June 15, 2019
Some Ruminations on the Current Moment
According to recent news reports, the “friendship tree” that Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump planted together last year on the White House lawn has died. [Please insert your witty quip […]
May 29, 2019
Meditations in an Emergency: Ilya Kaminsky, Mad Men, and the Backdrop of War
in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, our great country of money, we (forgive us) lived happily during the war. So ends […]
July 17, 2018
Beginning of the End?
William J. Clinton built a reputation for weathering scandals while maintaining high approval ratings, but Donald J. Trump must be the most thoroughly Teflon-coated president in modern history. This afternoon […]
February 21, 2018
Commodities, Bodies, and Budgets
The Trump administration budget request for fiscal year 2019 made the news this week due to many of the changes proposed. There are now tons of articles discussing the drastically […]
August 22, 2017
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a President Looking at an Eclipse
(1) In the eye of the eclipse, he sought the loyalty of Comey, the bears of Betsy DeVos, and the phantom tapping of his own phones. The sun: Anoint […]
March 14, 2017
“What Have We Done?” Charles M. Blow on Donald Trump
On a Saturday afternoon in mid-February, Charles M. Blow, New York Times op-ed columnist and author of the memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones, spoke at Cleveland Public Library. […]
February 28, 2017
Citizenship (Part Two)
Earlier today I glanced at my Facebook News Feed and saw, as usual, post after post about the president. He was doing what he always does: playing footsie with the […]
February 6, 2017
Citizenship (Part One)
I’m writing this post on Super Bowl Sunday, a semi-holiday (or day of observance, literally) that’s wholly American. And I’m thinking about what it means to be an American in […]
January 15, 2017
An Open Letter from the Only Poet on the Professor Watchlist
Dear Charlie Kirk, Founder of Turning Point USA: It’s not every day that an American poet can address someone who thinks he is dangerous. For that alone I should thank […]
January 13, 2017
Goodbye, Marcus Aurelius
Blaming Russia for the outcome of our recent election is, among other things, a way of offloading collective guilt for its result. The same goes for blaming the electoral […]
January 1, 2017
Relentless Ridicule
Because everything I read—even the back of my cereal box*—brings to mind Donald Trump, I could probably continue to draw parallels between the Mad Realtor and his fictional counterparts (Beckett’s […]
December 29, 2016
The Great Work Begins
Late in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika, Belize tells Louis, “You come with me to room 1013 over at the hospital, I’ll show you America. Terminal, crazy […]