor) of modern Italian History–to dig into his own archives. Geltmaker comments below…