Drag Queens

 “To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.” Barbara Ehrenreich

I read a headline that claimed that George Santos, probably the most notorious, outrageous, mind-boggling example of the gangrene in Trump’s GOP, once did drag, another small secret in his impressive resume of Bald Faced Lies & Total Fabrications. This boy’s got it all, the perfect advertisement for the GOP, and hapless Kevin McCarthy has to keep him or watch his majority shrink further. McCarthy is strapped to a rocket of political cruelty and stupidity. Serves him right. What kind of shit do you think lines the closet of a man like Kevin McCarthy? A man who for position and power repeatedly humiliates himself. In Public. Who makes backroom deals that he knows are pure madness? But the train is rolling now, unstoppable. Kevin’s going to have some very bad days in the months ahead. 

If Kevin McCarthy were a drag performer, what do you think his stage name would be? Ponder. Share ideas. Collaborate, as they say. 

Leave it to the state of Florida to choose ignorance over knowledge and academic tyranny over academic freedom. No AP course on African-American history will be offered to Florida’s high school students. Too many references to “Black Power” and “Reparations” and “Black Lives Matter.” Way to go Florida! Keep fighting the future! Stay stupid!  

Let’s change the subject to football. My Chelsea are going through a rough season, the first under new ownership. The Russian oligarch, Roman Ambramovic, owned the club for two decades and his money and belief played a huge part in Chelsea’s most glory-laden seasons. Lots of great players, now club legends, a tradition of excellence, many trophies. He invested lavishly in the club. He sacked managers for poor results, possibly for sport. He was mercurial, impatient for silverware. The fans loved him. 

Roman’s gone, chased out by the UK government in its crackdown on Russian oligarchs after Putin invaded Ukraine. Todd Boehly and a group of investors are now the owners, everything’s different. Boehly is splashing money around with verve, but 12 first team players or their immediate substitute is injured and out of action. They have a new manager, Graham Potter, who was snatched from Brighton Hove Albion where he had success in building a reliable mid-table team. Potter replaced the very popular Thomas Tuchel. I liked Tuchel, he didn’t deserve the sack after what he contributed to the club, but that’s how the business end of the game works. No loyalty.

The jury’s out on Potter, whether he’s the man to lead the regeneration of this team. Is he a good enough manager? Or is this stage too big for him at this point in his career? Brighton and Chelsea are very different. The expectation of the supporters is way, way different. Chelsea fans are anxious, and it’s not clear what kind of team is being assembled for what style of play. 

So, that’s Chelsea. In the meantime, cross-city rivals, Arsenal, are killing it, sitting atop the table with 50 points. Tremendous young team that is totally in sync and playing with daring and skill. I watched them defeat Manchester United 3-2 on Sunday. United have been resurgent of late and sit in fourth position. Under new manager Erik ten Hag, United is back from the wilderness, definitely in the title race when this match kicked-off, and even more so when they scored first through a brilliant Marcus Rashford laser from distance. I was very keen to see how Arsenal would react to going a goal behind in front of their home support. That’s always a tell. Arsenal didn’t blink. You could see them collectively dig in. They didn’t get wobbly when United equalized at 2-2, either. That informs me that this team is for real, a proper title contender. They’re a very direct team, always moving forward with organization and smarts. Thomas Partey was massive in the midfield for Arsenal, my man of the match. But that honor could just as easily be handed to Bakayo Saka who scored a highlight reel goal from distance, or Eddie Nketiah, who scored a brace, including the winner in the ninetieth minute. Dramatic stuff. Both teams were up for the contest, and the match was played with high intensity and tempo and skill. Ridiculous skill. 

I’m reading a book called The Big Myth, and George Saunders’s new collection of short stories. Liberation Day. Typical Saunders: strange, dark, funny, with unusual juxtapositions. I just finished writing a review of Personality and Power by the historian Ian Kershaw. The subtitle is Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe.