From the Left
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How did the GOP become the party of cranks, crackpots and fruitcakes?
Mark Robinson, the GOP gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina and current lieutenant governor, is in trouble again.
Not just because Robinson has referred to himself as a “black NAZI” and a “perv,” expressed support for reinstating slavery, said he watched transgender pornography, called homosexuality “filth” and the Holocaust �...Read more
Called Upon to Lie for Trump, JD Vance Stumbled
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it is said. And in Washington, so is stealing credit.
Is there a better example than Republican lawmakers praising themselves for “saving” the federal health-care law that they fought long and hard to defeat, repeal and otherwise sabotage?
Now we can count both former President Donald Trump and ...Read more
Contempt for Democracy
The latest filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith makes clear that Donald Trump and his aides had nothing but contempt for democracy in his efforts in 2020 to subvert the results of a democratic election.
Three days before the election, Person 1, someone who completely matches the biography of Steve Bannon, said that Trump would declare victory...Read more
The Strategic Voting Fallacy
Many people who typically vote Republican but dislike former President Donald Trump, and others who typically vote Democratic but dislike Vice President Kamala Harris, are wrestling with a fundamental dilemma of the voter who lives in a duopoly.
A vote is an endorsement. A vote declares to the world: "I approve of this candidate." There is no ...Read more
A Night in Understaffed America
I haven't been in any kind of medical facility that wasn't understaffed by at least 20%, not for 15 years, and that 15 years includes my knee surgery, the death of my mother- and father-in-law, the death of my mother, and my wife's hysterectomy. I figure it's just a matter of time until your loved one goes in the hospital, and you have to ...Read more
The October Surprise That Ahould Decide this Election
It probably didn’t change that many votes, but this week’s vice presidential debate offered an interesting contrast. If slick, smooth, and slippery counts over wobbly, J.D. Vance won. If truth and common sense count over total baseless assertions (Wait? Donald Trump SAVED Obamacare?), Tim Walz won.
It's just too bad CBS News didn’t ...Read more
Vance Couldn't Even Defend the Democracy
He could summon all the oily debate tactics needed to evade questions and renovate lies. But one thing that J.D. Vance couldn't find in his toolbox was the courage to say something that is totally obvious: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
Until that point in the vice presidential debate, Donald Trump's running mate had gussied up some of ...Read more
A Good Enough Debate
J.D. Vance is a smooth talker and a far more disciplined debater than the man he is running with. He knows how to evade answering a question, how to sound more reasonable than he really is, and how to stick to a plan and stay on-script. He made the case that Donald Trump literally forgot all about, notwithstanding his aides having previewed it...Read more
Election Roundup: Painting the House Blue, Harris in White
On Election Day on Nov. 5, I can say with some certainty: The House of Representatives will go from a Republican to a Democratic majority.
A blue House matters, because the speaker's gavel will belong to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York on the early January day the electoral count is certified by the House and Senate.
Last time, as you ...Read more
To Get Good Local News, Try Do-It-Yourself Journalism
Perhaps you've noticed from the shrinkage (or total elimination) of your local newspaper that this source of hometown journalism has become monopolized, nationalized and trivialized by conglomerate owners.
How uplifting, then, to see a national consortium of saviors rallying to reestablish a "thriving news media" for our democracy. How? Well,...Read more
Bile and Vile: In a Word, Trump's Campaign Is About Hate
On Jan. 19, 1989, Ronald Reagan devoted his last speech as president of the United States to reminding Americans that our country owes its success to immigrants. "It's the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond," Reagan said. "This, I...Read more
Bottom Line on the Border: It's Already Orderly
There were fewer arrests at the Southern border in July than in the last month of the Trump presidency. Shelters have seen a massive drop in migrants. And Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is having a hard time finding enough recent arrivals to fill buses headed north.
The reason for this development is President Joe Biden's new border policy, which ...Read more
The Supreme Court Case on Trans Health Care, Explained
Since 2021, 24 states have banned hormone therapy for transgender youth with gender dysphoria. Leading medical experts and organizations -- such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics -- oppose these restrictions, which have already forced thousands of families across ...Read more
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Guilt Hinges on How the Women Will be Judged: Survivors or Willing Participants?
For years, a barely worn blazer has hung in my closet. It features a graceful cut and fabric woven with the colors of the sea, offset by a white silken lining. The garment exemplifies a certain freshness, a vibrancy, a bit of luxury. The designer’s label: SEAN by Sean Combs.
Yes, that brand was the one that went up in flames recently with the...Read more
How the hell can Trump be running neck-and-neck with Harris? Let me tell you
With less than 40 days until Election Day, how can it be that Trump has taken a small lead in Arizona and Georgia — two swing states he lost to Biden in 2020? How can he be narrowly leading Harris in the swing state of North Carolina? How can he now be essentially tied with her in the other key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin?
More ...Read more
Trump's Antisemitism
At a donor event last week with Miriam Adelson, the widow of Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump promised to be the best friend Jews have ever had in the White House. The event was entitled "Fighting Antisemitism in America." This is what Trump said:
"My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be ...Read more
It's Time to End Our Cynical Policy of International Disruption
Mainstream American political leaders regularly argue that the United States adheres to, defends and promotes a "rules-based international order." What's that? It's rarely defined.
The best summary I've been able to find was articulated by John Ikenberry of Princeton University, introduced by the Financial Times in 2023 as "an influential ...Read more
Be Part of the Solution: Don't Engage With Rage
Someone recently told me, "The minute I took this job, I became part of the problem." I'd never thought of it that way before but instantly understood what they meant. They work within a government system, a completely different profession than me, but I couldn't help but come back to that phrase again and again. It also applied to me and ...Read more
Cats and Self-Interest
In America's ongoing effort to separate the properly gendered from you freak jobs who are just making it up as you go along, we've finally struck on felines and fertility as the true measure of properly gendered patriotism.
You got cats? You got cats, there's some chance that you're not as male as the guy with a dog, particularly when ...Read more
Only America’s Women Can Save Us from Donald Trump
Who could ever forget that moment? On Aug. 6, 2015, Fox News Host Megyn Kelly kicked off the first Republican primary debate by asking candidate Donald Trump: “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as ...Read more