From the Left
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Ah, Sweet Jackass of Youth
They say youth is wasted on the young.
"They" are old people who are hugely offended by the beautiful carelessness of youth and its beautiful disrespect. Those qualities are beautiful in young people because they haven't been broken to the saddle yet. They're still frolicking in the green grass of the pasture, going everywhere at a run, long ...Read more
Time for Democratic Leaders to Deliver Message to Biden
There was a time, not so long ago, when Congress was full of heroes. John F. Kennedy even wrote a book about a few of them, which he unapologetically called “Profiles in Courage.”
But that was then, and this is now. Even Diogenes with his proverbial lamp would have a hard time finding profiles of courage in today’s Congress. It’s filled...Read more
Trump Can't Undo the Damage He's Done to Reproductive Rights
Try as he might, Donald Trump can't blur the hard reality he forced upon American women. He vowed in 2016 to get rid of Roe v. Wade and succeeded. As a result, American women lost a half-century right to end an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy.
Some of the harsh truths turn into nightmares. When Nicole Miller, mother of two and 20 weeks ...Read more
Biden in the Bunker
He just doesn't get it. And neither do those closest to him.
Asked by George Stephanopoulos how he would feel if he loses, he told the truth and it was the wrong answer. "I'll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that's what this is about."
No, it's not. What this is about is not Joe Biden doing "the...Read more
Trump Takes Us for Fools When He Says He Knows Nothing About ‘Project 2025’
As much as we know by now about Donald Trump’s creative approach to facts, even the man whom late-night host Jimmy Kimmel calls “Rant-a-Claus” can go a fib too far.
Trump seemed to hit his credibility limit last week when he took to Truth Social, his social media platform, to deny any knowledge whatsoever of Project 2025, a collection of ...Read more
Knowing If It's Time to Go, Joe
Cutting dead flowers while barefoot in the summer garden is a sublime sensation that seldom leads to thoughts of politics. Yet this time my thoughts traveled straight to President Joe Biden, 81 years of aged mind, body and memory.
Roses and cosmos ready to bloom need the sun and space blocked by the old ones. That's just a fact, ma'am.
In ...Read more
SCOTUS Is Meant to Be a Court, Not Our Supreme Ruler
What is a SCOTUS? Sounds like a prehistoric critter scuttling along some seabed. But, no, it is the acronym for our Supreme Court of the United States.
SCOTUS is meant to be the impartial arbiter of legal disputes over what our laws mean. Yet, who are these arbiters, how are they elected, why don't we even know their names, and if they go ...Read more
Trump's Court Crowns a Crooked King
In a time visited by one painful irony after another, it was yet one more irony that the Supreme Court decision handing Donald Trump carte blanche to commit whatever crimes he chooses if he returns to the presidency was issued on July 1, as Americans prepared to mark their independence from the British monarchy. The court's ruling that Trump was...Read more
Thou Shalt Not Misuse the 10 Commandments
Walking through Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, I came upon a moss-covered monolith listing the Ten Commandments. This was some time ago, but knowing the objections then being made to placing religious artifacts in public places, I thought, "This stone won't be here for long."
It was removed in 2004.
My feelings were mixed ...Read more
Supreme Court Grants Trump, Future Presidents a Loaded Weapon To Break the Law
The Supreme Court's decision to grant presidents immunity from prosecution for criminal acts committed while in office not only gives Donald Trump a free pass for his past crimes but sets a dangerous precedent for all future presidents.
Before Trump, no one had even argued that presidents are absolutely immune from criminal liability after ...Read more
What Exactly is a ‘Black Job,’ Mr. Trump?
“Black jobs”?
It’s a simple phrase, but what does it mean?
More specifically, what did it mean when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump insisted in his debate with President Joe Biden that migrants crossing the southern border are taking “Black jobs”?
Trump’s comments in a debate viewed by many, including me, as a ...Read more
Why Isn’t the Media Reporting on Trump’s Growing Dementia?
A few weeks ago, at a rally in Nevada, Trump told his followers that boat manufacturers are now required to use electric engines. He claimed that someone at a boat company in South Carolina told him, “It’s a problem, sir. They want us to make all-electric boats.” (There is no such requirement.)
Trump then said the South Carolinian warned ...Read more
Blind Loyalty
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he has President Joe Biden's back. It's almost enough for me to take him off my list of possible successors to the incumbent president. Having Biden's back is not a matter of loyalty.
Biden has been a fine president. He inherited a country in crisis, roiled by the pandemic, and righted the ship of state. The ...Read more
How Biden Could Salvage His Candidacy
President Joe Biden's unsteady performance in last week's presidential debate has sparked a debate of its own between Democrats: between those who believe the president's chances of reelection have dropped so dramatically that he should be replaced as their nominee, and loyalists determined to stay the course lest the fragile coalition between...Read more
In the ‘Omnicause’, Colliding Causes Can Defeat Each Other’s Purposes
When does political protest seem to become an end in itself?
Climate firebrand Greta Thunberg, 21, seems to raise that question when looking at photos of her arrest last month outside the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden.
Wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh scarf and shouting, “Shame on you,” in a show of solidarity with the pro-...Read more
Biden Dies for Honor
Honor is the lost virtue. Honor, in the minds of our ancestors, was that thing beyond religion, beyond laws, beyond self-preservation, that thing that would make you stand and die rather than retreat.
Honor had some oddly twisted variants. Men banged away at each other with pistols, dueling over their honor. A man "defended a woman's honor" ...Read more
Hiking the Trails and Honoring My Roots in Hocking Hills State Park
"For every park, there's a story of someone who saved it from becoming something else." Ever since I read these words in Jenny Odell's book "How to Do Nothing," I've wanted to find the stories of such people.
I love parks, and I love all that they bring to our lives. So when my Aunt Mary suggested we go hiking in one of her favorite spots ...Read more
Stop Obsessing Over Population
Americans have this big obsession over population numbers. One reason is that reports related to population come with numbers. Numbers give politicians and journalists something concrete to either agonize or crow over.
The problem with this approach is that the numbers don't necessarily reflect the living reality of people being counted. ...Read more
‘Project 2025’ – A fair warning of a Trump presidency
This is how bad ideas, fueled by politicians desperate to curry favor with Donald Trump, can turn draconian.
Behold “Project 2025.”
Immigration attorneys have long been sounding the alarm about a 900-page policy draft written by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Our nation’s system of laws and policies governing ...Read more
King Trump
"With fear for our democracy," Justice Sonia Sotomayor concludes in her brilliant dissent in Trump v. United States, "I dissent."
She is right. Very frighteningly right.
After reading what happened at the oral argument, I knew what was coming. The court was looking for a way to carve up the baby, giving some form of immunity to former ...Read more