From the Left
/Politics
/ArcaMax
ATTENTION "RIGHTS & RESISTANCE WITH THE ACLU" EDITORS: IN THE 5TH PARAGRAPH AND THE TAGLINE AT THE END, PLEASE PLACE AN ACUTE ACCENT OVER THE "e" IN "Darien Gap." THANK YOU. -- CREATORS
========
ATTENTION "RIGHTS & RESISTANCE WITH THE ACLU" EDITORS: IN THE 5TH PARAGRAPH AND THE TAGLINE AT THE END, PLEASE PLACE AN ACUTE ACCENT OVER THE "e" IN "Darien Gap." THANK YOU. -- CREATORS
'I Thought That Death Was Imminent'
*Jean Paul is a pseudonym. All names have been changed to protect those identified in this story.
I hail...Read more
Will Trump Get Credit for Biden’s Successes?
Trump will try to take credit for the Biden economy. Don’t let him. And don’t let Republican enablers of Trump or the media give him credit, either.
In 2017, Trump inherited a strong economy from President Obama and never stopped congratulating himself for it. He claimed that “we created the greatest economy in the history of the world.�...Read more
Fire!
What was Donald Trump's reaction to the deadly and devastating wildfires literally burning down a county that didn't vote for him?
This is what he wrote on Truth Social.
"Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt...Read more
Stoking Division Amid Disaster, Trump and His Minions Betray America
The solidarity of American communities in the face of catastrophe, whether natural or manmade, is an aspect of our national character that most of us cherish. We never tire of stories about our fellow citizens upholding one another at the worst of times. We venerate the firefighters, emergency service workers, law enforcement officers and ...Read more
Jimmy Carter’s Funeral Brought a Rare and Much-Needed Vision of Peace
When he showed up at the Chicago Tribune one day in early 1976, James Earl Carter, Jr., was announced by one of our young newsroom copy clerks as “that governor from Georgia who thinks he can run for president.”
Yes, as a young reporter in that newsroom, I remember Jimmy Carter as a former peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, and a former ...Read more
In Divisive Times, Science Brings Us Together
We're living in divisive times. It's something said so often that it's become cliche. But collaboration across divides still happens, and the International Space Station is a great place to witness this in action. The ISS is entering its 25th year with crews on board modeling scientific collaboration on global research projects. Crew members ...Read more
Oohhh, Canada
President Narrowly Elected Donald Trump wants to buy/annex/conquer/steal the entire country of Canada.
There is a lot to be said for this idea, principally because it's so magnificently stupid. It's not average stupid, like eating in a restaurant with rat traps in the dining room. It's stupid like ordering the ratatouille in a restaurant with...Read more
Two Presidents in Washington: One Welcome, One Not
Here’s how I’d sum up this week in Washington: I wouldn’t walk across the street to say hello to Donald Trump. But I waited in line for two and a half hours, most of it outside in 29-degree cold and snow, to say goodbye to Jimmy Carter.
And I was hardly alone. Washington’s dignitaries celebrated Carter’s life on Tuesday afternoon. But...Read more
Young Men Who Don't Leave Home? Is Mama a Reason?
Young men are not launching -- that is, growing up as traditionally holds -- at the same rate as young women. Among Americans ages 25 to 34, about 20% of the men are still living with their parents compared with 12% of the women. Fewer young males than females are attending college or job training.
There are theories on why more girls are ...Read more
The Routine of the Rule of Law
This year, Jan. 6 was a routine day. Congress certified the election of Donald Trump. They did it in 30 minutes, instead of the overnight session in the wake of riots four years ago. As one Democrat put it, there were no election deniers on the Democratic side. The rule of law triumphed, routinely. Imagine how different it might have been had ...Read more
Pardons Turn the Truth Around -- Then and Now
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
Jimmy Carter's Light Exposes Donald Trump's Darkness
You're not fooling me, Jimmy Carter. You did that on purpose! Dying when you did, I mean.
You chose last month to grab the global political spotlight once more to make a statement with the only Earthly move you had left: checking out. What better way to make people ponder the state of political integrity in America than to reflect on how the ...Read more
Crude Awakening: 15 Months On, Oct. 7 Remains a Brutal Wake-Up Call
Shamsud-Din Jabbar's mass murder of innocents in New Orleans on New Year's Day, "inspired" by ISIS' exhortations to wage war against "non-believers," reminded Americans about the existence of evil. In our comfort, in our security, we don't see evil up close all that frequently.
Unfortunately for Israelis, they see it every day. Evil in the form...Read more
Congestion Pricing Finally Comes to New York
New York has been named the most traffic gridlocked city in the world with Midtown Manhattan the most congested part. For years, the city has tried to install congestion pricing to reduce the number of vehicles. The money collected would be used to fix the crumbling subway system.
How bad was the congestion? The intersections were so blocked ...Read more
Disappearing Messages Don't Work -- and They're Great
Fifteen years ago it was unfathomable -- and a bad idea -- to imagine that your digital messages could automatically self-destruct. Once your message is on someone else's machine, you simply cannot guarantee that it will be destroyed when you want it to be. Fooling people into thinking they have more security and privacy than they really do ...Read more
Advice and Consent or Total Submission?
The cast of characters Trump has chosen to populate his second term is a Star Wars cantina of fanatics, extremists, conspiracy theorists, sexual harassers, and disreputable no-goods. They have little or no experience running government, let alone expertise in the issues confronting the agencies and departments Trump wants them to lead.
Over the...Read more
MAGA Takes on Elon Musk’s 'Tech Bros'
Just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to return to the White House, the coterie of American tech oligarchs who played a decisive role in re-electing him was busy exerting their own power in ways that suggest the MAGA coalition may be heading for a crack-up.
Trump famously invited fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek ...Read more
Harvard Law School Steps Back in Time
According to figures released last month, there are a grand total of 19 Black students in the first-year class at Harvard Law School, down from 43 in last year's entering class. You have to go back to the 1960s to find so few Black students in the entering class. In the years since 1970, the number of first years, or 1Ls, who were Black has ...Read more
Did Musk Abuse Visa Program -- And US Workers?
Elon Musk's aggressive defense of the H-1B visa program -- which permits his companies Tesla and SpaceX to bring engineers and other workers from overseas -- has aroused fury among his erstwhile admirers on the far right. Despite his ongoing efforts to identify himself with the most extreme nationalists, xenophobes and racists both here and ...Read more
Jimmy Carter, Right-Wing Democrat
You can't understand the presidency of James Earl Carter Jr. unless you contextualize it within the framework of the hysterical aftermath of the 1972 election. While the Republican Party brand suffered tremendous damage due to Watergate, Richard Nixon's decision to prolong the Vietnam War and his resignation, the GOP proved improbably resilient....Read more