Left Jabs

  Back in 2019, the first time Jeffrey Epstein was the name on everyone’s lips, the New York Times published the bizarre story of Leslie H. Wexner. The billionaire founder of Victoria’s Secret, this guy basically signed over his life — and much of his fortune — to Epstein. This went on for at least 16 years. Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney, and with it the ability to buy, sell, or sign for anything in Wexner’s name, thereby affording him extraordinary access to, and power over, the personal finances of an extremely wealthy man. Ostensibly Wexner had hired Epstein as a financial advisor, yet no one at L Brands — parent company of Victoria’s Secret— saw any official record of employment or compensation. Over a decade and a half, Epstein took over most, if not all, of Wexner’s personal investments, including substantial real estate holdings. Epstein transferred ownership of a lot of those properties to himself. This baffled and disturbed other executives...

  A s with most things having to do with soccer, the first-ever FIFA Club World Cup flew largely under the radar of American audiences, even though the month-long tournament was held entirely in the U.S. Among other things, it served as a reminder that the real World Cup, in all its over-the-top spectacle, is happening next summer, also in the U.S., together with Canada and Mexico. Three amigos, hosting the world. What could go wrong? But the final of this tournament, matching Chelsea, an English team, with Paris St. Germain, a French one, attracted real interest, even in this soccer-ambivalent country. A few million Americans were watching, me included. It was a really good game, but I wouldn’t be writing this if it weren’t for the TV camera that was fixed on the luxury box containing Donald and Melania Trump, seated next to Gianni Infantino and his wife, Leena Al Ashquar. Infantino, an Italian Swiss, is president — some say “emperor” — of FIFA, the domi...

  For various reasons, my writing output will be curtailed a bit this summer, so I’m trying to fill the void with pieces from the past that somehow resonate with our current situation. This is not as hard as it seems, as the Trump crowd has been remarkably consistent in their cruelty, ineptitude, and stupidity. So please return with me to April 13, 2020, to the earliest days of this blog, just as Covid was washing over us and shutting everything down. The first Trump administration was already breaking new ground for governmental incompetence, and an old Stephen King novel was finding a new and scary relevance that has not diminished since.   I have no intention of rereading  The Stand , Stephen King’s apocalyptic novel of a virus that obliterates most of the U.S. leaving a smattering of survivors to pick up the pieces. I read it twice — I was a bigger King fan then than now — but only because he released a second “original” version which was longe...

    How ironic that it would be deep red Texas hosting the first of what will surely be many natural disasters exacerbated by the Trump regime’s malicious incompetence. Already we know that the evisceration of the National Weather Service was likely a factor in the failure to adequately warn of the flood danger. We also know that FEMA has been largely defunded and deprived of the people who know the most about disaster response. So when looking for a piece I could rerun this week, I found this one, from June 2023, which seemed to fit right in. Because now that we know how Texas’ victims weren’t properly warned, and now that we know they probably won’t get either short- or long-term aid to recover, at least we know they can count on the insurance industry to make them whole, right? Uh, read on.   Ron DeSantis probably doesn't want too many people to know this, but he just signed a new law that brings sweeping regulation and oversight — two words t...

  L et’s be clear about one thing. A Democrat is a Democrat. We have neither the time nor the bandwidth to split policy hairs when the country is being burned to the ground. The only thing we need to know about any Democrat is that they’re not Republican. The media would have us believe there’s some deep chasm between “moderate” Democrats and “progressive” Democrats. They talk about “leftists,” as if there’s some diabolical cabal of radicals planning to turn the whole country gay and woke. They talk about “centrist Democrats” as if they just disagree with Trump on an issue or two. All Democrats share some core beliefs, even if they never think about them, even if they take them for granted. Rule of law. Reproductive rights. Civil rights for all. Healthcare for all. Strong safety net. A few others. Republicans, for the most part, want these things as well, but they’ve been brainwashed into thinking otherwise. Still, the legacy media continues to outdo itself ...