What's going on is yet another failed attempt by the Deteriorated Dotard to "stay relevant" and have the Press Corpse dancing to his tune, after he was forced to admit he cannot run for a third term and publicly took that off the table - it was the hobby horse he could ride to headlines and shaken heads across the media. But now that he's a Lame Duck, he can't get the attention on which he lives like he could with bringing that up whenever he needed to distract things from the Epstein Files. Thus we have seen "I can take the Army and Navy into any city I want," which flamed out immediately. He keeps throwing out threat after threat, for each to get around 24 hours of declining notice before someone yells "Release the Epstein Files you motherfucking scumbag!"
He's as "christian" as one of my cats. No, that's a diss on the kitty. He's the best living example of all the Seven Deadly Sins in action together simultaneously. He "cares" as much about Nigerian Christians (I doubt he knew they existed before last Wednesday) as he cares about anything else not promoting the avarice and greed of Donald J. Trump. This is just a piece of raw meat thrown to the FundieMorons who still think he's "God's Chosen one."
Treat him like Uncle Freddy, who you really didn't want to invite to Thanksgiving where you'd be forced to pay attention to his raving nonsense. Give him a final drink stronger than the last one and then help him up the stairs to the back bedroom where he can sleep it off while the rest have a nice holiday.
Yes, he's not a total senile old loser. His essential evil nature is still out there canceling Thanksgiving for 42 million Americans while holding forth with the rest of the Ancien Regime at his Gatsby party and saying "Let them eat shit." He still wants to destroy Kilmar Abrego Garcia's life for the crime of being the victim of his henchlings' incompetence. He's still fighting a shadow war against his enemies and all the rest of us who will never open the glass door to respectability and social acceptance to the likes of him, regardless that he's had his nose pressed against it forever, and wants us all to pay for our failure to recognize his magnificence.
But don't treat every turd that pops out of that asshole under his nose as Something Important. 98% of it's just the same shit he's been shoveling since John Barron was his publicist.
Thanks, and I'm sure you're right. It's weird, though, for him to be muttering about heaven. He's done it a few times. I suspect he legit is contemplating death. I hope it brings him extreme anxiety!
Finishing an overdue chore*, but had to peek at what your Sunday would be — YASSSS Heironymus Bosch, lived in the wrong era. As he so PERFECTLY illustrates 2025.
I am constantly delighted (see what I did there?) by your ability to weave together history, art, culture and our hot mess of current events into a fascinating and insightful piece of writing. I definitely did not have Holy War on my bingo card this year but here we are!
Bosch is one of a kind. I love museums, and living in Europe we visited every one we could. I have to confess, for me, many European museums are overflowing with Dutch Masters and religious art., which, while beautiful, get boring after a while.... not so Bosch (or Bruegel for that matter). The details draw you in and I easily spent an hour lost in these panels at the Prado in Madrid before my companion nudged me along towards our next sangria.
Trump is like the Prince of Hell depicted here on his throne (that bird creature even has what looks like a bad combover!), devouring the souls of his red-hatted MAGA minions and shitting them out like the feces from the fighter plane in the AI video he shared after the last No Kings marches. I too am a lapsed Catholic, but I hope someone somewhere is praying a rosary for all of us.
Thanks so much, Erin. I am also not much of a museum person, mostly because the subject matter is so identical. How many Biblical scenes can one take in? We went to the Louvre on our honeymoon, and every third painting showed the Crucifixion. Then we went to d'Orsay, and Gauguin has a self portrait where, in the back, he has a Crucifixion he's painting, and that was our favorite!
There are plenty of rosaries being said, I assure you...
Greg this essay is so good! I also am a lapsed catholic who couldn’t understand what the church preached. I didn’t quit until the abuse scandal broke. My children were baptized and confirmed only because they didn’t have a choice. Neither have anything to do with the church. One converted to Judaism. The painting and your explanation of it are interesting and enlightening! 🙏 Halloween show was a fun time!
There's a lot of good stuff to take from church, if one has the right approach, but I think so much of it is priest-dependent. A good priest is a good thing. There don't seem to be enough of them, though.
You got that right! Stupid Packers always play down to the competition, but seem to get up for really good teams. (So they may actually beat the Eagles next week!) I loved their helmets that were painted to resemble the old leather helmets as part of their throwback uniforms.
I imagine a secret meeting of global powers concluding the international atomic wrecking ball must be applied to everyone’s US foreign policy to save the planet. But until then, this incredible piece inspires me to probably post a piece about the first man I truly adored, a friend, Greek poet, intimate buddy to the surrealists… and decades older than I was. Nico (Nicolas Callas) was my art history teacher. He wrote for Arts News as a critic; on people like Stella, new conceptual artists, etc. …… You Greg, would have been his favorite student. 😊. I’ll do a piece on Nico. I miss him so much that honestly? Almost daily, my mind calls on his insight, wicked humor and sense of history. The last I saw Nico was in the eighties, taking him to the Russian tea room…. I’m just imagining (my indulgence being old) the conversation you would have had sitting there with us. He was really too tall to be walking around and remaining upright as his feet were too long. Old yet handsome. Always a slight smile. Never cruel or mean but always ironic. I would have left the Russian Tea room because I had a plane to catch the next day but you would have seen Nico home. Unlike me, who had to leave him in the dark, outside refusing to take a cab and unable really to walk much on those long spindly legs. ….. I feel so guilty writing here on top of your writing Greg, but you inspire the best in people. So, until Denmark. Calls that secret meeting and decides Gatsby is running over too many bodies…. Thank you.
Thanks for this glimpse, Jackie. I've been to the Russian Tea Room, although a long time ago. They had good vodka drinks. I'm not sure how good of an art critic I am...I don't know enough about it, the history and all that, so I enjoy writing about the paintings because it gives me space to really analyze them.
Your analysis of Bosch's triptych is further evidence, if any is needed, that there are few other critics writing today who investigate art (in the broader sense of the word) in terms of its relevance to the world we inhabit as incisively and eloquently as you do. That you are able to do so with such prolific ease is a wonder to me!
Thanks, Homi. I know a lot more about poetry than I do about paintings, so it's especially fun for me to learn about the artists and really delve and analyze. It quite literally keeps me sane!
Incredible narrative weaving, as always, Greg! Sex-Culture- Politics-History-Witty Irreverence! Thank you for the deep dive and deep thought and tying this to our current zeitgeist.
I also noticed that although Eve is kneeling, positionally she is still above Adam and in a superior position. He is sitting, honestly looking like a dolt. While Eve's spine is straight, determined, indicating what we all know --from the beginning women were smarter, more determined, more capable, than their male counterparts. Adam never stood a chance.
Ha! Excellent observation and analysis. Adam is also looking at the old guy rather than her, as if unsure of what he's supposed to do. The story makes no sense at all. Milton, who was a believer, couldn't make it make sense, either, and Paradise Lost is the result of him trying and failing.
It's always fascinating and informative reading you, and I think the analogy between Rodrigo Borgia and DJT hugely apposite. The only place where one might quibble (which is a cop-out for saying that it breaks down) is that, as you know, when Bosch was painting, it was pretty much the norm for barely pubescent girls to be married. (Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet is 13.) It makes sense given the typically short life spans at that time. So, I'm not sure Bosch would have found it creepy in the way we do now. But, then again, every generation is entitled to interpret art according to the sensibilities of its times. Now, where is our Martin Luther?
Thanks, Frank. Borgia was self-made and while controversial and excessive, wound up being not terrible, as popes go. The same can't be said of Trump.
And yes, that's a good observation, and you're probably right. To your point: Lucrezia Borgia was married at 13.
Bosch, interestingly, did not marry until he was about 30, and to an older woman. So maybe he, alone among his cohorts, did find it creepy. Or maybe there were other reasons he chose to wait, and found his soul tormented. The Eve in the painting is nothing like his wife...not that that tells us anything.
You remind me that Samuel Johnson, much later, also married a woman 20 years older, at the age of 25. Despite his maxim that second marriages represent "the triumph of hope over experience," he seems to have been very happy with her.
Another interesting read. If one looks at the 7 deadly sins and knows anything about religious tomes, one will find 7 +/- sins referenced in most, severe punishment meted for the crime. Man has a desire to control that which makes him feel threatened, creates personal wealth or fear exposure for said sins. He tries to normalize his behavior behind a fairy tale of lies and/or physical threats..
Trump's behavior is no surprise. He's done the same since... public life first noticed him. Perhaps his father was that way, definitely his mentor Roy Cohn was.
If it weren't so appalling, it would be rather comical, this Halloween Ball complete with a burlesque show in the WH given by the biggest Jesus hustler in modern politics. If it weren't so appalling the tax payer is footing the bill...
What's going on is yet another failed attempt by the Deteriorated Dotard to "stay relevant" and have the Press Corpse dancing to his tune, after he was forced to admit he cannot run for a third term and publicly took that off the table - it was the hobby horse he could ride to headlines and shaken heads across the media. But now that he's a Lame Duck, he can't get the attention on which he lives like he could with bringing that up whenever he needed to distract things from the Epstein Files. Thus we have seen "I can take the Army and Navy into any city I want," which flamed out immediately. He keeps throwing out threat after threat, for each to get around 24 hours of declining notice before someone yells "Release the Epstein Files you motherfucking scumbag!"
He's as "christian" as one of my cats. No, that's a diss on the kitty. He's the best living example of all the Seven Deadly Sins in action together simultaneously. He "cares" as much about Nigerian Christians (I doubt he knew they existed before last Wednesday) as he cares about anything else not promoting the avarice and greed of Donald J. Trump. This is just a piece of raw meat thrown to the FundieMorons who still think he's "God's Chosen one."
Treat him like Uncle Freddy, who you really didn't want to invite to Thanksgiving where you'd be forced to pay attention to his raving nonsense. Give him a final drink stronger than the last one and then help him up the stairs to the back bedroom where he can sleep it off while the rest have a nice holiday.
Yes, he's not a total senile old loser. His essential evil nature is still out there canceling Thanksgiving for 42 million Americans while holding forth with the rest of the Ancien Regime at his Gatsby party and saying "Let them eat shit." He still wants to destroy Kilmar Abrego Garcia's life for the crime of being the victim of his henchlings' incompetence. He's still fighting a shadow war against his enemies and all the rest of us who will never open the glass door to respectability and social acceptance to the likes of him, regardless that he's had his nose pressed against it forever, and wants us all to pay for our failure to recognize his magnificence.
But don't treat every turd that pops out of that asshole under his nose as Something Important. 98% of it's just the same shit he's been shoveling since John Barron was his publicist.
Thanks, and I'm sure you're right. It's weird, though, for him to be muttering about heaven. He's done it a few times. I suspect he legit is contemplating death. I hope it brings him extreme anxiety!
This is why I read you.
I cannot say more.
Me too
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thanks!
Greg, your deep dives are so engaging and appreciated.
are you still doing Friday night questions, i've been unable to find you
and LB?
Thanks, LLB.
Yes, we're here. Here's the link. The Halloween special was a lot of fun:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0BRnRwe7yDZXIaF-QZfvhA
Looks like i missed a good time. Thanks Professor.
Finishing an overdue chore*, but had to peek at what your Sunday would be — YASSSS Heironymus Bosch, lived in the wrong era. As he so PERFECTLY illustrates 2025.
Will be reading in the afternoon break. 🍂😉
* cleaning the basement + shed
Thank you! It's perfect weather for cleaning...
I am constantly delighted (see what I did there?) by your ability to weave together history, art, culture and our hot mess of current events into a fascinating and insightful piece of writing. I definitely did not have Holy War on my bingo card this year but here we are!
Bosch is one of a kind. I love museums, and living in Europe we visited every one we could. I have to confess, for me, many European museums are overflowing with Dutch Masters and religious art., which, while beautiful, get boring after a while.... not so Bosch (or Bruegel for that matter). The details draw you in and I easily spent an hour lost in these panels at the Prado in Madrid before my companion nudged me along towards our next sangria.
Trump is like the Prince of Hell depicted here on his throne (that bird creature even has what looks like a bad combover!), devouring the souls of his red-hatted MAGA minions and shitting them out like the feces from the fighter plane in the AI video he shared after the last No Kings marches. I too am a lapsed Catholic, but I hope someone somewhere is praying a rosary for all of us.
Thanks so much, Erin. I am also not much of a museum person, mostly because the subject matter is so identical. How many Biblical scenes can one take in? We went to the Louvre on our honeymoon, and every third painting showed the Crucifixion. Then we went to d'Orsay, and Gauguin has a self portrait where, in the back, he has a Crucifixion he's painting, and that was our favorite!
There are plenty of rosaries being said, I assure you...
Greg this essay is so good! I also am a lapsed catholic who couldn’t understand what the church preached. I didn’t quit until the abuse scandal broke. My children were baptized and confirmed only because they didn’t have a choice. Neither have anything to do with the church. One converted to Judaism. The painting and your explanation of it are interesting and enlightening! 🙏 Halloween show was a fun time!
The correct term is "Recovering Catholic."
It's true, "lapsed" implies an eventual return...
Thanks so much, Christine!
There's a lot of good stuff to take from church, if one has the right approach, but I think so much of it is priest-dependent. A good priest is a good thing. There don't seem to be enough of them, though.
We enjoyed the Halloween show! Thx for watching.
The Packers game is about to start, so I will just give this as a response to another fascinating post, Greg:
Amen!
Thanks, Lincoln.
You would have been better off not watching today, though... ; )
You got that right! Stupid Packers always play down to the competition, but seem to get up for really good teams. (So they may actually beat the Eagles next week!) I loved their helmets that were painted to resemble the old leather helmets as part of their throwback uniforms.
Demented Donald and his avarias henchmen are clueless fools. Their efforts to stay on Top of females and make the US White is demonic.
Thank the gods I'm an Athiest.
Ha! Well put.
I imagine a secret meeting of global powers concluding the international atomic wrecking ball must be applied to everyone’s US foreign policy to save the planet. But until then, this incredible piece inspires me to probably post a piece about the first man I truly adored, a friend, Greek poet, intimate buddy to the surrealists… and decades older than I was. Nico (Nicolas Callas) was my art history teacher. He wrote for Arts News as a critic; on people like Stella, new conceptual artists, etc. …… You Greg, would have been his favorite student. 😊. I’ll do a piece on Nico. I miss him so much that honestly? Almost daily, my mind calls on his insight, wicked humor and sense of history. The last I saw Nico was in the eighties, taking him to the Russian tea room…. I’m just imagining (my indulgence being old) the conversation you would have had sitting there with us. He was really too tall to be walking around and remaining upright as his feet were too long. Old yet handsome. Always a slight smile. Never cruel or mean but always ironic. I would have left the Russian Tea room because I had a plane to catch the next day but you would have seen Nico home. Unlike me, who had to leave him in the dark, outside refusing to take a cab and unable really to walk much on those long spindly legs. ….. I feel so guilty writing here on top of your writing Greg, but you inspire the best in people. So, until Denmark. Calls that secret meeting and decides Gatsby is running over too many bodies…. Thank you.
Thanks for this glimpse, Jackie. I've been to the Russian Tea Room, although a long time ago. They had good vodka drinks. I'm not sure how good of an art critic I am...I don't know enough about it, the history and all that, so I enjoy writing about the paintings because it gives me space to really analyze them.
Here is an interactive Garden of Earthly Delights for many hours of exploration:
https://archief.ntr.nl/tuinderlusten/en.html
Thank you for sharing the link.
Ooo, fun. Thanks, Derek!
Fascinating read. I wasn't very familiar with the Garden of Earthly Delight painting, but appreciate very much what you've shared.
Thanks, Sandra!
Your analysis of Bosch's triptych is further evidence, if any is needed, that there are few other critics writing today who investigate art (in the broader sense of the word) in terms of its relevance to the world we inhabit as incisively and eloquently as you do. That you are able to do so with such prolific ease is a wonder to me!
Me too
Thanks, JD!
Thanks, Homi. I know a lot more about poetry than I do about paintings, so it's especially fun for me to learn about the artists and really delve and analyze. It quite literally keeps me sane!
Incredible narrative weaving, as always, Greg! Sex-Culture- Politics-History-Witty Irreverence! Thank you for the deep dive and deep thought and tying this to our current zeitgeist.
I also noticed that although Eve is kneeling, positionally she is still above Adam and in a superior position. He is sitting, honestly looking like a dolt. While Eve's spine is straight, determined, indicating what we all know --from the beginning women were smarter, more determined, more capable, than their male counterparts. Adam never stood a chance.
Nice slant, few men would agree
Only the smart ones. ; )
Ha! Excellent observation and analysis. Adam is also looking at the old guy rather than her, as if unsure of what he's supposed to do. The story makes no sense at all. Milton, who was a believer, couldn't make it make sense, either, and Paradise Lost is the result of him trying and failing.
Thanks!
Thanks for this add on
It's always fascinating and informative reading you, and I think the analogy between Rodrigo Borgia and DJT hugely apposite. The only place where one might quibble (which is a cop-out for saying that it breaks down) is that, as you know, when Bosch was painting, it was pretty much the norm for barely pubescent girls to be married. (Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet is 13.) It makes sense given the typically short life spans at that time. So, I'm not sure Bosch would have found it creepy in the way we do now. But, then again, every generation is entitled to interpret art according to the sensibilities of its times. Now, where is our Martin Luther?
Thanks, Frank. Borgia was self-made and while controversial and excessive, wound up being not terrible, as popes go. The same can't be said of Trump.
And yes, that's a good observation, and you're probably right. To your point: Lucrezia Borgia was married at 13.
Bosch, interestingly, did not marry until he was about 30, and to an older woman. So maybe he, alone among his cohorts, did find it creepy. Or maybe there were other reasons he chose to wait, and found his soul tormented. The Eve in the painting is nothing like his wife...not that that tells us anything.
You remind me that Samuel Johnson, much later, also married a woman 20 years older, at the age of 25. Despite his maxim that second marriages represent "the triumph of hope over experience," he seems to have been very happy with her.
Another interesting read. If one looks at the 7 deadly sins and knows anything about religious tomes, one will find 7 +/- sins referenced in most, severe punishment meted for the crime. Man has a desire to control that which makes him feel threatened, creates personal wealth or fear exposure for said sins. He tries to normalize his behavior behind a fairy tale of lies and/or physical threats..
Trump's behavior is no surprise. He's done the same since... public life first noticed him. Perhaps his father was that way, definitely his mentor Roy Cohn was.
If it weren't so appalling, it would be rather comical, this Halloween Ball complete with a burlesque show in the WH given by the biggest Jesus hustler in modern politics. If it weren't so appalling the tax payer is footing the bill...
Our treasury is being assaulted every hour of every day. Rodrigo must be the role model for the “Christians” these days
With Rodrigo as with Trump, it was all a grift. The biggest difference is, Rodrigo paid his debts...
I don’t think chump has ever paid a debt. He always takes, and takes, and takes
Thanks, Kat. Trump is all seven sins in a suit and a red hat!
And yes, it IS comical, it is way, which is why he is so easy to lampoon. The banality, and the joke-butt-ery, of evil, I suppose.
Truth! Beats the hell out of thinking about the 'nuclear' option.