Volume 265 | No. 5

Mon, Nov 23

1986—Two men escape from a maximum-security prison in Rome in a hijacked helicopter. 1981—R. Reagan signs a secret directive creating the [illegal] Contras. 1976—Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested outside Graceland for waving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis. 1970—A Lithuanian radio operator jumps from a Russian trawler onto the deck of the Coast Guard cutter Vigilant. Commander Ralph Eustis allows Soviet sailors to board the cutter and seize the radioman. 1958—On TV: Ron & Nancy Reagan in “A Turkey for the President.” 1946—To teach “a severe lesson”—namely, that Vietnam is ruled by the French—the cruiser Suffren shells the hell out of Haiphong, killing 6,000. …

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Sun, Nov 22

2000—Two dozen well-dressed hooligans, many on the GOP’s payroll, intimidate Miami election officials into shutting down a Presidential recount. 1975—U.S.S. John F. Kennedy and U.S.S. Belknap collide in the night near Sicily. A two-hour fire aboard the Belknap stops 30 feet short of the nuclear weapons magazine. 1963—In Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated; at whose bidding is a matter of dispute. 1963—In Paris, a CIA man hands a lethal pen to a Cuban for use on Fidel Castro, at the behest of Bobby Kennedy. 1963—Don B. Reynolds’ testimony to a secret Senate committee, that LBJ took bribes, is halted by assassination. 1941—Germany’s …

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The Cuckoo Coup

In a sane country it wouldn’t have even been a contest, but we live in Freedomland. A quarter of a million people are dead, killed by a plague the incumbent treated as a political opportunity rather than a threat to national health. The infection rate and the Dow Jones are soaring, even as Main Street is collapsing. Despite all that, the election was so close it took four days to get a clear result. That’s OK, it could have been worse. At least, in the end, the challenger beat the incumbent—never an easy trick for that office—and did it by six million votes. He even …

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The Winter of our Dissolution?

We ought to be inured by now to this recurring political cycle. After all, it’s been going on for nearly a century. Even our legendary level of ironic distance, though, fails to provide an adequate level of psychic insulation. In short, this is too damn much. We cannot put a stop to it, but, by god, we can describe it. One party forces the country to accept some dubious policy choice. This choice is invariably made in service to Moloch, or capitalism, or whatever you want to call the human face of concentrated financial power. By its failure—which was, more likely than not, predicted by …

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A One-Time Aberration

Dear Mr. Fowle, Within this email I have written a mammoth a letter. I hope you will forgive me for any headaches or eye soreness induced if you humor me and read it. I started writing and did not, and frankly could not, stop. Then I edited, and rather than excising content like any good editor would, I added even more. A previous letter in your paper by a self-proclaimed “doctor” about the ineffectiveness of mask-wearing combined with recent reports of conspiracies, fraud, and violence from little boys who call themselves “proud,” triggered a flurry of words and emotions that I, for whatever reason, felt …

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