This Week and Next
Seems like “Cut or UnCut” has new implications - and more from Trump’s America
There is a thing about being trapped, rather like those adhesive mousetraps set in old pantries. The more the struggle, the more firmly the adhesion. And so the nation finds itself stuck fast to October, watching another seven days of what might generously be called “governance” unfold with all the grace of a one-legged debutante tumbling down the stairs after several shots of gin.
The matter of the Nobel Prize must be addressed, though the exercise feels rather like explaining why the ocean is wet. The president, having spent recent months openly campaigning for the honor with the subtlety of a child demanding ice cream, was passed over Friday in favor of María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader who has spent years working for democracy while hiding from authoritarians. The White House, displaying the wounded dignity of a spurned suitor, announced that the Nobel committee had “proved they place politics over peace”. The irony stands there, naked and unashamed, for anyone with eyes to see it.
The president himself had claimed to have “solved seven wars,” a figure that fluctuated rather like stock prices depending on the day and audience. The record shows what peace looks like when it involves illegally withholding Ukrainian aid for political dirt, or bombing boats off Venezuela’s coast with what officials delicately termed “suspect” justification, or unleashing the military on the nation’s own citizens, or any of the other charming exercises in tranquility that have characterized recent months. Peace, it seems, is very much in the eye of the peacemonger.
The Attorney General, meanwhile, made her appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and what a performance it was. America’s own Elle Woods—older, less pretty, considerably less smart, and rabid—spent more than four hours deflecting, attacking, and generally behaving like a woman who had confused a congressional oversight hearing with a professional wrestling match. When Senator Blumenthal questioned her connections to a law firm involved in a merger under Justice Department scrutiny, she pivoted with admirable speed to attack him over decade-old allegations about his military service. Democrats attempted to discuss the recent indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, the firings of career prosecutors, and various other matters that might, in another era, have been considered worthy of the Attorney General’s attention. She declined to answer, repeatedly.
The matter warrants attention with particular interest: the effort to prosecute Mr. Comey led to upheaval in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia, ultimately requiring the president to appoint a White House aide to head the office. Nothing says “independent justice system” quite like needing to install a loyalist to get the prosecution the president wants.
Then there was Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, a televised affair that future historians will study with the kind of morbid fascination reserved for train wrecks. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared with the assembled group his latest theory: that boys who are circumcised develop autism at double the rate of those who are not, likely because they’re given Tylenol for pain relief. He appeared to be referencing a 2015 Danish study that researchers have described as “riddled with flaws,” and which other scientists pointed out showed correlation, not causation. Mr. Kennedy helpfully added, “It is not proof. We’re doing the studies to make the proof”, thus inverting the scientific method with the casual ease of a man flipping a pancake.
Medical experts were quick to note that most circumcisions occur within the first week after birth, usually within 48 hours, and that acetaminophen is not typically given to infants under 12 weeks unless directed by a pediatrician. But why let pediatric medicine interfere with a good theory? A pediatrician who reported performing approximately 10,000 circumcisions over 30 years noted he “almost never, ever” uses Tylenol afterward. But then, what would he know? He’s only been doing it for three decades.
The Justice Department, not content with prosecuting former directors, has taken to arresting the president’s political enemies with admirable efficiency. FBI Director Kash Patel, meanwhile, has been conducting what might be called a personnel purge, firing agents who worked on January 6 cases, agents who took a knee for George Floyd, agents who displayed gay pride flags on their desks, and agents who declined to arrange a theatrical “perp walk” of Mr. Comey before news cameras. He also dismantled CR-15, the FBI’s public corruption squad, because if there’s anything the current moment doesn’t need, it’s oversight of public corruption.
Jared Kushner has resurfaced to lead peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, which is rather like hiring an arsonist as a fire marshal. His previous interest in the region involved leveling buildings to make room for beachside hotels and condos. How fortuitous that so many buildings happened to need leveling. Coincidence wears such interesting disguises these days.
The farmers are terrified, and with good reason. The impasse with China continues, with wheat, soy, corn and beef purchases suspended while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cheerfully provided Argentina with a bailout, thus freeing them to export more agricultural products to China. American farmers will require their own bailout, naturally, except the country is currently closed for business, so even that small mercy remains out of reach.
In the halls of Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson has taken the bold step of refusing to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, apparently because her vote might force the release of the Epstein files, and transparency about deceased sex traffickers simply cannot be permitted. Some doors are meant to stay closed, particularly those behind which powerful men might be embarrassed.
Secretary Hegseth has been occupied blowing up boats and firing personnel for reasons he has declined to specify, which is really the best kind of reason when you think about it. Reasons are so limiting, so bourgeois.
And so the nation weathers it, day by day, stuck fast to the mousetrap while the world spins on its axis and reality becomes increasingly negotiable. The record must be kept because that’s what civilization requires. The record must be kept in hope that somewhere, someone is maintaining better archives, because these days will need explaining to the children, and they’re going to have so many questions. So terribly many questions.
The week ends as it began, with the comforting certainty that next week will bring fresh absurdities. Comfort must be taken where it can be found. The Republic staggers on, bruised but breathing, and the observers stagger with it, recording the pratfalls for posterity. It’s not much, but it’s something. And in these times, something feels rather like a lot.
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