From the Left
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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
Want Cheap Energy? Vote for Harris
Donald Trump's "drill, baby, drill" mantra portrays fossil fuels as the magic road to lower energy prices. He's exactly wrong. Solar, wind and other renewable sources are.
Renewables already provide electricity to consumers in Europe that's so cheap, it's at times free -- this according to The Wall Street Journal, a decidedly non-socialist ...Read more
Demeaning Women
"I am your protector. I want to be your protector ... you will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. You're not going to be in danger any longer."
That's Donald Trump talking, the man who was found liable for sexual assault by a jury of his peers and ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages -- now ...Read more
School Lunch, Christian Nationalism and Jesus
An iconic Texas band, the Austin Lounge Lizards, has a song that nails the absurd self-righteousness of Christian supremacists: "Jesus Loves Me (But He Can't Stand You)."
I think of this refrain when I behold today's right-wing proselytizers wailing that the blessed rich should not be taxed to assure that everyone has the most basic human ...Read more
A Place That Feels Like Family
WASHINGTON -- When you sit down at Ben's Chili Bowl, cofounder Virginia R. Ali is apt to greet you and tell you she is glad you're here.
If you're lucky, she'll tell stories of her life that intersect with every chapter of the city since 1958, the year she and her late husband opened the restaurant's doors in a segregated section in the old ...Read more
Told-You-So Time: Iranian Inanity Comes Home to Roost
In June 2006, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was asked in Boston what the Democrats' plan was for dealing with Iran, designated even then by our State Department as the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism and well on its way to acquiring nuclear weapons. "I don't know," Durbin replied. "With any luck Israel will do something about it, ...Read more
Liz Cheney Walks the Walk for Democracy
Back in the days when I was a moderate Republican, I still found Liz Cheney too far right-leaning for my tastes. And that went for her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, as well.
Even today, I may not agree with her on this issue or that, but we're on the same page on the primal importance of preserving our democracy. And this year, the ...Read more
How Border Policing Harms Undocumented People Seeking Abortion Care
For many of Texas' 3 million border residents, going through federal interior checkpoints -- where Border Patrol agents are permitted to screen vehicles for suspected noncitizens and can ask passengers about their citizenship and travel plans -- can be an intimidating but predictable part of daily life. But for undocumented or mixed-status ...Read more
‘Hate’ Has Become Trump’s Signature Utterance
The FBI is investigating the source of suspicious packages sent to election offices in more than 20 states. Some election offices have been evacuated; staff are frightened.
Suspicious packages, bomb threats, death threats, harassment, assassination attempts, and violence are consequences of the politics of hate, now emanating more ferociously ...Read more
The Mixed and Muddled Results of Banning Affirmative Action
In the arguments before the Supreme Court on affirmative action in college admissions, proponents of affirmative action claimed that the number of Blacks admitted to selective colleges and universities would plummet absent affirmative action. And opponents of affirmative action claimed that the number of Asian Americans would increase ...Read more
Refusing to Censor Speech Isn't the Same as Agreeing With It
If someone said something I found annoying or offensive, my mother taught me, the appropriate response was to allow them to finish speaking and reply with a calm, considered counterargument. Now you're supposed to talk over them until they shut up.
Or, better yet, cut their mic and show them the door.
Censorship has become a bipartisan norm....Read more
MAGA's Nazi Infestation Just Got Worse
How unsurprising is it that former President Donald Trump appeared recently at an event supposedly devoted to opposing antisemitism -- and proceeded to deliver a speech dripping with antisemitic innuendo and contempt for American Jews?
Like so much of what Trump says and does, his remarks at the "Combating Antisemitism" affair in Washington, ...Read more
Looking for Truth When Lies Become Too Easy to Embrace
Sometimes amid the hoopla and hogwash of political events, I find myself jerked alert by an accidental truth that manages to break through.
Such appeared to be the case when Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, urged Democrats to “tone down their rhetoric,” while not doing much to tone down his own.
In a live interview...Read more
How Books Help Us Cope While Learning About the World
Last week I met a man struggling to understand the world and his place in it. We'll call him Bo. Bo's having marital problems and is contemplating divorce. My husband has been spending time to help him sort through it. While talking with Bo, it was obvious that this man doesn't know who he is.
The worst part is that it's how he was raised.
By ...Read more
The Amish Are Better Than You
The Amish are better than you. They're better than me, too.
This is because the Amish make furniture.
For the last couple years, every time I turn the television on, there's a commercial from a local retailer telling me they sell "Amish furniture."
"Experience the craftsmanship of the Amish," the announcer's deep voice says. Then the ad ...Read more
This Election is Already Rigged Against Kamala Harris!
Sure, it’s a cold day in Hell when I’d ever agree with Donald Trump on anything. But I must admit, he’s right about this. He’s right when he says the election is rigged. Except he’s got it backward.
Yes, the 2024 election is rigged. But it’s not rigged against Donald Trump. It’s actually rigged in his favor – because of ...Read more
Trump Probably Doesn't Give a Damn About IVF
Donald Trump said he wants the government or insurers to pay for in vitro fertilization treatments. For those lacking coverage, the American taxpayer would presumably pick up the entire cost.
Then, just this week, House Republicans blocked a bill that would have guaranteed a basic right -- never mind who's paying -- to IVF treatments across ...Read more
The Blame Game
The blame game is in full swing, and Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, are the ones using inflammatory rhetoric to fan the flames. "He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it," Trump said of the gunman hiding on his golf course. "Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to ...Read more
The Fall of Donald Trump
It's over for you, Donald Trump.
America can't go on like this -- don't you feel it too? The breaking point came during the debate with Kamala Harris. After nine years, your dangerous duel with democracy is done.
Something to do with Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating cats and dogs was a bridge too far even for your ugly dark vision. The ...Read more
The Battle of Baraboo -- Privatizer Greed v. Seniors' Health Care
Baraboo, Wisconsin, is known as the former home of the Ringling Bros. Circus' headquarters. But even that extravaganza of acrobats and clowns could not surpass the dazzling tent show playing out in Baraboo this month, starring the Sauk County Board of Supervisors. Only ... you couldn't have seen it, because the tent was zipped tight to keep ...Read more