Can we please retire the notion that Donald Trump is hijacking someone else’s party? – By Frank Rich – In mid-July of 2015, a month after Donald Trump announced his presidential run, I joined a gaggle of political junkies in a clubby bar four blocks from the White House to hear a legendary campaign strategist…
Making Sense – By Michael Reagan – Now comes the hard part. Now comes the part where Donald Trump has to appeal to everyone in the U.S. Trump will rack up lots of easy votes in the fall with his rabid fan base — older grumpy white males and their spouses who want change but…
By John L. Micek – One of them is a free trade-wary millionaire and political neophyte who locked up the Republican presidential nomination with promises to make America great and get the economy firing on all cylinders. The other is Donald Trump. As he’s insulted, ranted and bullied his way through the 2016 primary season,…
Back bone connected to the shoulder bone, 
Shoulder bone connected to the neck bone, 
Neck bone connected to the head bone
, And that’s the way it goes — Dem Bones – By Pippa Abston, MD – You probably recognize that verse — you may have sung this more recent secular version or the original by…
By Robert Reich – Wealth inequality is even more of a problem than income inequality. That’s because you have to have enough savings from income to begin to accumulate wealth – buying a house or investing in stocks and bonds, or saving up to send a child to college. But many Americans have almost no…
By Robert Reich – Will Bernie Sanders’s supporters rally behind Hillary Clinton if she gets the nomination? Likewise, if Donald Trump is denied the Republican nomination, will his supporters back whoever gets the Republican nod? If 2008 is any guide, the answer is unambiguously yes to both. About 90 percent of people who backed Hillary…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The fetus is the new Jerusalem. Medieval crusaders fancied they were on a divine mission when they marched toward the Holy City to save it from the Muslim infestation. The sanctity of this quest gave them permission to do whatever advanced toward the goal. Rape and plunder propelled…
By Robert Reich – A crowning achievement of the historic March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech, was pushing through the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recognizing the history of racist attempts to prevent black people from voting, that federal law forced a number of southern…
By Robert Reich – “Bernie is doing well but he can’t possibly win the nomination,” a friend told me for what seemed like the thousandth time, attaching an article from one of the nation’s leading newspapers showing how far behind Bernie remains in delegates. Wait a minute. Sanders won 78 percent of the vote in…
Will the City Government Side With the People or Industry? By Joe Womack – The “okey-doke,” as defined by Urban Dictionary and Africatown folklore means to pull the wool over your opposition’s eyes, to outsmart your opposition, to say one thing and mean another or to gain the upper hand by using trickery. President George…
For info about the March 23 demonstration at the lease sale and about related activities go to nonewleases.org. By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Between beginnings and endings comes water. You are mostly water. Remove it and only a sift of ash and grit remains. Look at yourself.…
By Robert Reich – The Constitution of the United States is clear: Article II Section 2 says the President “shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint … judges to the Supreme Court.” It doesn’t say the President can’t appoint in the final year of his term of…
By Neal Gabler – Ah, the crescendo of complaint! The Republican establishment and the mainstream media, working hand in hand in their unprecedented, non-stop assault on the “short-fingered vulgarian” named Donald Trump, would have you believe that Trump augurs the destruction of the Republican Party. Former Reagan speechwriter and now Wall Street Journal/CBS pundit Peggy…
By Robert Reich – I’ve been reluctant to use the “f†word to describe Donald Trump because it’s especially harsh, and it’s too often used carelessly. But Trump has finally reached a point where parallels between his presidential campaign and the fascists of the first half of the 20th century – lurid figures such as…
The mainstream media is to blame for Donald Trump’s rise, but not for the reasons most people think – By Neal Gabler – It is more than a little ironic that the Republican Establishment and the mainstream media are both now in full panic mode over the possibility of Donald Trump winning the GOP nomination.…
By Robert Reich – Step back from the campaign fray for just a moment and consider the enormity of what’s already occurred. A 74-year-old Jew from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, who wasn’t even a Democrat until recently, has come within a whisker of beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus, routed…
By Robert Reich – 1. Cruz is more fanatical. Sure, Trump is a bully and bigot, but he doesn’t hew to any sharp ideological line. Cruz is a fierce ideologue: He denies the existence of man-made climate change, rejects same-sex marriage, wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, believes the 2nd amendment guarantees everyone a…
By Robert Reich – A few days ago, Neel Kashkari – now president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, who was the senior Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations helping to save the big Wall Street banks – said “I believe the biggest banks are still too big to…
By Eugene Robinson – The South Carolina Republican primary may well be Jeb Bush’s last stand. He described the situation — polls show him trailing badly, following weak performances in Iowa and New Hampshire — in typical Bushian syntax: “It’s all been decided, apparently,” he harrumphed this week in Summerville, a town near Charleston. “The…
By Robert Reich – I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization. It died in 2016. RIP. It has been replaced by warring tribes: Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science. Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior.…
