New York Yankees centerfielder Aaron Judge up at bat against the Washington Nationals in Nationals Park, Washington, D.C., Aug. 26. Photographs by Georgette Gouveia.
A pre-Labor Day trip to see the good-but-not-great New York Yankees play the better-than-expected Nationals in Washington D.C. yielded some insights into the American worker, who these days always seems always to be on the visiting team — that is, in hostile territory.
Read MoreAt the Democratic Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, Vice President Kamala Harris made her case for why she should be president. Courtesy the White House.
Well, the Democratic Convention has me feeling a lot better about the Democrats’ chances in the November election and Kamala Harris’ chances to be the first woman — and woman of color — to become president of the United States. To says she has surprised me with her sheer focused magnificence is the understatement of the year.
Did the first couple of nights run long? Sure, but then it’s always prime time somewhere in the world. Do some politicians love the sounds of their own voices? Always.
At the convention, though, we got not only joy — in short supply in the “American carnage” years — but the sorrow of officers assaulted in the Jan. 6 insurrection, parents waiting for the American hostages of Hamas to be released and women whose health was risked by abortions denied. And we got the sobriety of what we’re up against — the autocracy of the Republicans’ Project 2025 and the lunacy of former President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs. As former President Bill Clinton — still as shrewd a pol as they come — said, we underestimate the opposition at our own peril.
Read MoreLike a little kid who just won his first event, Novak Djokovic can’t contain his pride and joy in holding Olympic gold at last.
The Olympics were just getting underway July 27 when the American swim team was reminded of how Australian swimmer Cate Campbell reveled in her country having had more gold medals than the United States (13 to seven) at the 2023 World Swimming Championships.
There has long been an intense rivalry between the swim teams that has spilled over into trash talk, but Campbell really went off on the cowbells in the stands that support Americans in the pool and even the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” If nothing succeeds like success, nothing irks like it either.
While the National Anthem comment seems petty, Campbell may have a point when you consider NBC’s cheerleading coverage of the Paris Games as we roll through the second week of competition….
Read MoreVice President,and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris at a San Francisco Pride event in 2019. Photograph by Quinn Dombrowski .
It figures that my birthday break would bring big news: There’s just something about the second half of July.
On July 21, President Joe Biden went George Washington on everyone and announced that he would put patriotism and party before personhood and renounce the nomination for a second term, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Perhaps the most surprising thing in an announcement that was devoutly desired and yet still shocking was the way people rallied around Harris, who raised $200 million in her first week on the campaign trail.
Read MoreThe lotus represents karma in that it holds its seeds as it flowers. Photograph by Nevit Dilmen.
Violence is never the answer, but it is often the question. The attempt on former President Donald J. Trump’s life is nothing to celebrate as the taking of a life in anything but self-defense is morally and legally wrong.
But after almost 10 years of vitriol on the campaign trail and in office, he has come to his encounter with karma.
Read MoreSandy Koufax, one of Major League Baseball’s greatest players, announcing his retirement at age 30 on Nov. 20, 1966 at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel. Courtesy the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.
Wimbledon may be a long way metaphorically as well as geographically from Washington, D.C., but both Ws have been confronted recently with the age of key players. Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, with an artificial hip and fresh from surgery to remove a spinal cyst, is playing doubles with brother Jamie at age 37. Just a week younger, seven-time champ Novak Djokovic is playing ahead of schedule after surgery to repair a meniscus tear, which may or may not have an effect on his chances for an Olympic medal at the Paris Games, beginning July 26, and
a repeat as US Open champ. (I don’t know why people keep saying “an elusive Olympic medal.” He won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games.)
Rafael Nadal, 38, who has had his own hip surgery and subsequent injuries and whose knees are allergic to grass anyway, is sitting out Wimbledon for a chance to play at Roland Garros again as Carlos Alcaraz’s doubles partner at the Paris Olympics, after losing there in May in the first round of the French Open, a tournament he once dominated.
But hey, at least they’re not running for president of the United States.
Read MorePresident Joe Biden on his 81st birthday, Nov. 20, 2023. Courtesy the president’s Instagram account.
If President Joe Biden’s debate performance had been a Broadway play, it would’ve closed the night it opened. At times stiff and unresponsive, he stood there as if his spirit were encased in wood, like some mythological creature whom the gods would destroy before loving, while former President Donald J. Trump hammered home false narrative after false narrative. Good grief.
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