From the Left
/Politics
The 21st Century So Far: A Flop
As we reach the quarter-century mark, the 21st century has turned out a tragic disappointment. Hopes were high, leaving the world wars and Holocaust of the 20th century behind. Once, even globalization sounded good.
If the 21st century were a Broadway show, it would be a flop, closed by now.
The prelude was the Supreme Court giving George W....Read more
A Christmas in Congress Column
"The hopes and fears of all the years ..." -- Traditional Christmas carol
WASHINGTON -- Oh, the drama.
The closing days of this Congress were a mad rush, more so than usual since the white mansion up Pennsylvania Avenue will soon change hands.
The holiday parties given by the Bidens enchanted guests with a melancholy undertow. The candles ...Read more
The Post Office: A Wonderful Establishment
There's one thing Donald Trump can't take away from me.
I'm ready for living in a reality where a knock on the door could take you and your rights away. I'm prepared for violent Jan. 6 offenders in prison to be pardoned on Trump's first day. I'm even braced for freedom of speech -- and the press -- to ebb toward being things of the past.
...Read more
Trump's Rich Rogues Carving Up American Pie
The New York Times, NBC News and the "legacy media" have got to change with the Trump times -- before Donald Trump takes power in six short weeks on Jan. 20, 2025.
One CBS News presidential historian commented on air after Trump's cruel 2016 "American carnage" inaugural address: "That was the best speech Trump ever gave."
In plain sight, ...Read more
Three Januarys: All Ye Need to Know
My father and I, discouraged at the election over the holiday, opened a book of poetry I brought along to the house.
Somewhere we traveled was back in time to John F. Kennedy's inauguration on a bright snowy day on Jan. 20, 1961.
Almost unbelievably, Kennedy asked New England poet Robert Frost to compose and read an original poem for the ...Read more
November's Broken Hearts in History
The most tragic rhyme in American history falls in November's time, one century apart. President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863; President John F. Kennedy died in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
These events reach over endless bends in a profound dialogue like the mighty Mississippi River, cutting through North and ...Read more
Trump Serves Revenge, Dares Senate to Defy
"Julius Caesar did not seize power; the Roman Senate ceded power to Caesar." -- Sen. Robert C. Byrd
Let that be a lesson to us from the West Virginian's grave.
Donald Trump promised to be a dictator on day one. Yet we missed his meaning: the first day after the election. Right away, we felt the president-elect's revenge, blowing in on the ...Read more
Four Horsemen Rode in on Election Day
The biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse thundered in on Election Day.
Almost as if they conspired to make now-President-elect Donald Trump win, two are Democrats and two are Republicans. The four played distinct roles in a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
The first Horseman is, of course, President Joe Biden, like aged King Lear ...Read more
A Long Time Comin': On History's Clock
Keep the faith, my friends and fellow Americans. The election shall deliver a verdict soon on the national soul-searching that could change our lives -- and the laws we live by.
All know it. Everything is on the line. History's clock falls back if we fail.
Women and children would be first overboard, to have their freedom and future darkened...Read more
Keeping the Faith in America
WASHINGTON -- Greetings from riding shockwaves in the nerve center of the free world.
Bleak fury is passed around like the plague here since The Washington Post's owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, nixed its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.
This column before Election Day is filled with foreboding.
Then came former President Donald ...Read more
The Best Day of Trump's Life
The simple truth about Jan. 6: The mob attack on the Capitol was the best day of Donald Trump's life.
Before you cast your ballot for president, you need to know that. And it's my fate to tell the tale again.
Trump loved every moment of the deadly riot, which is why he refused to call off the rampage for three hours and counting.
Look, what...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
A Political Day in Court
Election 2024 is certainly as classic an American courtroom drama as sure as "Twelve Angry Men."
The contrast, nay contradiction, between the two leading witnesses could not be clearer.
Speaking of angry men, one star witness in the witness box seems to swim in the spittle of his own outbursts of outrage. He is a 78-year-old man, but nobody ...Read more