Been a while, no? Let's get to it with a hearty rant. Here we are in the 21st century, supposedly living in the freest nation in the world, backed by the biggest, most diverse economy the world has ever seen, and with a history of being a beacon of hope and refuge for those who are persecuted abroad, yet we are being besieged by censorship on the right and left, are living in the most unequal era in our history, and are seriously knotted when it comes to immigration policy that many want to use to insulate us from a world we did much to create, while starving our workforce of the workers we ne ..read more

This is one of those years when the public school system has been singled out as a bastion of liberal teachers who are corrupting the minds of youngsters by telling them that they are indeed responsible for protecting our democratic institutions, ensuring that all citizens get justice, and reminding the country that we have a horrible racist past that continues to infect housing, education, employment, athletics, politics, economics, social interaction, religion, police departments, the military, and the media.  Please remind me if I've left anyone out. But we also need to be particularly ..read more

No. Donald Trump will not be a major force in Republican politics for the next four years. He still has his fans, and they number in the tens of millions, but he's done. The rest of the country has moved on to solving some of our most pressing problems.  The Biden Administration will be focusing on cleaning up the environment and transitioning the country from one based on fossil fuels to one that increasingly uses renewable energy. It will create programs that address the terrible consequences of poverty, especially on children. The Affordable Care Act will get major upgrades, most of wh ..read more

Our apologies for the four year descent into the Emergency Broadcast System.  Every president has an opportunity to be great. Donald Trump had that opportunity, and he did change our political culture for good and (mostly) for ill. but instead of trying to unify the country around an issue that both Republicans and Democrats could enthusiastically agree, such as rebuilding our infrastructure, he went straight for the Muslim ban, building the wall, and repealing Obamacare. His response to Covid was to hope it went away. And then there were all of those tweets. He also wallowed, and continu ..read more

And here I was planning on writing a hopeful piece based on the new year and the Biden Administration taking over on January 20th. I was even willing to dismiss Senator Josh Hawley's stunt, in which he was going to formally object to the Electoral Vote count on January 6. Then this happened. Eleven Republican Senators, with the Vice President's blessing, will also formally object to the vote count, and will further call for the formation of a commission to audit the vote in  states that flipped from Trump to Biden. It seems they are concerned that despite the fact that no credible evidenc ..read more

All you need to know about Donald Trump has been on display since the presidential election. Yes, I know that the previous three years plus have been pretty bad, but he's gone above himself since November. It's obvious that he doesn't at all understand how our elections work and why, given the characteristics of the vote this year, he could be winning in the PM, but losing come the AM.  And I'm not saying that this is some political ploy by a savvy operator who'e just trying to rile up his supporters. It's clear he's just oblivious to how our system works, how votes are counted, how a dem ..read more

For Democrats, it could have been worse. The Senate seats that seemed within reach probably never were, despite what the polling said. The expanded House majority did not materialize as Republican candidates ran hard on painting Democrats as socialists and soft on support of the police. State legislatures that started to move leftward in 2018 snapped back to the right, which means that Republicans will draw gerrymandered maps in many of the states that stand to gain representatives and electoral votes in 2022 and 2024. And the Supreme Court? Well...you know. Why, then, am I feeling pretty good ..read more

 I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't know why anyone, and I mean anyone, listens to anything, and I mean anything, Donald Trump says.  He won the election? No.  He's going to get states to appoint alternate electoral college voters who will undo the will of the people? No. He's the best Republican president since Lincoln? No. It's clear that he doesn't care at all about the country or democracy or unity, but only about himself and how history will see him as a minor, failed, one term president who lost because he couldn't adequately meet the most serious challenge ..read more

Well, that was exciting. And in the end, most gratifying. Joe Biden will be the next president and Kamala Harris will be the first female vice president in the nation's history. The Democrats will hold the House of Representatives and have two chances to take nominal control of the Senate, if they can win both runoff elections in Georgia. Which all of a sudden seems eminently achievable.  I know that many Democrats were surprised and rather annoyed that this was not a landslide election and that Republicans won back some House seats and held off Democratic challenges in the Senate. Most o ..read more

Presidential campaigns always last too long. I think we can nominate, debate, scare, insult, propagandize, and raise obscene amounts of cash in two months and then be done with it. Start in September. Done by November,  Of course, this campaign is different from most others because of the virus and because of the candidates and because of the virus. President Trump did not help himself by catching Covid-19 by flouting every bit of science we have about how the virus spreads, and then telling the country not to be afraid of it. I've been trying to find some rationality in the man, but I ca ..read more