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Donald Trump’s 'Day of Love' Was Far From Lovely
I was delighted but, alas, not all that excited by the platform of policies that Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled to court Black male voters this week.
Her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” offers a big package...Read more
Trump’s Penis Envy: Why Winning the Presidency is More Important to Him than Preserving Democracy
On Saturday, Trump opened his speech at the airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, with 12 minutes of reminiscences about the golfer Arnold Palmer, who grew up in Latrobe and for whom its airport is named.
As The New York Times reported, “His monologue culminated in lewd remarks about the size of Mr. Palmer’s penis.”
What historians may term ...Read more
The Endless Campaign
"Cat Eats Fox" was Matt Drudge's headline after Kamala Harris' much touted "interview" with Fox News anchor Bret Baier. It wasn't really an interview. He whined about her coming in 15 minutes late for a pretaped interview and then barely let her answer a question before interrupting her, talking over her and generally just playing to his Fox ...Read more
Corporations Are People. Punish Them Accordingly.
Corporations enjoy many of the same rights and protections as individual citizens, the Supreme Court ruled in 2010. Not only may a corporation claim the right of freedom of religion to, for example, refuse to cover birth control under employee insurance, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission found that the First Amendment grants it the ...Read more
Trump, Musk and the Hideous Campaign of Hate
Long before Donald Trump declared he would run for president, his first political adviser articulated the central idea that has come to define both candidate and campaign.
"Hate is a stronger motivator than love," said Roger Stone in 2008 -- and that corrosive outlook is obviously what still drives the Watergate-vintage dirty trickster and ...Read more
I Quit: Hatred Doesn't Need My Help
Not everything you try will be right for you. But you'll never know if you never try, and you'll learn a lot either way. Don't let the uncertainty stop you.
I quit my day job as a newspaper editor of the opinion section. People are disappointed and some are even angry, but I have to do right by myself, and forge my own path according to my ...Read more
Will Trump Round Me Up?
Will they come at night? When I'm asleep next to my wife? When my cat Jack is curled up next to my ankles? Or in the daytime? When my wife is at work? When I'm at home reading and eating a bagel? Will I be gone when she gets home, and will she think I'm at the gym? Or will there be "signs of a struggle," as the newspapers say?
Presidential ...Read more
Bill Press Advisory
Bill Press is not filing a 10/17/24 column. We are subbing Mary Sanchez. The Press column returns next week.
©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
JD Vance’s Hateful Masterclass on Immigrants
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who are you calling “fickle?”
Repeatedly labeling former President Donald Trump as a man of “fickle leadership” was a go-to line for Walz during the first and only debate between the vice president running mates of Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
But it was Walz who came off as unsteady, wavering and ...Read more
Must We Feel Sorry for Those Who Believe MAGA?
The tricks Donald Trump tried to play on the recent hurricane victims were beyond depraved. Here were people suffering major losses, their lives stopped in a hellscape of tattered roofs, ruined possessions and, in some cases, a pile of debris where their home once stood. And there was Trump making their lives more miserable as a tactic to fool...Read more
Beyond Weird
It started as a joyful campaign. When President Joe Biden dropped out, Kamala Harris, the president's pick and soon after the pick of every prominent Democrat, quickly secured the nomination. No one put themselves up against her. It was a relief and a joyful coronation. Her vice presidential nominee was the salt of the earth. Coach Tim. The ...Read more
Sordid Story: Corporate Executives Get Self-Gratification From M&As
Sadism and masochism (abbreviated as S&M) are generally frowned on in polite society as perverse acts of sexual gratification. But what should we make of M&As?
This is Wall Street's abbreviation of mergers and acquisitions, which are acts of self-gratification practiced by top corporate executives. Such financial couplings can also be judged ...Read more
Waves and Walls Higher for Harris' Catwalk
Since crossing the Golden Gate Bridge running away from a wrecked home, I've taken to life on my own. I come and go as I please. I pursue plans and projects to my heart's content and can hear myself think.
Then when Girlfriend -- my cat -- came into my life, it seemed complete. The gray tabby seemed the perfect amount of company. She's gone ...Read more
Why the Fight for Trans Rights Never Gets Easier -- or Less Vital
In the spring of 1999, young people across the country began to prepare for that singular teenage right of passage: prom. For Diamond Stylz, this time included not just finding the right dress and corsage but fighting for her right to attend prom at all. School administrators had told the then-17-year-old Stylz just two days before prom that ...Read more
No Questions Asked: Elevating Woke Over Journalism, CBS Looks Like Occupied Territory
In her 2021 book "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy," journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon argued that arrogance and addiction to political fashion has tanked Americans' faith in the news media. There's reason to think she's right. Former National Public Radio editor Uri Berliner described NPR's "unspoken consensus about the stories we ...Read more
Musk Wants to Control the Presidency
Elon Musk is a migrant.
There is a difference between a migrant and an immigrant. An immigrant is a person who moves to another country with the intention of living there permanently. The great majority of immigrants to America come for work or personal safety or affection for the way of life. Their goal is to assimilate.
A migrant is ...Read more
Keep the Faith
Some of you have shared with me your fears about the upcoming election, now just 22 days away.
I can’t sugarcoat this. It is frightening and worrying. We have already endured four years of Trump. Another term could tip America and the world into full-bore fascism.
Trump has become even more unhinged and vindictive. His fascistic personality ...Read more
Trump, Spreader of Conspiracy Theories, Needs to Get Out of the Way
While following news coverage of the horrific and deadly path of Hurricane Helene across North Carolina, I was given pause by the ironic name of a large county which received some of the worst destruction: Buncombe.
American political history buffs will recognize this as a catchword for meaningless speech. “The usual story” of the origin of...Read more
'The Message' and The Interview
On Sept. 30, bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates appeared on the "CBS Mornings" show to promote his book "The Message," which is a one-sided critique of Israel as an apartheid state. The book compares Israel to the "Jim Crow South" and calls it out as the "one place on the planet -- under American patronage -- that resembled the world that my ...Read more
Why Won't the Government Explain the Migrant Crisis?
I fantasize about a government that tries to act like it is, if not quite by the people, at least for the people and thus internalizes the principle that the people deserve to be treated like fully vested adults rather than idiotic children.
Nothing about what the media calls the "migrant crisis" withstands the slightest scrutiny. This begins ...Read more