Politics – Page 4 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Find Beauty When and Where You Can

Stop and smell the roses

A Mastodon user sent me a direct message the other day asking why I felt so comfortable doing what I do every morning, which is posting a “Good Morning” toot featuring photos I’ve taken of flowers, tree leaves changing color, other shots of nature, holiday ornaments, etc….

The context of the query was criticizing how I could continue to do that every morning given all of the terrible things going on in the United States, things I also rightfully describe on social media as horrors.

I get it. Believe me I get it. I’m overwhelmed at times as well. But my response was and is simple.

Stop and smell the roses.

While there are indeed horrors happening in the world there is always beauty. If we don’t take a moment to see and acknowledge the beauty around us and the spontaneity of discovering it, whether it be in nature, in very human moments, in a museum, a gallery, a stage, a movie theater, a concert hall, a photograph, a child’s laugh, or in a story, then what the hell are we fighting for?

I’m convinced those we are fighting against don’t see or even care to see the beauty around and within us, unless it involves increasing their bank account balances.

Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses. I prefer doing so in the mornings, before I put on my armor to meet the challenges of the day.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Watching Ken Burns’ The American Revolution

Context is everything

Started watching Ken Burns’ The American Revolution last night. It sounds almost trite, but it’s typical Ken Burns (and his collaborators) historical documentary excellence.

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What struck me is how I’m hearing things I’ve read and heard over and over again about the period leading up to the American Revolution. So far, (only two episodes in) the history is as I studied it. And by studying it, I mean well below the surface of the myths folks of my generation were taught in school.

I’m not hearing things differently, but I’m hearing how folks can take their own meaning out of many of the things written and said during that period that led to this country’s founding. History may indeed rhyme, but it also echoes. Often in strange ways.

That’s certainly true if all you hang your tri-cornered hat on are the myths.

Death By Lightning: A Mini-Review for a Mini-Success

Music, fighting, sausages

Candace Millard’s excellent non-fiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of the President is often overlooked, though it was well received well when it debuted in 2011. I’m hoping that the new Netflix adaptation titled Death By Lightning will give Millard, her book, and the period of American history it chronicles more well deserved and appropriate notoriety.

Death by lightning.

Yes, this is one of those many cases where the original source material far outshines the film/TV version. That said, Death By Lightning is worth a watch, if nothing else for an entertaining opportunity to dip your toes into the historical waters that are still affecting much of what we’re wading through today in an age when those in control are so eager to pour cold water on the pieces of history they don’t like.

More to the point, Death By Lightning touches on a piece of history from a tumultuous time that seems largely forgotten, that we perhaps might have learned better from, even before we got into this current mess. A poignant, late scene sets this up wonderfully.

Created by Mike Makowsy and directed by Matt Ross, Death By Lightning is a limited Netflix series, that chronicles the unlikely rise of James Garfield to the presidency and his assassination by Charles Guiteau. (If you think anything in this brief review is a spoiler it proves my earlier point.)

There are four episodes and in the end that’s part of what weakens the series as it doesn’t allow much time for much of the depth of Millard’s book. Towards the end it feels like it’s rushing to a conclusion, leaving me wondering how much got left on the cutting room floor or chucked away in the C-suite.

An excellent cast largely rises to the occasion featuring Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew MacFadyen as an over the top Guiteau. That said, Guiteau was apparently quite over the top in real life according to many accounts, so much so that there are so many accounts. They are well supported by Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Bradley Whitford, and especially Nick Offerman in a scenery and sausage chewing turn as Chester Arthur, who succeeded Garfield.

One of the wonders of Millard’s book is that it featured an intersection of so much of American life at the time following the Civil War, from politics to science and medicine. The battle between the politics of the spoils system and a desire for a less corrupt civil service system is well chronicled in both the book and the series and adds interesting context to our current tariff tangles that I’m guessing most will find surprising.

If you’re frustrated by recent happenings in our current day Congress and politics both the book and the series will add some historical (and often entertaining) context to the mess we’re in.

Less featured in the series are the conflicts in medicine with many American physicians of the day rejecting what had become largely accepted in Europe as a new approach to germs and sanitary surgical practices. Not really a spoiler, Garfield was shot, but it wasn’t the bullet that killed him. He died from sepsis caused by infection due to unsanitary practices in the aftermath. If you’re detecting hints of the medical madness we’ve been living through since the pandemic, you’re not wrong.

Alexander Graham Bell also makes an appearance with a new invention that could possibly detect the bullet lodged in Garfield’s gut, but the fuller story about his scientific advances and entrepreneurship, which runs on an almost parallel path to Garfield and Guiteau’s in the book, is mostly left as a footnote in the Netflix series.

Again, it’s by no means a perfect piece of streaming entertainment. I highly recommend the book on which it is based and I would mildly rate it better than most of the mundanity that fill our screens instead of the lists we curate. The cast and the exposure to a forgotten moment in American history that I’m certain many have no clue about makes it a good candidate for your watch list.

Besides just getting a chance to see Nick Offerman toss out the line, “Music, fighting, and sausages” is worth the time spent.

Sunday Morning Reading

Politics, the arts, a little snow, and the end of an era

It’s a Sunday and Fall is homing in on Winter as the first snow of the season hits Chicago this morning. Perfect time for a little Sunday Morning Reading featuring some interesting stories about the arts, AI, and home.

As the first flakes of this winter of discontent fall, two interesting reads highlight some of the chaos the art-less U.S administration is inflicting on the American arts scene, specifically The Kennedy Center. Shawn McCreesh takes a look at the damage being done in The Kennedy Center Crackup.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Higgins reports that the Washington National Opera May Move Out Of The Kennedy Center Due to Trump ‘Takeover.’ I’m here to tell you that while what’s happening on the banks of the Potomac may feel very inside the beltway, the repercussions are being felt in the boardrooms of arts organizations across the country.

The above, like most of our news of late, is certainly not something to laugh at. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t find ways to laugh at the incompetent, ignorant and dangerous players wreaking havoc in their wake. Laughter gets under their all too thin skins, no matter how made up or stretched too tight by surgery. Mike Monteiro offers up How To Point At Fascists And Laugh.

NatashaMH, far too young to worry about being old, takes a look at creating art as she nears the mid-century mark in I Don’t Paint For Your Sofa. Youngsters these days.

Art and politics might be an unholy mix in dangerous times like these, but there’s another foul concoction brewing. Adam Willems points to An ex-Intel CEO’s Mission To Build A Christian AI: ‘Hasten The Coming of Christ’s Return.’ If you ask me these folks wishing for these kind of end times have really missed the points. All of them.

Continuing on the AI front there seems to be a bit of weakening in the walls of what most concede is an economic bubble. The cliché is that bubbles pop. Those that don’t, just disappear as they float away. Ben Thompson takes a look at what happens in either case in The Benefits of Bubbles.

Home is where hearts are and often places you can’t return back to. I’ve lived both. Chris Andrei is Searching For The Elusive Feeling Of Home.

With the weather changing and snowflakes falling out my window, there’s a passage of time marker about to be set. The Farmers’ Almanac is about to shut down. Growing up in rural America there were only two publications that everyone I knew received in the mail. It was always a big deal in our house when my dad, who was the postmaster, brought those home. The Sears Catalog and The Farmer’s Almanac. The Sears Catalog is long gone. The 2026 edition of the latter will be its last. Grace Snelling takes a look back and ahead in After More Than 200 Years, The Farmers’ Almanac Is Shutting Down For Good.

Returning to where this week’s column began, the arts, Jack Rodolico’s The Blue Book Burglar examines how New York’s once vaunted Social Register, was not only a destination that social climbers desired to be included in, but was also a hit list for the country’s hardest working art thief. I just don’t understand how the current thieves doing today’s pillaging have it so damn easy.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Elections, Government Shutdowns and Other Quick Thoughts

Can dangerous actions continue to outstrip broken politics?

Just a few quick thoughts.

Without question I have to say I’m very pleased with the Democratic election victories across the country last night. Both the winners and the size of the margins in the headline races for governors, NYC mayor, and redistricting in California. I’m even more pleased to see some of the down ballot races yield Democratic victories as well.

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Especially in my home state of Virginia where the Democrats took enough seats to have quite a majority in the House of Delegates. Here’s hoping that yields very positive results for the newly elected Democratic governor.

Obviously everyone is going to parse all of these election results and find ways to celebrate, castigate, and even dismiss what’s obvious. People are pissed off. They need to remain so.

Today also sets a record for the longest government shutdown in American history. Real people are being affected by this and that will only continue and get worse as long as the shutdown does. Of course when you have one house of Congress refusing to gavel into session and also refusing to swear in an elected member, who knows how long things will last.

In so many ways, the GOP and Trump’s tactics have been the biggest act of self-mutilation and self-humiliation by a political party I think the world has ever seen.

They will never acknowledge that.

Voters sure did.

Meanwhile the evil continues in Chicago and other places as ICE keeps ramping up its horror campaign. That’s not going to abate soon. I heard this morning that yesterday they were checking people’s IDs at the entrance to my local grocery store’s parking lot.

Perhaps those digging these holes that they will someday bury themselves in will keep ratcheting up their insidious actions to a point where events continue to outstrip the usual to and fro of politics. That’s a weird and painful thing to hope for, but it might just be our best hope at the moment.

And on we go.

Sunday Morning Reading

No tricks. No treats. Just thoughts and reading worth sharing.

The frights of Halloween have passed us by, but real life horrors remain and expand. Never had more gut wrenching emotions this weekend than spending it with my grandkids costumed in their bountiful innocence, avoiding what’s out there in a life they’ll one day have to face, but in the present doesn’t exist beyond the edges of any joyful moment of wonder and exuberance they can conjure. This week’s Sunday Morning Reading won’t touch on too much of that, but then again, I think it just did.

David Todd McCarty thinks amidst it all We Can Be Heroes. Making my grandkids laugh uncontrollably makes me feels damn close.

Adam Gropnik visits the home of the poet Wislawa Szymborska and returns with How To Endure Authoritarianism.

Will Bunch says It Didn’t take A Reichstag Fire To Burn Down Congress. He’s correct. It didn’t even take a match.

Some interesting writing on Artificial Intelligence and the Internet this week that’s worth your while, first up Cory Doctorow tackles When AI Prophecy Fails.

Will Douglas Heaven explains How AGI Became The Most Consequential Theory Of Our Time.

Tim Chinenov wonders Who’s Creating The Rage Bait That’s Radicalizing You?

Decidedly not on the Internet Friday night while trick-or-treating with my grandkids, though not in my besieged town of Chicago, I witnessed not only kids howling with fun, but adults who joined in on the fun with their own costumes and decorated homes, some elaborate, some not so, all with love and honoring a tradition I’ve never seen in the communities I’ve lived in. Many families set up in their driveways, some with small fire pits, some with tents, tables full of food (and candy), welcoming all comers to their Halloween semi-tall gating front yards. I also noticed the adults who just sat in their cars and slowly followed their children down the block. The entire experience reminded me of this piece from the summer in which Joan Westenberg says every creator pays a tax while the rest stay spectators in The Unbearable Lightness of Cringe. Pay the tax.

And closing out this week, kudos to both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays for an excellent World Series, which the Dodgers won. Both teams played a splendid series and provided an incredible Game 7 finish to one of those contests you never want to see end, but know it must. Grown men over compensated for incredible talent, playing a kid’s game like kids, thrilling and heart breaking in the same breath. Too bad we don’t have any great, or even good, baseball writers to chronicle the moment these days.

Sunday Morning Reading

Balancing on the edge of a coin

Regardless of the many problems with the Internet, there’s no denying its benefits. One of those is the pleasure of reading stuff I probably would never be aware of without it. In many ways that’s what this Sunday Morning Reading column is about (as well as my life in general on the Internet.) When you read and live life enough, you discover that the trick is always balancing on the edge of the coin that separates the two sides.

There’s comfort perhaps landing on one side or the other, but life is actually in the fragile middle of the muddle somewhere, even if it’s a fine, and increasingly thinner line, often hard to discern.

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First up this Sunday is a piece by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called Fear, Greed, Civic Virtue and the Fall of the Elites. Pay attention to that word “virtue.” As Marshall points out it originally meant “manliness.” The word’s evolution is as tricky as the concept itself.

Follow that up with Ian Betteridge’s The Politics of the Missing Middle.

Ian Betteridge’s law of headlines that says any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered with the word “no.” Steven Levy falls into Betteridge’s trap in his piece, Can AI Avoid The Enshittification Trap? Cory Doctorow’s theory of Enshittification has been a popular topic in this column and Betteridge’s law certainly applies here. For those looking for a primer on enshittification Greg Rosalsky has a a quick primer on the topic in A Theory Why The Internet Is Going Down The Toilet.

While technically not falling under the umbrella of enshittification, some of the ways folks are using AI sure sound shitty. Check out Alexandra Jones’s I Realized I’d Been ChatGPT-ed Into Bed: ‘Chatfishing’ Made Finding Love On Dating Apps Even Weirder.

Things are getting weird indeed. Adi Robertson tells us that The Next Legal Frontier Is Your Face and AI.

Several pieces on the arts and creativity stood out to me this week. David Sparks’ The Inherent Value Of The Creative Act reflects on his creative life and his resistance to using AI for the work of creating, but it helps with his administrative tasks. There’s that edge of the coin again.

Authoritarians always target art and artists first. You don’t need an Internet to discover that history, or perhaps we might if the current forces in charge have their way. Andrew Weinstein discusses Trump’s Campaign To Defund The Arts—and Rewrite History.

Speaking of creativity or rather the other side of that coin, Joe Rosenthal takes on Creative Neglect: What About The Apps In Apple? I mentioned some of this in a piece I wrote this past week.

Speaking of that edge and to close out this week, here’s an image of a Mastodon post by friend David Todd McCarty from this morning.

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(Coin Image above from ABARONS on Shutterstock)

What’s Next After No Kings Day? How About Blackout Black Friday

Blackout Black Friday

By most accounts No Kings Day 2 was a success in gathering large crowds. Around 7 million seems to be the accepted estimate. Did it have an impact? Sure. What kind of impact? Who the hell really knows.

If you’ve followed the thoughts I’ve been jotting down here you’ll know that I strongly believe that until we extend the energy from events like No Kings Day out of a weekend and into a work week, or have a general strike, we’re not going to see the level of impact that might actually change things. I stress the word “might.”

In the aftermath of No Kings Day 2 I was searching within the recesses of my brain for something, anything that could possibly move the needle. I came up with the idea of a Blackout on Black Friday. Don’t shop. Skip Prime Day and all of its variants. Don’t watch the sports. Don’t go to the movies. Stay off the Internet. Even a 10% drop in shopping and viewing metrics would have an impact. Even the threat of such an action would probably have an impact.

Then this morning on Mastodon I see this post from SharonPersists.

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I’m glad my brain isn’t the only one where these kind of thoughts are rattling around.

I’m sure there would be all sorts of friction given that this would be over a holiday weekend geared towards family and giving thanks. But I can’t think of a better time to turn it all off, spend time with family and friends, and possibly build on the momentum of other protests.

One way or the other this situation is going to require sacrifice before it comes to whatever end it will eventually come to. The only real choice we have is to make that sacrifice willingly, or have it continue to be thrust upon us.

I think of all of the Thanksgiving Day holidays in which I was producing and directing Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. After each performance I watched families leave filled with the Christmas Spirit, only to have that merely be a passing moment in time when the message didn’t stick. We need to find some way that sticks.

I’ll be emailing organizers about this idea. I hope you might do the same.

Artists Unite for Fall Of Freedom Campaign

Art matters. Artists are a threat to American fascism.

Much of the current focus building out of the simmering outrage at the actions of the Trump regime is centered on the October 18 NoKings rallies being planned across the country. From the sound of it the crowds will be large and widespread across the country. That’s all a good thing.

That said, I still wish and hope for and believe that more sustained efforts are going to be required before enough pressure might actually lead to progress.

One effort that might help, if given proper support and media coverage, is an national call to action by artists called Fall Of Freedom. You should certainly check out the website and how to get involved. Here’s an excerpt from the website:

Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation. Our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising. Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.

This Fall, we are activating a nationwide wave of creative resistance. Beginning November 21–22, 2025, galleries, museums, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country will host exhibitions, performances, and public events that channel the urgency of this moment. Fall of Freedom is an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part—and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.

Art matters. Artists are a threat to American fascism.

I do happen to believe in that last statement. Art does matter, and artists are a threat to American fascism, or fascism wherever it raises its ugly head.

From an article in American Theatre magazine, here are some of the theatre artists and organizations already involved:

Playwrights David Henry Hwang, Dominique Morisseau, and Sarah Ruhl; director/organizer Annie Dorsen; and Julia Jordan of the Lillys. Theatre organizations involved include the August Wilson Center, National Black Theatre, the Public Theater, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Woolly Mammoth, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, En Garde Arts, Crossroads Theater Company, IndieSpace, and more.

There’s a longer and growing list at this link.

I urge you to check out the website that includes ways to get involved and a toolkit for this national call to action.

Sunday Morning Reading

Everything you can imagine is different, yet it’s the same.

It’s a Sunday. It’s a Sunday in Chicago. The Cubs lost. (Not surprising.) The Trump regime continues its horrendous snatch and grab policies all over the city (Increasingly not surprising but still terrifying.) Leaves are falling, but somehow they feel dirtier and without the bursts of color we’re used to seeing beforehand. And the world marches on. Time for a little Sunday Morning Reading.

Neil Steinberg wrote a terrific piece about Chicago amidst all that’s going on called What A Lovely Day in Chicago. It’s a love letter. It’s an homage. It’s a snapshot. As he puts it “We need to remember that this is oppression for oppression’s sake, a practice built on lies. The city is fine.” That’s the odd thing. The city is fine. It’s the oppression that’s not.

Timothy Burke’s The News: Reign of Error expands on a piece by Henry Farrell that says that institutions and communities need to coordinate their resistance to Trump. As Burke puts it one of the obstacles is that “the closer that institutions get to one another in character and mission, and the less necessary it is to be competitive, the more that they are overwhelmed by the narcissism of small differences.” It’s an excellent dissection that reveals why some in higher places of different sectors might be holding their tongues while their mouths are agape at what’s going on around us.

Empywheel thinks The Nativists Are Getting Restless: How The Comey Prosecution May Backfire. I’m not sure it matters in the end if the point is do damage as loudly as possible.

David Todd McCarty asks the question Is Your Imagination Robbing You of Real Experiences? Cogito, ergo sum?

I wrote a play years ago about John Brown and Harpers Ferry, one of those moments in American history that we seem to want to forget, yet never goes away. Robert S. Levine tells us Why Donald Trump Wants To Erase John Brown’s Fiery Abolitionist Legacy (and Why He Will Fail.)

There was so much craziness about the Nobel Peace Prize this year given, well you know why. So much so that many of the other awards were overlooked. The Nobel Prize for Literature went to Hungarian author Lázló Krasznahorkai. I have several acquaintances who adore his work and were tremendously excited. I did some reading on Krasznahorkai and stumbled up on this 2011 piece by James Wood called Madness and Civilization about the author. Worth your while.

On the Artificial Intelligence beat, Sora is the latest thing everyone has an immediate love/hate relationship with. But this isn’t about that. Sarah Perez says It’s Not Too Late For Apple To Get AI Right. Frankly, I think it’s too late for any of these companies to get it right, unless “right” is about winning the con game.

Resting my case on that last statement, Alexandra Jones looks into the connections folks can’t make in real life and are turning to AI for in ‘I Realized I’d Been ChatGPT-ed Into Bed’: How ‘Chatfishing Made Finding Love On Dating Apps Even Weirder.”

And as Autumn continues its march, New Englanders Are Fed Up With Leaf-Peeping Tourists Ruining Their Fall, so says Jared Mitovitch.

(Image is a photo I took last Fall)