US Politics
The Speaker and the Pope
Two huge news stories this week, but I really don’t have much to say about either of them that you won’t easily read elsewhere, so I’ll be brief. Commenting on John Boehner’s abdication, the NY Times succinctly riffed on a ...
Read MoreThe Republicans at War
At war with themselves, with Barak Obama, with Hillary Clinton and with Planned Parenthood. And, if elected, with much of the rest of the world. Yes, as a political blogger I felt obligated to endure watching the 3-hour Republican debate ...
Read MoreJeb the Populist
Jeb Bush has come out with a proposal for re-vamping the tax code. You can get a pretty good idea of the substance of his proposal by reading the article in today’s New York Times. But people typically don’t read ...
Read MoreRepublican Craziness, Redux
In one of my many posts on the craziness of the contemporary Republican Party I recently observed that …various polls of Republican voters since Obama entered the White House have shown that considerably more than 25% believed 1) that Obama ...
Read MoreThe system… (1) is (2) isn’t…rigged.
Some time ago I described two competing tendencies in the Democratic Party: a populist tendency, most vocally represented by Elizabeth Warren (and now, by outsider Bernie Sanders) and a centrist tendency, probably best exemplified by Bill Clinton. Populists are appalled ...
Read MoreTrump and the Art of Demagoguery
One thing you have to say about Donald Trump: he is a brilliant demagogue,* perhaps the most effective demagogue, on a national level, we have ever seen in this country. I’ve been scratching my head, and haven’t been able to ...
Read MoreFallacies of False Equivalence
I’ve written before of the tendency of our mainstream media to engage in false equivalence—the compulsion to demonstrate impartiality and objectivity by saying “both sides are to blame,” when, demonstrably, the blame really lies far more on one side than ...
Read MoreTalking About Abortion
Katha Pollitt begins her op-ed. column today with an excellent question: “Why does the pro-choice movement so often find itself in a defensive crouch?” She is reacting to the apology issued by the president of Planned Parenthood for the PP ...
Read MoreThe Iran Deal
Yesterday’s front-page headlines in New York’s two leading newspapers provided an interesting contrast. The NY Times, in one of its rare full-banner headlines, proclaimed WORLD LEADERS STRIKE AGREEMENT WITH IRAN TO CURB NUCLEAR ABILITY AND LIFT SANCTIONS. The World Street ...
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