Beating on, ceaselessly into the past
Beating on, ceaselessly into the past
And send your questions to the big year-end mailbag
2022 was a year of revelations. It turned out that nuclear powers can and will still openly invade their smaller neighbors, and that those smaller neighbors can and will resist (with the timely help of rival nuclear powers). We learned that American voters will sometimes still side with democracy, that inflation is still a thing, and the Supreme Court will do — well, exactly the kind of evil shit some of us expected it to do.
Oh, and I released a new book, which, it turned out, people liked quite a bit. (Thanks to so many of you for that.)
So as we take another tumble toward the quarter-century mark, I thought it would be fun to look back at how I covered a few of those revelations in real time: what’s held up pretty well, what hasn’t, and what I’m looking toward in the new year.
And before I do that, here is a final call for letters in 2022. Just like last time, anything goes: questions/comments about empire, music, fascism, Smedley Butler, the future (or past) of Haiti, your favorite Jewish holiday foods, things I’ve written about in The Racket, things you wish I’d write about in The Racket, whatever. Leave your questions in the comments below, ask in the chat, or just hit reply to this email. I’ll answer the best ones between now and New Year’s.
1. Ukraine
I started the year wondering, as many did, if Russia would actually go through with what looked for all the world like an all-out invasion of its neighbor. My take, once they did, was that despite the widespread view of Vladimir Putin as an unstoppable evil mastermind was that he had no idea what he was doing and that the whole thing seemed likely to blow up in his face. That held up! My secondary prediction — or fear, really — was that his disappointment would only increase the danger to the world, especially if it took the form of him detonating one of his thousands of nuclear warheads somewhere. So far, happily, that hasn’t come true. Though no one is out of the woods yet.
2. January 6
Back in June, I lamented that no one, still, looked likely to be held responsible for the failed 2020-2021 coup — a product, I observed, of distraction, misinformation, and general liberal fecklessness. Six months later, things are looking a smidge brighter on that front: the House Jan. 6 committee sent a criminal referral against the former president on both insurrection and obstruction-related charges and released a powerful report (that admittedly very few people have read or will read). Trump also of course faces possible legal jeopardy over his theft of classified materials and the general web of corruption in which he is cocooned. And, somewhat surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats joined forces to make it harder for anyone to try to steal the 2024 election. But the decision over whether to hold the ex-president accountable for his failed coup still rests primarily with Merrick Garland. So we’ll see in 2023 which was the grand illusion: a promise of justice or the miscarriage thereof.
3. Abortion
Speaking of, by early May it was clear that — unless someone at the Supreme Court (probably Sam Alito) was playing a giant prank on everyone — reproductive rights were about to be a dead letter in much of the United States. I pointed out that the Court itself had become a corrupt public mockery, and that the coming Dobbs decision was going to discredit it beyond repair in the eyes of a majority of Americans. That one is going strong so far.
4. The end of history
I just liked this one and think it’s worth reading/sharing again.
5. Haiti
It has been another very bad year for a country I care a lot about. In a lot of ways 2022 was worse than 2021 in Haiti — which is saying something, considering 2021 saw both the first presidential assassination in over a century and the most powerful earthquake (in terms of magnitude) in longer than that. For much of this year, we’ve been waiting with bated breath to see if a U.S. or U.S.-backed re-(re-re-re-)invasion of the Caribbean republic would be in the offing. So far, I’m glad to say the answer is no, and that reportedly things are calming down a bit on the streets of Port-au-Prince — though whether that’s an artifact of the World Cup and Christmas lulls is too soon to tell.
Fellow Haiti-heads may also be interested in my take on the New York Times’ big series on the crippling French indemnity, and my farewell to Dr. Paul Farmer, who left us unexpectedly in February:
That’s all for now. Don’t forget to send in your questions and comments for the upcoming mailbag:
And don’t forget to subscribe:
I enjoyed your recent musings about white supremacists of color. What do you make of Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator? I would not put him in the same category as Ye or Fuentes; he strikes me as a banal Chamber of Commerce reactionary. However, his career and the incipient boomlet to put him on the 2024 Republican ticket seems to have been pushed by the kinds of Republicans who very much like seeing white supremacist tropes voiced by people of color.
You’re now the ruler of the world. What do you do to make things right in Haiti?