No doubt you’re aware of the international spectacle rapper Nicki Minaj caused when she informed her 156 million followers on social media why she was not attending the Met Gala on Monday night. It all began when she posted a series of tweets, explaining that she could not provide the proof of Covid vaccination required,… Read more.
Archives for 2021
Met Gala – a Strange Schmoozefest of Latterday Lady Godivas, Marie Antoinettes, and Scarlett O’Haras…
This blog is replete with commentaries exposing the fashion industry’s Marie-Antoinette sense and sensibility, antebellum notion of beauty, and nakedly prurient appeal. Indeed, regarding this last point, cognitive dissonance is such that the best-dressed women these days are often the least dressed. But I have decried everything from mannequins strutting their skinny bones on catwalks… Read more.
9/11 – 20 Years Later. Who Won? Ha!
Many Americans are just too jingoistic to concede the Taliban won this 20-year war. But the way the Taliban presided over America’s humiliating retreat from Kabul last month betrays the truth. As it happened, here is how I declared the Taliban (and their al-Qaeda hired guns) the winner on 9/11 … 10 years ago: If… Read more.
Civil War II Looms Larger as Texas Suppresses Voting Rights and Bans Abortions…
Political dysfunction and social unrest have had America marching towards another civil war for years. And I have been in the vanguard of those sounding alarms in commentaries like “Tribalism and Dysfunction in American Politics,” June 24, 2018, “Impeachment Vote Is as Much About Tribalism as Trumpism,” November 3, 2019, and “Republican and Democrats Began… Read more.
Afghanistan Today, Taiwan Tomorrow. China Fuels Doubts About US as Ally
China has been leading the chorus of authoritarian countries expressing unbridled schadenfreude over America’s humiliating and tragic retreat from Afghanistan. Its official state news agency, Xinhua, set the tone with an August 16 headline that read: The ‘fall of Kabul’ rings the funeral bell of US hegemony But its unofficial state newspaper, the Global Times,… Read more.
US Leaving Afghanistan … a Tragic and Humiliating Mess
Podcast Episode 45: With 20 Years of Blood and Treasure Buried in Its ‘Graveyard of Empires’... Related commentaries: Afghanistan evacuation… Listen.
Anderson .Paak Tattoos My Rant Against Posthumous Albums
I have been dissing the racket of posthumous albums for years, and taking a lot of flak for doing so. This was especially the case when I wrote the following from “More Proof Michael Was Not ‘Gone Too Soon’,” June 20, 2014: _________ When producers raised the curtain on Michael Jackson’s much-hyped performance, in hologram… Read more.
Media’s Crippling Coverage of Tokyo Paralympics…
The 2020 Tokyo Paralympics get underway with the Opening Ceremony tonight. If you live in the United States, however, you probably had no clue (unless you’re related to someone from Team USA, or you experienced the Google shower of Paralympic pictograms on your computer screen). Of course, media coverage of the Paralympics is scant in… Read more.
Haiti
Over the past week, Afghanistan dominated conversations among personal friends as much as it dominated coverage on cable news networks. But I never failed to spare a thought for Haiti – as “Haitian Earthquake 2021: Déjà vu or Voodoo…?” August 14, attests. Reports abound about chronic political corruption and dysfunction making people less inclined to… Read more.
Graveyard of Empires! China, Your Turn…
Russia and China are leading the chorus of countries gloating over America’s humiliating retreat from Afghanistan. These of course are the same two countries that have been undermining elections, fomenting unrest, and even discrediting vaccines to make America look so dysfunctional and unlivable that their countries would look more attractive by comparison, respectively. But there… Read more.