From the Left

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Politics

How Much We Miss Those Times

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

Have you ever gone to a party that transports you back in time? I've attended two in one week, in Santa Monica, California, and Washington, D.C. I'm missing the '60s of my childhood something awful.

Time trips took me to Madison, Wisconsin, and Harlem in New York, where our family and friends were making America anew. Those are places where ...Read more

Musk Acting Fast as Trump's Macbeth

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly." - William Shakespeare, "Macbeth"

"Quickly" is the key word for Macbeth as he muses before the bloody murder of King Duncan of Scotland. He must do the deed with his dagger by night, while the court sleeps. Act now or not at all.

"Quickly" is the passcode for Elon Muck ...Read more

A Crisis President Comes to Town

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

A bright, clear Presidents' Day in Washington: a perfect moment in time and place to say what makes the best and worst of presidents.

For historians, the pattern is indelible. The American people show who the great presidents are, because they bring out the best in us.

The opposite is also true. Three weeks into his second round, power-mad ...Read more

The Price of Everything, the Value of Nothing

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

WASHINGTON -- Only three weeks old, the new Trump presidential power in town knows the price of everything (except eggs) and the value of nothing, as Oscar Wilde observed of fools and cynics.

Let's add "shameless." Shame has left the stately building at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The city on the hill feels occupied.

Donald Trump, president, and ...Read more

A Coup by Any Other Name

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

The president's war with the nation is well underway.

Shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development was taking the smallest lamb from the flock. Other vital parts of the government may soon follow in a flash.

At least three departments face a strange Cabinet member in charge: Kash Patel at the FBI, Bobby Kennedy at Health and ...Read more

Mercy Is Not Part of Trump's Plan

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

The president has declared war on the nation, the nation as we have known it. -- Anonymous

If you ever go to Canterbury Cathedral in England, drops of blood from ages ago are still there on the altar floor. Legend has it that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was brutally murdered by four knights serving King Henry II, whom Becket ...Read more

Tragic Irony in the Rotunda

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

Donald Trump won the whole Monopoly game. He never went directly to jail and always passed go. Timid Merrick Garland, the attorney general, was no match and didn't even buy a railroad.

The Big Tech money boys were literally behind Trump, in obsequious unity as he was sworn in as president Monday at high noon in the Capitol rotunda.

The ...Read more

Heartbreak Cities in the New Year

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

2025 is a full year so far.

If you grew up in the beautiful (but parlous) land of Los Angeles and live in Washington D.C., the moment feels like paradise lost.

Seeing your hometown burn to the ground on screen, with high winds showing no mercy and leaving vast swaths of city life destroyed, makes tears run dry as fire hydrants.

Nothing will...Read more

Pardons Turn the Truth Around -- Then and Now

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

Yes, I was there on Jan. 6, 2021, in the sacred temple of democracy when a mob's deadly rampage darkened democracy and injured 140 police officers in a president's plot to undo the election he lost.

That was the best day of President-elect Donald Trump's life: crowd size, TV ratings, a siege, all of it for three hours. That tragic day burns ...Read more

The 21st Century So Far: A Flop

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

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

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

"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

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

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

From the Left / Jamie Stiehm /

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

 

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