The Hour of White Male Rage Will Continue in Our Politics

If you have trouble reading this message, view it in a browser.       This Was the Hour of White Male Rage   There are two things I know now for certain, having watched Judge Brett Kavanaugh perform the Bud Light King Lear he performed for the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The first is that, having watched him in high dudgeon, I don't want to be around him when he has, as the auld wans say, drink taken. Especially at the beginning of his session, he gave every indication that he would very much be the angry, belligerent inebriate that many of his college friends have said he is. He's the guy from whom you move to the other end of the bar rather than engage. And second, and probably ultimately more important, the Hour of Angry White Male Rage is far from passing out of our politics. This was manifested not only in Kavanaugh's angry truculence with Democratic members of the committee, but also by the mid-session defenestration of Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor who handled all the questioning for the Republicans when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was on the stand, and who was handling all the questioning of Kavanaugh until she asked him about one specific entry in his beloved calendar. Read More           Show Your Sons Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony   Sexual violence has long been understood as exclusively a women's issue, and written about in publications that cover those. That's because the vast majority of victims are women, and a huge portion of women—one in six in America—is a victim of attempted or completed rape. And men don't often get involved in the conversation at all, or at least until they have a daughter (In the past two years, "As a father of daughters," has become a boring, meaningless cliché). It's actually, of course, just the opposite. Until we start making its prevention the purview of men and boys, women will keep having to be just as courageous as Dr. Ford. Read More           Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V Track With Kendrick Lamar Has a History as Bizarre as the Album Itself   So, here we are, six years later and Tha Carter V is finally out. The album's 23 songs have been written throughout more than half of this decade, and it's interesting trying to piece together—through the music or lyrics—when these songs were recorded. Among these gems from the 2010s is the mythical Lil Wayne song with Kendrick Lamar. It first came to light in 2017 when Pharmabro Martin Shkreli leaked the song during a live stream. How the hell did wannabe super villain Martin Shkreli come into possession of this long awaited album? Well, that's also a weird story. Read More           Two Sexual Assault Survivors Stopped Jeff Flake in a Capitol Elevator and Told Him Exactly What He'd Done   Perhaps this is what Lindsey Graham was talking about all those years ago when he wrote about the "unexpected courage from a deep and hidden place" that survivors of sexual assault call on. Surely, this is the sound of two people whose hearts burn with a searing injustice, whose towering moral outrage made a sitting United States Senator look puny. There, staring at the floor in that cramped little elevator, Jeff Flake offered a vision of the moral content of his character. There wasn't much to see. Read More           An Oral History of the First Time We Heard 'Shallow'   In the four months since the release of the trailer for A Star Is Born, the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga (excuse me, Stefani Germanotta) vehicle, many of us (me) have thought about little else. The trailer is one of the best stand-alone pieces of art of the past five years, easily, high-drama and with a self-importance that feels earned, rather than manipulative; the music is perfectly teased, starting with a few notes of Cooper singing a song in his low, gritty, country voice, and then exploding at 1:46 with Gaga's already-iconic climax, "AWWWAWAWAWWWWW." When the full song finally arrived Thursday morning, my co-workers all had different experiences with the piece; all important, some controversial. In an act of journalism, I recorded them, and, thus, present to you the Oral History of the First Time We Heard "Shallow." Read More           How Japan Turned a Mythical Version of America Into a World-Renowned Style   Imagine a world in which the style of John F. Kennedy's America never ended. It's a world where clothes are unapologetically preppy, and where dressing for occasion is still a primary element of social life. Suits and blazers would be of the classic Brooks Brothers variety (perfectly tailored, of course). Casual wear would be sophisticated enough to make it past the gates of the most exclusive country clubs. Unless you're a member of the noble working class, in which case, the daily uniform would consist of indestructible work boots, thick flannel shirts, and high-quality denim. It's a world full of pride of craftsmanship and an exacting eye for even the smallest detail. And though this world seems smaller and smaller here in America, in Japan, it turns out to be alive and well. Read More         Read More on Esquire.com       Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2018 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019