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Baby Donald in Europe

Well, that went well.

President Donald J. Trumpet’s meeting with NATO allies was akin to the belligerent uncle who insists on reminding you at the holiday dinner that you still haven’t repaid the money he loaned you to buy the house – with interest.

Donnie Two Scoops came out with guns blazing, bullying the allies to ante up more for defense and dumping on Germany for, well, everything …

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Trump’s bizarre lookism

Dr. Ronny Jackson’s decision to withdraw his nomination as Veterans Affairs secretary raises a number of issues – about drinking on the job, playing fast and loose with prescriptions and contemplating job opportunities to which you are not suited. But not the least of the rippling effects is the role of lookism in the Trump Administration, which says something important about power.

President Donald J. Trumpet holds Jackson in esteem, because he looks the part of a rear admiral and Navy doc, is blandly attractive and flattered the president’s physique in his report on his health. Indeed, the president said he would like to be Jackson, referring to his looks. This coincided with the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, during which Trumpet reached over and picked a piece of “dandruff” off his suit jacket. I have never seen another American president invade a foreign leader’s personal space in this manner, and you have to ask yourself, Why? …

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Charlottesville, North Korea and the tough guy

I was planning to riff on novelist Jennifer Weiner’s New York Times piece about the body disconnect and the phenomenon she calls “skinny women eating cheeseburgers in magazines” – and I will in a future post.

But events of the past few days make it impossible to put that on the front burner. How can we talk about our ambivalence toward the body when the body politic is being ripped asunder? ...

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