Before round two of shutdown/showdown begins on or about February 15, 2019, a useful exercise sponsored by H.L. and the George Santayana School of Not Failing to Learn the Lessons of History, is to list and rank the losers and winners in round one. The press, of which this blog is only technically a member, has reached consensus that Trump was a big loser, but not the biggest. […]
Weeks earlier, H.L. planned that the “Winter Study” First Amendment Course at Williams College would end on January 25, 2019 in a crescendo. The final class subject would be “establishment of religion” that the first amendment and Bill of Rights prohibit in their first words, expressing a novel and uniquely American liberty. That first commandment “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . .” would conclude the course. Two classic establishment clause cases, the 2014 SCOTUS decision in Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway and the high court’s recent travel ban decision in Trump v. Hawaii would be fitting closers. […]
Contrary to conventional commentary, Nick Ayers’ refusal of Trump’s request to serve as General Kelly’s replacement as White House Chief of Staff is not rule breaking. Steve Mnuchin and Nick Mulvaney’s rumored reluctance/refusal are, as the unwritten but unequivocal rule makes clear. […]
There are many reasons why people like Elizabeth Warren, who is whiter than Ivory Soap, and Donald Trump of German ancestry, but who claimed to be a Swede, make false claims about their ethnic, national, racial or socio-economic identities. We all have met these people and some of us have been them. H.L. once interviewed (for a government position) an applicant who had been the head of her law school’s Puerto Rican student association. She was as Puerto Rican as Trump is a Rutabaga. And for a few seconds, H.L., while an exchange student at Howard convinced himself he was black – until quickly disabused of that by his frat brothers. What do we think when the deceivers go public and how should we evaluate whether the lie signals a serious flaw in character? […]
Nine years after Michael Jackson’s death, his testimony overwhelms the memory of his creative and performative genius. More than his Moonwalk or Thriller video I hear him describing the refiner’s fire that forged perfection on stage, video and in recordings. No birthdays off, no Christmases, no New Years, no time off at all from drilling – under a father/sergeant major who recognized his child’s hundred-year latent talent, that could be realized by disregarding the price to be paid. […]
This hopeless liberal’s examination of professions that best prepare people to serve as legislators and in other elected offices began when John Dunne (from Long Island not “no man is an island” Donne) once Republican majority whip in the New York Senate assigned the decline in legislative civility and productivity to not too many, but too few lawyers. He said in more productive and decorous times a majority of legislators had been attorneys, whose education and profession rewarded skill in negotiation, compromise, conciliation, conflict resolution and knowledge of the law – how to make them, change them and what the fuck they actually mean. Dunne did not utter the expletive but went on to chronicle the growing number of doctors, farmers, dentists and astronauts in legislative chambers and the contemporaneous plummet in productivity. […]
After reading about, then hearing, finally watching Trump’s “why would they” and accompanying remarks from the post-coital 7/16/18 Helsinki news conference, H.L. experienced a series of reactions that corresponded to 80% of the Kübler-Ross stages of grief. Acceptance being the one missing. […]
Though America’s white population must continually be reminded that racism – overt, covert and systemic, still pervade American life, Jews need little reminder of pervasive anti-Semitism, mostly below the surface in America but openly expressed virtually everywhere else. H.L. encounters it as he travels and often because his funny Welsh/Greek-Russian Romanian name allows him to “pass for white” (as Jews used to say) and initially cloaks his ethnicity and religion. […]
Monday, June 4, H.L. went to Roland Garros anxious to watch the Rafael Nadal/Maximillian Marterer match – though not much in doubt – and very much excited at the prospect of seeing the 22nd match between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. It was to be played on Court Philippe Chatrier- center court – but of course. Though the match would have occurred in only the fourth round, with the quarters, semis and final still to be contested, this match was one likely to make those succeeding it seem anticlimactic. […]
By this 52nd post, readers know that Hopelessly Liberal is a chronicle of and guide to survival until the Trump presidency ends. Perhaps, like Nightline, it will continue after the hostages are released. H.L. bears witness to the daily assaults on our decency and Constitution and calls for resistance and preservation of the best in America during this dark age. But each of us needs occasional respite and escape from this war, as we did after 9/11. H.L.’s is tennis. Playing it, watching it played beautifully and debating it with others similarly obsessed. Last week H.L. traveled to Paris and the French Open, contested at Roland Garros next to the Bois de Boulogne. […]
