‘With respect, Mr President, Judge Leon is a Republican, Federalist Society jurist – the complete opposite of Raskin. Very Catholic education and background. Impeccable conservative credentials. You and Hegseth seem to have made Leon angry by trying to destroy the life of one of America’s most decorated military heroes. Maybe let it go?’
Pirandello’s famous title needs only a little tweaking to cover the current crisis at the Kennedy Center. An absurdist wind be a-blowin’ from that riverside, Georgetown-adjacent, wedding cake/airport terminal (architectural observers have not been kind to the building) as performers and institutions flee, leaving a Beckettian wilderness.
Surely the first authentically post-name-change programming should be John Cage’s 4’33” – a work devoid of controversial content. Beckett’s own Endgame should be next, evoking a landscape where botheration about things like gender is rather beside the point. The beauty of these two masterpieces – and nihilistic works like them – is that they fairly demand little to no attendance, so that the collapse of the Center’s audience base will seem apposite rather than embarrassing.
His friend Trump has venous insufficiency. Epstein himself had … call it penous insufficiency. He was unable – or the good Lord didn’t grant him enough time – to eternalize his erection, to unbound his boner, to superannuate his stiffy.
Age/death caught up with both men; yet Epstein now enjoys the immortality he so passionately sought!
UD thought his 2019 suicide was the end of his Kafkan run, but she was very very wrong. He’s the talk of the town, the thing the Dems think will bring the prez down, the thing that will turn Trump’s smile to a frown.
Color UD amazed. Everyone knew Trump was a sexual degenerate when they voted for him. UD doesn’t understand why he needs to care about late-entry evidence. I’m watching the whole thing with bafflement.
… is pleased to see that Jonathan Chait compares Trumpy America to Hungary throughout this essay.
[T]he parallels to Hungary are striking. Orbán’s economy has suffered a brain drain as the regime’s cronyism drives its great minds to work in freer societies. Trump’s policies have shown early signs of producing a similar outcome, as would-be international students must now consider whether pursuing an American degree is worth risking getting detained by ICE or having their visa revoked abruptly over minor legal infractions.
As one of the last acts of his presidency, Biden has issued preemptive pardons for Fauci and several other national heroes and heroines who pissed off whatzisname by pursuing truth, justice, and the American way.