Monday, November 10, 2025 |
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It appears the government shut down will be over soon—and this is causing serious agita among Democrats. Esquire's political columnist, Charles P. Pierce, believes the Democrats waved the white flag too early. In his words, they were "spineless." Below, you can read his rip-roarin' column, in which he pulls zero punches on the party's elders. – Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief Plus: |
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Senators like Jeanne Shaheen and Dick Durbin voted to end the shutdown. When will they learn that they can't compromise with a party of psychopathic goons and their enablers? |
It would be easy to get lost in the wilderness of hot takes related to the Democratic capitulation in the Senate on Sunday night, when they holstered the filibuster without a fight. I could point out that the Democrats bought a bag of magic beans that contained no beans at all. I could point out that all they gained was an assurance from the Republicans on health care written in disappearing ink. I could mention that they sold out everyone who marched a couple weeks ago, everyone who voted for Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, and everyone who voted for Proposition 50 in California, and everyone who voted to flip two statewide races in Georgia and who broke the Republican supermajority in Mississippi, and all the judges who have been waging a war defending democracy, and the jurors who acquitted Sandwich Guy. Or I could go on at length about how I finally have given up believing that congressional Democrats can ever come to grips with the fact that their primary political opposition is composed entirely of psychopathic goons and their enablers. |
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November 10, is the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. It was a national news story at the time—the lake had swallowed a 729-foot iron-ore ship, killing all 29 men aboard—but it was the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which came out in November 1976, that transformed the tragedy into an unforgettable moment of American history.
For countless men, including me, it's a minor obsession. What is it about this song and this event and shipwrecks of all kinds that seems to enrapture so many men? Yes, there's rich storytelling and adventure and stoicism and the romance of battling the elements. But here's the real reason men embrace the story of a shipwreck: It's a vehicle for emotion—sadness, loss, friendship, even love. |
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Ireland has a rich history of artistic greats, many of whom lived tragic lives and suffered painful deaths. Domhnall Gleeson, the Dubliner who plays lead protagonist Ned Sampson on The Paper—a mockumentary-style sitcom from The Office creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman about the travails of a downsized local print publication—seems to have avoided this fate. He might have easily succumbed to any number of ways the lives of gifted children with famous parents can go awry—his dad is the Oscar-nominated actor Brendan Gleeson—but here, too, Gleeson has managed to escape virtually all of them. Gleeson and I met in New York in the early fall, when he was in town making promotional rounds for The Paper. The show was due to stream in its entirety on Peacock on September 4, followed by a November 10 broadcast premiere on NBC. He had slept for only an hour the night before—owing to the nonstop bender that is a press junket—and just finished crying. During a photoshoot, he'd watched clips of his work with Bill Nighy from their movie About Time. Gleeson is not usually a crier, he says, but he "really, really loves Bill," and their closing scene together packed a punch. The paternal bond, a significant feature of Gleeson's real life, is also transmuted into his work on The Paper. Ned spends an episode in dawning realization of how a thready relationship with his own father is affecting him in the workplace. "I love you," he tells an older male boss, in front of the entire staff. It is ripe material for his colleagues to rib him, and for viewers to want to give him a hug. |
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