From the Left
/Politics
God Bless the Nurses. And Please Hurry!
Every religion prioritizes care for the needy. Christianity's Benedictine Rule, for example, puts care of the sick atop the moral order, "above and before every other duty."
Really -- even above the holy Wall Street mandate that medical and insurance conglomerates must squeeze every last penny of profits out of America's corporate-care system...Read more
Hoo Boy ... DeJoy!
Woe is us (the American people) for having our jewel of a national Postal Service saddled with a corporate-minded postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. Formerly CEO of a private shipping contractor, DeJoy's chief qualification for running this invaluable public service is that he's been a major donor to Republican politicians -- including Donald ...Read more
Hey, Democrats: Find the Party's Future in Its Populist Past
A farmer friend of mine once bemoaned the fact that the Democrat we'd both supported for president, Bill Clinton, was hugging up Wall Street and stiffing family farmers. "I don't mind losing when we lose," my friend said, "but I hate losing when we win."
Agreed. Yet, losing in politics is sometimes a prelude to winning, calling not for ...Read more
The Big Apple's Mayor Takes a Big Bite Out of Democracy
And now: A special report from the Department of Really Bad Ideas. And this one is a doozie.
It comes from Hizzoner Eric Adams, the present mayor of New York City. Like mayors everywhere, Adams is routinely expected to respond to city council members, state reps, members of Congress and other elected officials who ask for help on city issues ...Read more
Where's George Orwell Today? Texas!
If you think the GOP's Congress of Clowns represents the fringiest, freakiest pack of politicos that MAGA-world can hurl at us -- you haven't been to Texas.
It's widely known, of course, that Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott and most other top Republican officials here are obsequious Trump acolytes. Thus, Texas is infamously racing against ...Read more
What Nation Besides Israel Is Killing Gaza's Innocent Palestinians?
"Somebody better investigate soon."
That's a lyric in Bob Dylan's "Oxford Town," a 1962 song deploring the relentless murdering of Black people and civil rights activists in the Deep South. The line mocks the refusal of racist officials to punish the white murderers, instead cynically covering up atrocities by promising do-nothing "...Read more
Why Big Corporations Get Special Tax Breaks and You Don't
Free market ideologues fabricate some of the most preposterous yarns trying to justify their assertion of corporate greed over public need.
Consider their far-fetched of laissez-fairyland tale that by allowing corporate giants to dodge the billions of tax dollars they owe to our country, the top executives of those corporations will plow that...Read more
Should We Be Polite as the GOP Stomps on Our Democratic Rights?
When a fox attacks a hen house, is it uncivil for the hens to raise a ruckus?
Two Supreme Court justices say it is. Elevating collegiality above social justice, right-wing extremist Amy Coney Barrett and progressive jurist Sonia Sotomayor have jointly been hailing America's top court as a model of genteel political discourse, claiming that ...Read more
Sen. Katie Britt Plays a Cruel Political Game to Exploit a Mexican Rape Victim
Poor Katie Britt, the Republican senator from Alabama. She was set up by her party's operatives to do the GOP's televised response to Joe Biden's State of the Union speech.
Sadly, her moment in the national limelight was widely panned, even by Republicans, for her presentation was overwrought and -- well, cringey. But the visuals pale to ...Read more
Tom Paine: What a Guy!
In my view, the greatest of America's "Founding Fathers" was not George Washington or Thomas Jefferson -- nor, technically, he wasn't even an American. Rather, he was a British immigrant and itinerate agitator for real democracy, enlightenment and universal human rights.
He was Thomas Paine, a prolific, profound, persuasive and widely popular...Read more
Is 'Icarus' the Solution to Climate Change?
Although the sun is an essential life force, we need to protect ourselves from its relentless glare.
Sunglasses? Check. Beach umbrella? Check. Tinted car windows? Check. A huge, multitrillion-dollar parasol floating in outer space to reduce global warming? Uh ... huh?
Ready or not, here come the corporate hucksters and techno-fantasists with...Read more
How Corporate Lobbyists Can Engineer a Train Wreck
"Corporate crises consultants" (yes, there are such creatures) have patented a formula allowing their wrongdoing clients to champion reform while simultaneously killing it.
A classic case is now unfolding around last year's derailment of a 2-mile-long Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, Ohio. The community's air, soil, water and...Read more
Abortion-Ban Extremists Are Using a Slave Law to Repress Women
Here's our big word of the day: Extraterritoriality.
It expresses a sketchy legal theory asserting that rulers in one state have a right to enforce their laws in another state. The most prominent use of it was in the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, requiring officials in Northern anti-slave states to capture and return escaped slaves to ...Read more