From the Left
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Our Beautiful Economy Was a Terrible Thing to Waste
Boy, do I miss Joe Biden. I especially miss the former president when Donald Trump and his bobbleheads unfairly blame him for everything that's gone wrong since Inauguration Day. Trump has since proven beyond doubt that he can wreck the economy all by his lonesome. And that's not all he's wrecking.
Trump was handed a great economy, "The Envy ...Read more
Good for the Jews? No.
I probably don't agree with anything Mahmoud Khalil has to say about Israel. He's the Columbia University student activist who has been arrested and threatened with deportation in the name of fighting antisemitism.
Trampling on free speech rights is no way to fight antisemitism. Neither is cutting off funding for much needed medical research....Read more
Arise, America. It's Not Too Late.
We are in a state of emergency. Most newspapers report the facts, ma'am, but shy from stating American democracy is on the line, in serious peril.
Scenes from the resistance: the Lincoln Memorial, the jammed independent bookstore and the floor of Congress, where Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) parted waters by bellowing at the president midway ...Read more
Hey, Democrats: To Defeat Trump's Autocracy -- Get Out of Washington
Last week, the Democratic Party's top congressional leaders finally took a bold stand against President Donald Trump's assault on our democracy when he came to Congress to tout his autocratic agenda.
Traditionally, when a president arrives to address Congress, a bipartisan escort committee leads the dignitary to the podium. But, by gollies, ...Read more
Pants on Fire: For Trump, It's a Lying Game
Say what you will about Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich's Minister of Propaganda: the man lied for a living, and he knew one heck of a lot about lying. Before committing suicide in Berlin in 1945, he left a formidable body of commentary about the art of lying and the psychology of it.
"This is the secret of propaganda," Goebbels observed. "...Read more
Trade Chaos May Be Part of an Illegal Game
You can get rich when stocks go up. You can get rich when stocks go down. When stocks go up, people who knew to buy them in advance may win big. If they go down, investors who had the wisdom to "go short" on them -- that is, bet on their decline -- can make a bundle.
Clearly, anyone who can predict what stock prices would do can make ...Read more
Where Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Nominee Harmeet Dhillon Stands on Civil Liberties
President Donald Trump has nominated Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney, media personality and Republican Party official, to lead the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. If confirmed, Dhillon will lead the division of the DOJ charged with upholding core civil rights and liberties in many aspects of American life.
Dhillon is known ...Read more

The Universities Are Next
Trump is following Putin’s, Xi’s, and Orban’s playbook. First, take over military and intelligence operations by purging career officers and substituting ones personally loyal to you.
Next, subdue the courts by ignoring or threatening to ignore court rulings you disagree with.
Intimidate legislators by warning that if they don’t bend ...Read more

Let Facts Get in the Way of Performative Politics
My advice to congressional Democrats: If you’re going to embrace performative politics, be sure you give a good performance.
Instead, the Dems at President Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress looked like an angry and lonely clown car.
They looked the very portrait that they have become in Donald Trump’s second term: angry, ...Read more
Next: The Law Schools
Should the government be able to tell a private university what to teach and how to teach it?
Is there a libertarian left in the house?
This is the letter that former and current Trump lawyer (officially the Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney) Ed Martin sent to the dean of Georgetown Law School:
"It has come to my attention reliably that Georgetown...Read more
The Russians Are Coming? Not Really.
Donald Trump's interest in rapprochement with Russia and his annoyance with Ukraine, embodied by last week's Oval Office shouting match, has corporate pundits and politicians freaking out. Trump's former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Trump's dressing down of Volodymyr Zelenskyy made him "ashamed for my nation" -- something he's ...Read more
Celebrate the Resilience of Immigrant Mothers During Women's History Month
My mother-in-law was born on a small ranch in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in 1951. After her mother died from illness, my mother-in-law crossed into Brownsville, Texas, during the Charro Days Fiesta.
She was 13, undocumented and alone.
I've written about my mother-in-law's journey before. However, in light of Donald Trump's immigration policies ...Read more
Dangermouse
Eternal vigilance is the price of paranoia, and that's why I check my garage carefully every day.
I check the garage because I figure if we get mice, that's where they're gonna get in first.
We had mice in our last house. We had them for about two weeks, and then the exterminator we hired killed them all, and we had a couple of small cracks ...Read more

The Worst President, and Worst Presidential Speech, Ever
News outlets scrambled to find the right words to describe Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress this week. CNN: “unapologetic.” Politico: “raucous.” New York Times: “rowdy.” The Hill: “campaign rally-like.”
All of which are true. But I think The Bulwark summed it up better: “childish, silly, and unimpressive...Read more
The Democrats Looked Silly
There they were, dressed in hot pink, waving signs, banging on a cane.
If that is what counts as resistance, we are all in trouble.
The fact is that by showing up, the Democrats gave the president an audience he doesn't deserve. Would they all have shown up at a Donald Trump campaign rally? That's what it was. He doesn't deserve the respect ...Read more
How Much We Miss Those Times
Have you ever gone to a party that transports you back in time? I've attended two in one week, in Santa Monica, California, and Washington, D.C. I'm missing the '60s of my childhood something awful.
Time trips took me to Madison, Wisconsin, and Harlem in New York, where our family and friends were making America anew. Those are places where ...Read more
Now Is the Time to Push for a Democratic Democratic Party
Once again, Sen. Bernie Sanders is showing that he's a leader who actually leads.
While top Democratic Party lawmakers are hunkered down in their Washington bunker, immobilized by the President Donald Trump-Elon Musk oligarchic coup on America's democracy, the feisty "little-d" democrat from Vermont is out in grassroots America, rallying ...Read more
Pigsty: The World Watches the White House Turned to Trash
"My heart has always been truly convinced," Marquis de Lafayette declared 250 years ago, "that in serving the cause of America I am fighting for the interests of France." The French nobleman put his life where his mouth was, volunteering for George Washington's Continental Army as his country provided critical support for our war for ...Read more
DEI and Accessibility, Explained
Across the country, right-wing groups are working to dismantle long-standing anti-discrimination protections and statutory mandates by targeting what they broadly refer to as diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA). These attacks on DEIA are not new. Rather, they're part of a broader strategy to discredit DEIA and weaponize the ...Read more

The Trump-Vance-Musk-Putin manosphere
Did anyone else see the horrific display in the Oval Office last Friday as a ritual exercise in male domination? I don’t want to insult great apes, but I’ve seen similar performances at the zoo. Donald Trump and JD Vance sought to humiliate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, treating him with the same disrespect they treat .. well, ...Read more