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. […]
Naked and Afraid H.L. spent Memorial Day weekend with living family and long deceased parents. Dad a waist gunner and bombardier in two of Rosie the Riveter’s B-24 Liberator Bombers. Mom a canteen girl who helped establish a USO in Clovis, New Mexico but met Dad on West 44th Street in ’44 at the Stage Door Canteen, while he furloughed to say goodbye to his mother. Rosie the Riveter One weekend activity was a group viewing and discussion of the reality/survivalist TV show Naked and Afraid. My kids gave the show a “C” for the genre but I experienced it as a good 2018 version of Father Knows Best and Amos and Andy. Those 1950s TV shows, while presenting stereotyped versions of [...]
After Parkland, in stand your ground Florida and the Santa Fe Massacre in the have it your way (open and/or concealed carry) Lone Star state, the gun cult doubled and redoubled down. Armed guards at both schools weren’t enough. More guns packed by more teachers were needed and might have reduced the number of casualties – they chanted. And one might predict that it is just a matter of time until the cult calls for armed high school students. Except a cult lawmaker already proposed that. He be Ohio Republican Representative Niraj Antani. […]
“Say Anything” was a great John Cusack flick. Among many reasons was the line that billed it as a “Lloyd Meets Girl Movie.” Lloyd Dobler said any and everything and won the love of the objectively unreachable and out of his class, Diane Court played by Ione Skye. […]
The stakes in the 2018 congressional elections are greatest of any in midterm memory. If Democrats can thread the needle and regain control of the Senate, the next Gorsuch-like abomination can be prevented. The multi-faceted damage his votes and opinions will inflict has been hinted at but will become increasingly clear in the spring and crescendo this June. […]
Welcome back to Hopelessly Liberal after its long winter nap. Last year we tried to write about the “#MeToo movement” but each time HL’s advisory board vetoed the post. The sage and prescient advice was that the exemplars written about (Kevin Spacey was one, Bush 41 another) would soon attract additional accusers, named and anonymous, rendering the point we were trying to make incomplete, at best. The hits kept coming as most of us spent considerable and painful effort recalling episodes of sexual aggression that we were party to. The allegations and introspection continue, but some interim reflections are in order. Politics Skew Perception Among social conservatives in Alabama, Roy Moore’s alleged pursuit of teenage girls during his thirties was quickly compared to Joseph’s marriage [...]
The Supreme Court will hear argument today in Gill v. Whitford, the partisan gerrymandering case. The issue, whether Wisconsin Republican legislators who get a minority of votes can continue to draw district lines that guarantee them a large majority of seats? This practice employed by both, and all parties when in power dates back to the earliest days of the republic. A SCOTUS ruling that the practice is unconstitutional would rank among a score or so of the most important in over two centuries. But even if the Court so rules and levels the political playing field in a manner and magnitude not seen since Reynolds v. Sims in 1964, that won’t help Democratic voters in New York State, not as long as the Empire State has a governor with surname Cuomo. […]
