Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative … Continue reading →

The Financial Times and its hirelings are politically smitten with Neo-Liberal Golden Boy Emmanuel Macron. In his essay of January 15, 2018, Mr. Ganesh reveals the central Macron conceit: Before he became president of France, he identified a hole in … Continue reading →

Just the first paragraph of Mr. Brooks January 11, 2018 essay exemplifies his methodology: Everybody agrees society is in a bad way, but what exactly is the main cause of the badness? Some people emphasize economic issues: The simultaneous concentration … Continue reading →

Mr. Douthat like David Brooks seem infatuated, for the political moment, by Patrick Deneen’s ‘Why Liberalism Failed‘. But Douthat introduces his latest essay with Steve Bannon, who manages to cultivate the look of a man just off a week long … Continue reading →

Mr. Edwin Heathcote’s essay on the remodel of Johnson’s AT&T building opens with a  paragraph awash in popular cultural references: to some of the ‘Billboard Top 100’: The Bee Gees about to be de-throned by Chic’s “Le Freak”of 1979, and … Continue reading →

  I checked earlier on Friday morning to see if Andy Divine had yet posted his regular column at New York Magazine, it was 7 AM PST , which meant that it was 11 AM EST. Andy must be a … Continue reading →

Do any of Mr. Wolf’s arguments surprise? Saint Maggie makes the obligatory appearance! Or his carefully chosen sources as demonstrative of the success of the profit run concerns that serve the public? Or the examples of the Soviets and China, … Continue reading →

Can you imagine any of the other bourgeois respectable columnists at the Paper of Record , The  New York Times, using the word ‘asshole’ in any context? Charles M. Blow, David Brooks, Frank Bruni, Roger Cohen, Gail Collins, Ross Douthat, … Continue reading →

I read this Mondoweiss essay yesterday (January 10,2018)  and looked at the New York Times site today: for ex-Jerusalem Post editor @BretStephensNYT possible comments on Ms. Goldberg’s essay:  an imperious public humiliation of the Zionist Apostate, in the charmed circle … Continue reading →

A selective commentary  on Mr. Luce’s questions and observations: If Ms Winfrey is the answer to Mr Trump, what was the question? Like the rise of Mr Trump, the political rise of Ms. Winfrey is about the desperation of the … Continue reading →